Annual billing discounts: Runway, Luma, Pika, Synthesia, HeyGen

On the vendor pages read on 2026-10-04, paying annually saves 20% at Runway and Pika, about 16.7% at Luma, about 17% on HeyGen Creator, and between 28% and 38% at Synthesia. Synthesia's Starter plan has the largest cut, from $29 a month to $18, while Luma's three paid plans each get the same one-sixth off.

The percentage is only half the story, because annual billing commits you for twelve months of a plan you may outgrow or leave.

What does each vendor charge monthly and annually?

Prices below are the per-month figures each page shows for monthly billing and for annual billing, and the saving over twelve months is the difference times twelve.

Does the discount change the cost per credit?

Yes, and the credit pool stays the same, so the discount flows straight into the per-credit price. Runway Standard drops from $0.0240 to $0.0192 a credit on its 625-credit pool, and Luma Plus from $0.0030 to $0.0025 on 10,000. That is why a feature like a 5-second clip is cheaper on an annual plan even though nothing about the model changed.

When is paying annually a mistake?

Three cases come up. First, if you are unsure the tool will still fit in six months, a 20% discount does not offset paying for months you do not use. Second, if your use is bursty, a small plan or a pay-per-use balance can cost less than a year of a plan you drain in two months. Third, vendors can change prices and model lineups during a year, and a prepaid year does not follow them.

• Commit annually only when monthly use is steady.
• Compare the annual cost to a month of heavy use plus eleven light ones.
• Re-read the page before renewing; credit costs per model move.

How does Sume's yearly option compare?

Sume sells plans on its own pricing page, and its yearly versus monthly saving for Pro, Startup and Scale is worked through in Sume yearly vs monthly plan saving, so I do not restate it here. How Sume's plan fee and wallet usage add up is in How Sume pricing works.