{"schema":"postcutoff/event@1","as_of":"2026-10-25T23:49:00+01:00","url":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-09-30-heygen-video-1/","md":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-09-30-heygen-video-1/index.md","disclosure":{"written_by":"AI agents (Claude Opus 5.5 in Claude Code)","editor":"human editor","policy":"https://postcutoff.com/about/"},"license":null,"id":"2026-09-30-heygen-video-1","date":"2026-09-30","date_precision":"day","short_title":"HeyGen Video 1","deck":null,"takeaway":"HeyGen, known for AI avatar videos, released its own general video model, HeyGen Video 1, around Sept 30, 2026.","category":"media-generation","category_label":"Media generation","importance":2,"confidence":"medium","status":{"key":"partly","labels":["Partly confirmed"]},"sources":[{"n":1,"title":"HeyGen: Introducing HeyGen Video","url":"https://www.heygen.com/blog/introducing-heygen-video","type":"official","group":"primary","domain":"heygen.com"},{"n":2,"title":"OpenRouter: HeyGen Video 1","url":"https://openrouter.ai/heygen/heygen-video-1","type":"docs","group":"primary","domain":"openrouter.ai"}],"official":2,"filed":"2026-10-25","updated":"2026-10-25","orgs":["HeyGen"],"title":"HeyGen releases HeyGen Video 1, a text/image/reference-to-video model with dialogue and sound, at $0.01 per second at launch","summary":"HeyGen, known for AI avatar videos, released its own general video model, HeyGen Video 1, around Sept 30, 2026. It generates visuals, dialogue and sound effects in one pass from text, images or references, from 480p to 2K through the API, at a launch price of $0.01 per second. It ranked #3 on Artificial Analysis' text-to-video board in late October.","key_facts":["Release date not printed by HeyGen; Sept 30, 2026 is OpenRouter's listing date and HeyGen's changelog says 'September 2026'","Text-, image- and reference-to-video with dialogue and sound effects generated together; styles from live action to claymation and anime","API: 480p to 2K, 16:9 / 9:16 / 1:1, seeds and webhooks; free web demo (two 5 s 768p clips a day)","Launch API price $0.01 per second 'through October'","HeyGen's page says it ranked first on Artificial Analysis' video leaderboard; read on 2026-10-25 it was #3, Elo 1160"],"key_numbers":[],"tags":["video-generation","audio-video","avatars","api"],"science":null,"body_md":"## What happened\n\nHeyGen moved beyond avatar videos with a general video model that writes and voices its own dialogue. It is available in the HeyGen\napp, as a free demo and through HeyGen's API and OpenRouter at a promotional price of one cent per second.\n\n## Why it matters\n\nA cheap, top-five video model from an application company shows how quickly video generation has commoditised in 2026.","disputed":[],"related":[{"id":"2026-08-24-wan-3-0","url":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-08-24-wan-3-0/","date":"2026-08-24","date_precision":"day","short_title":"Alibaba Wan 3.0 video model","deck":null,"takeaway":"Wan had been the leading open-weight video family; Wan 3.0 keeps its weights closed, part of a wider 2026 shift by Chinese labs toward closed flagships.","category":"media-generation","category_label":"Media generation","importance":3,"confidence":"high","status":{"key":"confirmed","labels":["Confirmed"]},"sources":2,"official":1,"filed":"2026-10-25","updated":"2026-10-25","orgs":["Alibaba"]},{"id":"2026-07-31-seedance-2-5","url":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-07-31-seedance-2-5/","date":"2026-07-31","date_precision":"day","short_title":"ByteDance Seedance 2.5 video model","deck":null,"takeaway":"Seedance 2.5 is one of the two or three video models most creators used in the second half of 2026, and the 4K version marks a push from social clips toward professional production.","category":"media-generation","category_label":"Media generation","importance":3,"confidence":"high","status":{"key":"confirmed","labels":["Confirmed"]},"sources":3,"official":1,"filed":"2026-10-25","updated":"2026-10-25","orgs":["ByteDance"]}],"people":[],"posts":[],"videos":[],"models":[{"id":"heygen-video-1","name":"HeyGen Video 1","url":"https://postcutoff.com/m/heygen-video-1/"}],"changes":[{"date":"2026-10-25","type":"filed","text":"Created. Exact release date unverified"}],"provenance":{"agents":[{"model":"Claude Opus 5.5","maker":"Anthropic","tool":"Claude Code"}],"filed":"2026-10-25","run":null,"sources_read":null,"updated":"2026-10-25","human_review":null,"version":{"date":"2026-10-25"}},"gaps":[{"model_id":"gpt-6-astra","name":"GPT-6 Astra","cutoff":"2026-04","days_after":153,"in_training_data":false},{"model_id":"claude-opus-5-5","name":"Claude Opus 5.5","cutoff":"2026-06","days_after":92,"in_training_data":false},{"model_id":"gemini-4-argon","name":"Gemini 4 Argon","cutoff":"2026-03","days_after":183,"in_training_data":false},{"model_id":"grok-4-7","name":"Grok 4.7","cutoff":"2026-05","days_after":122,"in_training_data":false}],"short_url":null}