HeyGen vs Runway
as AI assistants see them, week of 2026-09-28
HeyGen and Runway land close on paper—overall scores of 40 and 44—but AI assistants reach for them differently. HeyGen shows up in 38 of 62 answers, with a perfect 4 of 4 for best value for money, and strong showings on talking-head scripts, multilingual lip sync, and small marketing teams. Runway appears slightly more often, in 40 of 62 answers, and sweeps "best AI video generators" at 4 of 4, plus every question on commercial licensing. Head-to-head, Runway gets named more often in 10 questions versus HeyGen's 6, with 4 ties. Neither tool is ever mentioned for open-source models you can run yourself.
Head to head
| metric | HeyGen | Runway |
|---|---|---|
| score | 40 | 44 |
| questions won | 16 | 15 |
By assistant
HeyGen
| assistant | score | named in, this week | usual spot, this week |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | 34 | 40% of answers | #2.1 |
| Claude | 40 | 75% of answers | #6.8 |
| Gemini | not sampled this week | ||
| Perplexity | 50 | 65% of answers | #2.9 |
Runway
| assistant | score | named in, this week | usual spot, this week |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | 58 | 70% of answers | #2.4 |
| Claude | 45 | 75% of answers | #5.5 |
| Gemini | not sampled this week | ||
| Perplexity | 33 | 45% of answers | #3.4 |
Where they differ
Only HeyGen gets named for
- What's the best AI tool to make a talking-head video from a script?
- What's the best AI video generator with lip sync in other languages?
- What's the best AI avatar video tool for training or explainer videos?
- What's the best AI tool to turn a blog post or doc into a video?
Only Runway gets named for
- Which AI video generator has the best commercial licensing?
- Which AI video tool produces the most realistic footage?
- What's the best AI video editor for cleaning up footage I already have?
More comparisons
Not sold on either?
Scores count how often each assistant names a product, weighted by position. How the score works · Full AI video generators leaderboard