Synthesia vs Runway: Which AI Video Generator is Right for Your Team?
One creates videos with AI presenters. The other generates cinematic footage from text. They solve completely different problems — here is how to choose.
AI video generation is one of the fastest-growing areas in AI tools, but there is a common misconception that all AI video tools do the same thing. They do not.
Synthesia and Runway represent two fundamentally different approaches to AI video. Understanding the difference is crucial before you spend money on either one.
Synthesia creates videos with AI-generated human presenters — digital people who speak your script in your chosen language. Think of it as an automated video presenter.
Runway generates entirely new video footage from text descriptions — cinematic clips, special effects, and creative visuals. Think of it as an AI filmmaker.
These are completely different use cases. Let us break it down.
Who Should Use Which Tool
Choose Synthesia if you need:
Training and onboarding videos for your company. Instead of filming a real person explaining company policies, Synthesia generates a professional-looking presenter who reads your script. You can update the script anytime without re-filming.
Product explainer videos. Create professional walkthroughs of your product with an AI presenter and screen recordings.
Multilingual content. Synthesia's AI presenters can speak in over 140 languages, making it easy to create the same video for different markets.
Consistent, professional-looking videos without a film crew. No cameras, no studio, no editing software needed.
Choose Runway if you need:
Creative marketing content. Generate eye-catching video clips for social media, advertisements, or website backgrounds.
Special effects and visual concepts. Create impossible-to-film visuals — a product floating in space, a city transforming into a forest, abstract art in motion.
Video prototypes and storyboards. Quickly generate rough video concepts before investing in professional production.
Artistic and experimental projects. Runway is the tool of choice for creative professionals pushing the boundaries of visual content.
Pricing Breakdown
Synthesia starts at $18 per month (Starter plan, about 3 minutes of video per month). The Creator plan is $64 per month (about 12 minutes). Enterprise plans have custom pricing and include custom AI avatars that look like your actual team members.
Runway starts at $12 per month (Standard plan, 625 credits which equals about 2 to 3 minutes of generated video). The Pro plan is $28 per month with more credits and higher resolution output.
Other options to consider: HeyGen (similar to Synthesia, starts at $24 per month), Sora (built into ChatGPT, included with Plus at $20 per month), and Pika (creative video generation, starts at $10 per month).
Source: Pricing from synthesia.io, runwayml.com, heygen.com as of March 2026.
Our Recommendation
For business communication (training, onboarding, product demos): Synthesia is purpose-built for this and does it very well. The Starter plan at $18 per month is enough for most small businesses.
For creative and marketing content: Runway gives you the most creative flexibility, but if you already have ChatGPT Plus, Sora (OpenAI's video tool) is included and getting better rapidly.
For tight budgets: If you only need occasional video content, ChatGPT Plus at $20 per month gives you both Sora (for creative video) and the ability to create simple video-ready scripts and storyboards — all alongside ChatGPT's other features.
Find the right video tool for your needs: aitoolsmentor.com/wizard