How to Use HeyGen AI in 2026 (Beginner Guide)

0:00 HeyGen is one of the best AI platforms for creating talking head videos. That's why thousands of creators are using it right now to either make automated faceless channels or to fully replace themselves with an AI character that looks, talks, and moves like them. And if you don't know how to do that yet,

0:18 you're losing out on one of the most powerful AI features of all time. So, in this video, I'm going to show you exactly how to set up HeyGen and how I personally use it to make my own videos just like the one you're watching right now. First, we need a HeyGen account. And the question here is whether you

0:33 should stick with the free plan or upgrade to a paid one. So, let's go ahead to the official website and see which one suits you best. For this, you can use the link in the description that gets you straight there. Once you're on HeyGen, press the sign in button in the bottom corner and choose an option to

0:48 sign in. You can either go with your Google or Apple account, or you can just use your email directly. After you do that, it'll ask you a few questions like, "What do you want to create?" and "What's your role?" Select the ones that suit you best, and then you'll get this pop-up with the pricing. As you can see,

1:05 on the free plan, you can generate videos up to 1 minute in over 30 different languages. So, this is extremely good if you're just testing it out, but it's pretty limited. Plus, you get a big watermark on your video. Then there's the creator plan, which lets you make videos up to 30 minutes in over 175

1:23 languages. There's no watermark on them, and you also get the newest AI features like voice cloning. So, this plan finally lets you make longer videos for a low price. Then there's the pro tier, and that's the one I personally use because it gives me everything from the creator plan. Plus, I can fully

1:40 customize the credits I get. With the other plans, you get either 30 or 600 credits, and once you run out, you have to wait for the month to end. [music] On the pro tier, I never have that problem. There's also the editing feature, which honestly saves me a ton of time and credits. I get to pick what

1:56 I like right inside HeyGen, so I don't have to go back and forth with other editing tools. So, for most people the creator plan is fine, but I recommend getting on Pro if you're going to be using HeyGen regularly. Now that you know which one fits you best, let's get straight into it and generate a talking

2:13 video. The first step for this is also the most important one, and if you get it wrong, everything else will fall apart. So, to make sure you don't miss it or any of the other ones, I made a full document where I cover everything from this tutorial. It's completely free, and you can get it from the

2:28 description below. Now, let's go through this first step and show you exactly how to do it properly. Inside HeyGen, press on the avatar tab, and then pick avatars. And if you just created your account, you won't have any avatars yet, and you'll see these two options to create one. But before I walk you

2:44 through them, there's one really useful thing you want to know, and that's the public avatars. So, let's click on that. And as you can see, HeyGen already has dozens of pre-made options. Now, if we press on a public avatar, you can see that you don't just get multiple outfits, but you also have different

3:01 environments and positions of the character. So, depending on what you want to create, you'll definitely find the perfect angle with this. But now, let's actually go back and create our own character. And as you've already seen, you have two options. You can either clone a real person, but this

3:17 requires a bit more effort because you need to upload real video footage of yourself and audio as well. So, that's why I want to show you the second option, which I think is going to be useful for most of you. And that's the virtual character. And here, you also get two options. You can either design

3:33 it with AI from a text prompt, or upload a photo. So, let's go through each one. First, we are going to use the design with AI feature, which requires absolutely nothing but a few settings. We first have the name, and I'm going to use Maya for this one. Then, for the age, I'm going with young adult. For

3:51 gender, I go with woman, and for ethnicity, I leave it on unspecified. And then we have the prompt box where we can describe our character in a few words. So, here's what I will say about mine. Next, you can choose the orientation. It can either be landscape, portrait, or square. So, for this one,

4:07 I'm going with landscape. Then, for the pose, it really depends on the type of video you want to create. If you want to make a daily vlog or UGC where you want to show your entire character, go with full body. But, if you want to create just a talking head or a tutorial, you can go with upper body or face. Next,

4:24 for the style, I'm going with realistic and then press generate. This might take a couple of seconds, but once it's done, we don't just get one character, we get four different variations. So, pick the one that you like the most, and for me, it's this one. However, if you're not happy with the results, you can always

4:40 edit the prompt and regenerate right there. Once you find something you like, press save. And then we want to choose a voice from the library. Again, you can filter through them and choose the exact accent you want. And for my character, I'm going with this American voice called Britney, and then press select

4:57 voice. But now, before I can actually go ahead and create a video with her, there's one more thing I need to do. Because if I skip this, every time I try to create a video, I'll get my character talking on a blank background, which not only looks unrealistic, but it also feels extremely weird. So, in order to

5:14 change that, I'm going to use the remix feature in HeyGen, and then pick the studio streamer preset, which will basically give her this cool-looking background. So, let's press remix looks, and as you can see, we totally changed the background from that blank and boring one to a set of images that has

5:31 depth and good lighting, making the entire video more realistic. But now you might be wondering, how do we actually go from this image to a talking video? Well, the workflow here is pretty simple. Just stay in the avatar section, and at the bottom it says AI studio. So, let's click on that. As you can see,

5:48 HeyGen gives you a few templates to choose from, but you can always press new video and that'll get you into AI Studio. Here, on the left side, you'll paste in the exact prompt that controls what your character says and does. Then, on the right side, you can choose your avatar and its voice. At the bottom, you

6:04 have the option to preview your video before generating the final version. That's pretty much it. As you can see, HeyGen already used the avatar with the voice I chose, but you can always edit that. After that, I'll go and add the captions. From there, you can change the font, the size, and even the color

6:20 palette of it, which I think is very cool. So, now let's press generate. On this confirmation page, you can rename the video if you want to. For the format, I'm going with MP4 and 1080p for the resolution. Then, hit submit. >> Hey, welcome back to the channel. Today, I'll show you how to turn a simple

6:38 script into a fully edited talking video using AI. No camera, no studio, no editing skills required. Let's get into it. >> Well, I must say this feels extremely natural. The background is on point with those lighting bars that give it a lot of depth. The lip sync with the voice is

6:54 well done and even the character stays consistent from start to finish. The only thing I'd point out is the glowing skin on her face, but this may be because of the lighting of the background. Besides that, [music] the video looks great. But, now that you know how to create the talking head

7:08 video, there's one more thing I didn't show you, even though it might completely change your results. And I'm talking about the second way of creating the AI avatar. So, let's actually go back to that and show you how simple it is to make one. [music] Because this is really useful, especially when you know

7:24 exactly how you want your avatar to look. The text-to-avatar route is great when you want a realistic person, but this one is different because here you bring your own image. So, back on the avatar tab, I hit new avatar, then create a virtual character, and this time I pick upload photo. And the image

7:42 doesn't have to be a real person at all. Mine is a cartoon character and HeyGen treats it exactly like any other avatar. I'll give him a name. I'm calling him Leo. Then I pick a voice for him. And for this, I'm going with one called Elio and then press on select voice. Now, to actually use him, I hit use in video,

8:00 drop in a script, and generate. >> Trees don't just stand there. They actually talk to each other. Deep underground, their roots join a hidden wood-wide web that shares food and warnings. Want to know what they're saying? Stick around. >> As you can see, it kept our avatar consistent from start to finish. And

8:18 what I really like is that even though it's an animation, HeyGen treats it just like a normal avatar. So, it still shows emotions and hand gestures. And just like that, you can create all types of avatars from realistic ones to animated ones and make a talking video with them in just a few minutes. So, if you want

8:36 to test these yourself, go sign up to HeyGen using the link in the description down below. Thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next one.