Now with AvatarIV and just a few clicks, you can generate quick avatar-led videos, perfect for real-time intros, updates, or replies. It’s the fastest way to bring your digital self or character to life, now available for all users!
What Makes Avatar IV Different?
Advance Intonation & Emotion: Unlike traditional avatars that simply sync to your words, this new-to-the-world Avatar model actually interprets them. Built on a diffusion-inspired audio-to-expression engine, it analyzes your vocal tone, rhythm, and emotion to generate photorealistic facial movements with true-to-life timing. Think head tilts, natural pauses, subtle cadences, and micro-expressions—all from a single image.
Speed + Simplicity: No complex script writing, scene setup, or editing in the Studio. Just open Avatar IV, fill out the required fields, and your video is ready in seconds. It’s designed for instant, on-the-fly communication.
Great with non-human faces and photos: AvatarIV is the best suited engine for bringing to life avatars that are cartoonish, animated, or don't have traditional human-like features!
Where Can You Use AvatarIV on HeyGen
You can use AvatarIV in three different ways:
1. Photo-to-Video Shortcut (Quick Videos)
You can access this feature from the Apps tab on the left side bar, under All Apps.
Here you can upload your photo or use one from our library. Then either write your script or upload an audio file. If you're using a written script, select your preferred voice. Once everything’s set, click Generate to create your video. It really is that simple!
Photo-to-video is perfect for animating non-human photos like dogs, cartoon characters, or 3D models that don’t work well with the standard Photo Avatar engine.
Photo-to-video uses your GenCredits Pool. Each paid plan user gets 200 GenCredits for all Special Generation purposes ( avatarIV, video assets generation, Photo Looks, etc)
💡 Pro Tip: Try uploading a song as your audio input—your avatar will sing it back with realistic lip-sync and expression!
2. AvatarIV in Studio Experience
This option allows you to create full-length videos with your avatar powered by the AvatarIV engine. It's best to combine AvatarIV engine with the unlimited engine to make sure you can create many videos beyond the default 10 minutes of AvatarIV so you can utilize the unlimited factor of HeyGen Studio!
AvatarIV engine is ideal for avatars build from photos, especially effective for non-human, cartoonish, or 3D model avatars.
3. High-Quality Photo-Based Avatar Creation
Create a high-quality avatar from a non-human, cartoon, animal, or 3D model photo.
This is a more advanced process, explained step-by-step in this article.
How GenCredits Work
Every paid user (Creator, Team, or Enterprise) gets 200 GenCredits per billing cycle:
Monthly plans: credits refresh on your plan billing date.
Annual plans: credits refresh on the 1st of each month.
These credits can be used for both Photo-to-Video and Studio experiences.
Credit Usage Details
Your 200 GenCredits are worth to 10 minutes of AvatarIV videos. 3 seconds of AvatarIV equals to 1 GenCredits.
Photo-to-Video
Faster option: credits are consumed at a 3:1 ratio (e.g. a 30s video = 10 GenCredits used for AvatarIV).
Higher quality with Custom Motion Prompt: credits are consumed at a 2:1 ratio (e.g. a 30s video = 20 GenCredits used for AvatarIV).
Studio Experience
Usage here depends on the script/audio length and how much of your video requires avatar generation. You can actually limit AvatarIV usage only to specific scenes to save on your GenCredits cost.
Example: a 30s video might only use 20 or 25 seconds of AvatarIV credits, depending on pauses or silent moments.
✨Fun fact: we only charge for the actual seconds of avatar generation, not the entire video length — so you get more value out of each credit!
🛎️ You cannot create AvatarIV video using Photo-to-video longer than 3 minutes regardless of credits or plan tier.
Only when creating videos inside Studio with avatars using avatarIV engine, the duration is NOT limited to 180 so the video can be longer. However, you cannot create a single scene (script box) longer than 180 so please make sure to split your script to smaller parts.
Need more AvatarIV minutes? You can now purchase GenCredits Packs!
Generative Credit Packs are available as add-ons and can be used flexibly for Avatar IV and other generative features including video translation minutes. If you're on a Creator or Team plan, you already receive a monthly allowance of 200 Generative credits for all your generation needs. The Generative Credit Pack gives you additional credits beyond that monthly allowance.
🛎️ There is no plan, including enterprise, that offers unlimited AvatarIV usage and credits. AvatarIV always requires GenCredits.
Both your monthly GenCredits and any purchased GenCredits pack will show up in your Subscriptions & API tab -
AvatarIV now available on API !
You can now use our API plans to create videos with AvatarIV! This can be done under the Pro, Scale, or Enterprise API Plans!
Pro API plan ($99/month): 100 API credits = ~16.7 minutes of Avatar IV
Scale API plan ($330/month): 660 API credits = ~110 minutes of Avatar IV
🛎️ You cannot create AvatarIV videos via API with the 10 free credits all users receive- users must have an active API plan ( Pro/Scale/Enterprise) to create AvatarIV via API.
👋 We’d love to hear what you think of Avatar IV! You can share your feedback using the feedback buttons on your dashboard, or reach out to us at [email protected] if you need help getting started.