Synthesia

Four events, one direction. Synthesia first narrowed access: the $30/month Personal Plan went into maintenance mode from January 2024 — no new or renewing subscribers, and legacy avatars excluded from the replacement Starter plan — and mid-2024 made API access generally available but confined it to Creator ($89/mo) and Enterprise, leaving Free and Starter with none. In August 2025 the metering itself changed, from plain video minutes to credits (1 minute = 120 credits) pooled across video, dubbing, bulk, API and image generation; nominal minutes held steady, but the shared pool drains faster across multi-feature use. The one easing came in September 2025, when annual Starter and Creator prices were cut 38% and 28% — with no monthly relief, which pushes buyers toward annual commitment. A tracked user report adds that re-renders consume extra minutes, so real production cost tends to run above the advertised figure. Quiet complexity, in short: capabilities sorted behind higher tiers, consumption made harder to predict, headline prices falling only for those who commit annually. Read the advertised minute allowance as an understatement once credits are shared and re-renders count, and note that API use specifically forces a Creator-tier commitment. With only four events logged, hold all of this loosely.