7 Best AI Video Generators: Tested & Reviewed For You

Video is one of the most effective ways to market a product. With socials like Facebook and Instagram dominating the digital marketing space- it’s safe to say that video is often more engaging. In fact, 86% of businesses utilize video for their digital marketing.

However, making a video is highly time-consuming and expensive. Not to mention, it generally requires a seasoned video editor to make compelling content (or at least it did!).

Thankfully, AI video generators are taking the video creation process to the next level saving you time and money (think like AI art generators or AI writers).

In this article, I’ll share the five best AI video generators I’ve tested in depth. After choosing one, you can be the final judge!

What Are The Best AI Video Generators?

If you are specifically looking for YouTube videos, check those out here.

1. Synthesia

Synthesia is a powerful AI video generator that allows you to create high-quality videos in 65+ languages. It provides a user-friendly interface and realistic AI avatars with avatars that are digital replicas of human actors, but it also allows you to create your own Avatar at a cost. Synthesia is great for the following video types:

• Training & learning
• In-house Sales Training Videos
• Product Marketing
• Tutorials

Synthesia Features

Synthesia lets you create an AI-narrated video easily – without signing up. It’s very straightforward to use:

• Choose a Video Template
• Enter your Script
• Fill out your name & Email, and you will be emailed a video when it’s ready (took about 5-10 min).

Synthesia To The Test!

I put Synthesia to the test to determine if it’s as good as it promises.

I wrote a simple script about “How to Write a Blog Post,” selected the Learning & Development template, and hit Continue. However, I can’t edit the scenes with visuals related to my script with the free version.

As you can see above, it has an avatar in the right-hand corner, with text on the presentation slide. The avatar was pretty impressive.

Here’s another template and what it looks like:

Synthesia Pros and Cons:

• I like that Synthesia uses digital copies of real humans as avatars instead of studio-generated ones. 
• It makes editing easy. For example, you add background music by dragging the music track onto the video scene. Add in text, images, and figures where appropriate.
• Switching between languages is easy. Select a new language on the script, and Synthesia will generate a new video.
• Synthesia is fast in rendering and emailing the video.
• It has limited pricing plans and no discount for long-term subscriptions. There is a free version to trial, but you really need to pay to create a video that’s usable.
• Video editing not available with free trial.

Synthesia Pricing

Synthesia costs $30 per month, which gives you 10 video credits.

Verdict

Synthesia is the gold standard of AI video generators that will impress marketers and business owners if you subscribe. Besides the fast rendering, it provides a good range of templates and video editing tools.

Try Out Synthesia For Yourself

2. Elai.io

Elai is an AI-powered video editor that turns text into AI videos. Like Synthesia, it provides a realistic AI avatar created by human actors. Elai also allows you to create AI avatars with your selfie or studio-grade picture. Then, these avatars narrate videos that you make from different sources.

Elai Experience

Elai has a minimalist dashboard that describes several ways to develop your AI video.

Take a look at their dashboard & how easy it is to create videos.

1. Choose from templates, a blogpost URL, or a PDF file. The latest option, e-commerce, lets you fill in the product description and images. 
2. Once you’ve chosen a video-creation method and provided the resources, Elai brings you to an editing-friendly interface. There, you can change the avatar, add background music, rearrange the scenes and customize the video with elements.
3. Click “Render” to generate the AI Video

Elai To The Test

I decided to turn one of my blog posts into a video to see if it was usable for a YouTube video.

1. Insert the URL
2. Choose a Template
3. Create Video
4. Wait 2-3 minutes for scene transitions & text (like a presentation slide.

Here’s what “one scene” looked like. It reminded me of an AI presentation software and video generator in one.

Elai Pros and Cons:

• Elai lets you filter video templates easily. It has a search bar and options to browse horizontal or vertical formatted templates.
• The videos changed scenes. One minute the avatar is huge to the left, the next, it’s in a bubble in the top right corner.
• I like how it provides tips for improving pronunciation and makes them easily accessible from the script input field.
• There are libraries of elements to choose from, including stickers, videos, and images. 
• I’m amazed at the time saved when creating AI videos with the special e-commerce, blog, and PDF-to-video features.
• Elai’s performance dropped when creating multiple scenes from long-form content. It takes a while to load the digital assets. 
• Not all of the scenes were great. Maybe if I downloaded something other than a URL it would be better.

Elai Pricing

Elai’s paid subscription starts from $29/month, with the Advanced plan enabling 4D AI video rendering. 

Elai Verdict

Elai is an ideal solution for bloggers, marketers, and e-commerce owners to repurpose their long-form written content into engaging AI videos. 

Check Out elai.io Here

3. InVideo

InVideo is an AI video editor for creating professional-looking videos. It automatically chooses relevant images from the script and arranges them in visually-engaging forms. To help content creators, InVideo provides more than 5,000 beautiful templates and professional photos from Shutterstock, iStock, and Storyblocks. Some industries they include are:

• YouTube
• Real Estate
• General Business
• Outros/Intros
• Social Media Marketing

InVideo Experience

Your InVideo journey starts with a simple onboarding. Here’s the nice platform interface:

1. Choose among templates, text, stock media, or via a pro editor.
2. Import your text from a blog (use the auto summarize option to split it into scenes) or enter your writing script.
3. The AI will automatically select relevant images from free stock photos to match the scenes! It will also generate a series of slides filled with photos and overlaying short captions.
4. Add a voice-over track if appropriate.

InVideo To The Test

Similar to the others, the process was straightforward:

1. Import a long-form article, wait 1-2 minutes for InVideo to choose “key phrases”
2. Auto-summarize raw text into parts for scenes (one sentence each).
3. Watch it find images and generate thumbnails (five minutes)
4. Video completion

InVideo Pros and Cons

• It lets users work on the scenes in a storyboard or a timeline editor. Both are equally intuitive.
• I’m amazed by the thousands of elements to choose from. For example, you can easily add happy, serious, or sad background music to the scenes.
• InVideo has a workspace that makes team collaboration easy. You can mention team members in the conversation and exchange comments on the project.
• The AI is reasonably accurate in extracting key points and choosing images, but only for shorter scripts. 
• Rendering is slow for large scripts. Waiting several minutes during pre-editing with no progress indicator knocks off some points from InVideo. S
• Sometimes, it would choose a photo that was irrelevant or repetitive.
• No indicator to tell me how long it was going to take.

InVideo Pricing

InVideo has an affordable Business plan that starts at $15 per month and an Unlimited plan for enterprises to scale their AI video production.

InVideo Verdict

Despite its simplicity, InVideo is a handy tool for marketers to create professional videos for presentations.

Check Out InVideo Here

4. Pictory

Pictory is an AI video software that automatically creates short-form videos from longer text and video content. It uses AI to capture key points in blog articles, scripts, or videos to create new, shorter video highlights. People that will benefit from Pictory include:

• Social Media Managers
• Digital Marketers
• Course or Mastermind Creation
• YouTubers

Pictory Experience

On Pictory’s dashboard, you’ll see option boxes (see below) that let you decide how to create videos. Specific options, article-to-video, and visuals-to-video allow you to input the URL or upload files before moving to the next step. 

1. Once you choose, Pictory extracts the key messages from the source into multiple scenes. It also automatically highlights the keywords and selects the visuals for the AI production.
2. Then you can edit away. In the side-by-side comparison view, you can check if the generated scenes covered all the crucial points or add/remove scenes.
3. Choose a template and the aspect ratio
4. Pictory will generate the video scenes on a storyboard. Feel free to customize the scenes as you wish to create professional-looking videos.

Pictory Test

As a marketer who blogs, I tried turning a listicle article into a video. Here’s a few screenshots of the video it generated:

Pictory Pros and Cons

• Pictory’s AI does a great job of highlighting the key points in videos and blogs (although it’s not perfect).
• I love the auto-captioning and how we can drag the caption around. 
• Pictory is helpful to non-tech users, showing helpful tips on almost every control. 
• It has a wide range of elements to personalize the video. For example, you can change the caption’s fonts and add emojis to the video. 
• Pictory’s AI voice-over lacks the realistic edge that its premium competitors do.

Pictory Pricing

Pictory charges $19/month for the Standard subscription and $39/month for the Premium Plan that caters to business users.  

Verdict

Pictory is a good AI tool for summarizing content into short, engaging videos, particularly from YouTube videos. It offers a good range of customization options and is highly affordable. 

try out pictory here

5.Lumen5

Lumen5 is an AI-powered video generator that corporate professionals use to create quality videos. It’s the type of software you turn to when preparing for a presentation in thirty minutes. Lumen5 boasts notable brands like Cisco, Salesforce, and SAP as clients. The software has a user-friendly interface and hundreds of templates to choose from. And the icing on the cake is a free forever plan. 

Lumen5 Experience:

Lumen5 has a simple workflow that’s easy to learn.

1. Create your first video by choosing from its collection of templates. Because of its corporate positioning, Lumen5’s templates are designed with a professional appeal (think ‘manufacturing,’ ‘security,’ and ‘software development’).
2. Choose a story’s aspect ratio, vertical, square, or horizontal. This suits businesses that are running Stories campaigns on social media.
3. Lumen5 extracts the scenes from blogs or scripts and inserts professional-looking photos into them.

Lumen5 To The Test

My first attempt with Lumen5 was turning a long-form blog into an AI presentation video.

Here’s a quick look at the slides that were made:

Lumen5 Pros and Cons:

• Its free plan is pretty great. You can create as many videos as you wish, but with credit scenes.
• Lumen5 has an intuitive interface with visible controls and drag-and-drop controls. It allows non-tech professionals to edit the scenes easily.
• There’s a great choice of icons, music, and video assets. The templates are elegant and fit for business uses.
• It offers the Stories aspect ratio and automatically renders all slides when you switch between different formats.
• Lumen5 lacks advanced AI features, such as an AI avatar and narrator.

Lumen5 Pricing

Lumen5’s Community plan is free with minimum restrictions. A basic subscription starts from $29/month. 

Lumen5 Verdict

Lument5 is a simple, easy-to-use video editor that turns text into business and marketing videos. Despite limited AI features., it does a great job of choosing the suitable layout style and accentuating points with different fonts. 

check out lumen5 here

6. HeyGen

HeyGen is another AI video generator that really prides itself on being one of the easiest platforms to use. It’s just three simple steps:

1. Choose an AI Avatar or make your own individual avatar with a company CEO or employee
2. Type your script.
3. Watch the video.

HeyGen Features:

At this point, we’ve looked at a ton of AI avatar video generators. Here’s where HeyGen shines, and a glimpse of a template:

• Their templates are absolutely gorgeous if you’re looking for more engaging videos for marketing or business.
• Voice cloning– something unique, you can speak and use your own voice for a custom avatar.
• You can create video content in minutes, and easily edit them with no technical skills required.

HeyGen Pricing

If you’re only looking to make a few videos a week, then $29 per month is totally worth it. But note, it’s only a five minute max, which may be a problem when most YouTube videos are around 10-15 minutes.

HeyGen Verdict

If you’re looking for a very straight-forward, easy to use AI video generator that you can plug and chug your script into a template, then definitely check out HeyGen.

Try HeyGen Here

7. Descript

Okay, Descript. Is it a AI video editor, AI video upscaler, or AI generator?

Well, you can imagine it’s a mix of all three. Many people recognize Descript as its the go-to for podcast transcription. But as many podcasts are transitioning from purely audio to video audio, many podcasters need to generate AI videos from their podcasts. This can be recycled for long-form YT videos to social media clips, and the podcast publishing platforms themselves.

Descript Video Features

When it comes to creating video content, here’s what Descript can do for you:

• Social Media Video Creation: You can choose from hundreds of templates to generate videos from your podcasts.
• Easily switch social aspect ratios from YT, Instagram, to TikTok.
• Eye contact video editing- It can make your eyes look like they’re always looking at the camera, even though they may be reading from a script.
• Includes tons of stock media options to make a fantastic video.
• Generate AI green screen so that you can change the background of your videos.

Descript Pricing

Here’s a look at pricing:

Descript Verdict

If you’re looking for some video generation and editing all in one for your podcasts, Descript is a no-brainer.

Try Descript Here

What is an AI Video Generator?

An AI video generator is video editing software that uses artificial intelligence technologies to simplify the video creation process. AI video generators allow users without video editing experience to create publish-worthy videos in minutes. Instead of using expensive cams and mic, some AI video software uses machine learning to mimic human speech and impression with a digital avatar. 

This is different than a video upscaler, which is used to enhance old videos.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

How to create a human AI video for free?

Synthesia and Elai.io allow you to create AI videos with human avatars, and both offers free trials but with limitations. They let you experience creating a simple AI video without paying anything. 

What is better than Synthesia?

Synthesia is a well-rounded AI video software, with Elai.io being a strong rival. Like Synthesia, Elai.io has realistic AI avatars, allowing you to create custom ones. However, Elai.io provides advanced features that extract text from URLs and PDFs, further simplifying video creation. Also, its new e-commerce-to-video creation workflow is helpful for online retailers. Rather than claiming it’s ‘better,’ Elai is an excellent alternative to Synthesia. 

Why can’t I play the videos on Windows Media Player?

Most AI video generators let you download the videos in .mp4 format, which Windows Media Player doesn’t support by default. You can use alternative video players such as QuickTime or upload and play the videos from Google Drive.