Generate Video from Template

Generates a video from the template by replacing its variables (text, image, video, audio, character, voice). Use scene_ids to select, reorder, or repeat scenes — scenes must already exist in the template; the API cannot create new ones. Returns the created video object; poll GET /v3/videos/ or use webhooks for completion. Idempotent replays return the original creation-time snapshot (status and URLs as of the first request), not the video’s current state.

POST /v3/templates/{template_id}

Generate Video from Template

cURL

curl --request POST \
  --url https://api.heygen.com/v3/templates/{template_id} \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --header 'x-api-key: <api-key>' \
  --data '
{
  "variables": {},
  "title": "<string>",
  "caption": false,
  "subtitles": {
    "preset_name": "<string>",
    "alignment": 2,
    "disable_highlight": false,
    "font_size": 123,
    "position": {
      "x": 0,
      "y": 0
    }
  },
  "callback_id": "<string>",
  "callback_url": "<string>",
  "folder_id": "<string>",
  "brand_voice_id": "<string>",
  "dimension": {
    "width": 2112,
    "height": 2112
  },
  "fps": 25,
  "scene_ids": [
    "<string>"
  ],
  "reorder_music": true,
  "keep_text_vertically_centered": false,
  "include_gif": false,
  "enable_sharing": false
}
'

import requests

url = "https://api.heygen.com/v3/templates/{template_id}"

payload = {
    "variables": {},
    "title": "<string>",
    "caption": False,
    "subtitles": {
        "preset_name": "<string>",
        "alignment": 2,
        "disable_highlight": False,
        "font_size": 123,
        "position": {
            "x": 0,
            "y": 0
        }
    },
    "callback_id": "<string>",
    "callback_url": "<string>",
    "folder_id": "<string>",
    "brand_voice_id": "<string>",
    "dimension": {
        "width": 2112,
        "height": 2112
    },
    "fps": 25,
    "scene_ids": ["<string>"],
    "reorder_music": True,
    "keep_text_vertically_centered": False,
    "include_gif": False,
    "enable_sharing": False
}
headers = {
    "x-api-key": "<api-key>",
    "Content-Type": "application/json"
}

response = requests.post(url, json=payload, headers=headers)

print(response.text)

const options = {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {'x-api-key': '<api-key>', 'Content-Type': 'application/json'},
  body: JSON.stringify({
    variables: {},
    title: '<string>',
    caption: false,
    subtitles: {
      preset_name: '<string>',
      alignment: 2,
      disable_highlight: false,
      font_size: 123,
      position: {x: 0, y: 0}
    },
    callback_id: '<string>',
    callback_url: '<string>',
    folder_id: '<string>',
    brand_voice_id: '<string>',
    dimension: {width: 2112, height: 2112},
    fps: 25,
    scene_ids: ['<string>'],
    reorder_music: true,
    keep_text_vertically_centered: false,
    include_gif: false,
    enable_sharing: false
  })
};

fetch('https://api.heygen.com/v3/templates/{template_id}', options)
  .then(res => res.json())
  .then(res => console.log(res))
  .catch(err => console.error(err));

<?php

$curl = curl_init();

curl_setopt_array($curl, [
  CURLOPT_URL => "https://api.heygen.com/v3/templates/{template_id}",
  CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
  CURLOPT_ENCODING => "",
  CURLOPT_MAXREDIRS => 10,
  CURLOPT_TIMEOUT => 30,
  CURLOPT_HTTP_VERSION => CURL_HTTP_VERSION_1_1,
  CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST => "POST",
  CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => json_encode([
    'variables' => [
        
    ],
    'title' => '<string>',
    'caption' => false,
    'subtitles' => [
        'preset_name' => '<string>',
        'alignment' => 2,
        'disable_highlight' => false,
        'font_size' => 123,
        'position' => [
                'x' => 0,
                'y' => 0
        ]
    ],
    'callback_id' => '<string>',
    'callback_url' => '<string>',
    'folder_id' => '<string>',
    'brand_voice_id' => '<string>',
    'dimension' => [
        'width' => 2112,
        'height' => 2112
    ],
    'fps' => 25,
    'scene_ids' => [
        '<string>'
    ],
    'reorder_music' => true,
    'keep_text_vertically_centered' => false,
    'include_gif' => false,
    'enable_sharing' => false
  ]),
  CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => [
    "Content-Type: application/json",
    "x-api-key: <api-key>"
  ],
]);

$response = curl_exec($curl);
$err = curl_error($curl);

curl_close($curl);

if ($err) {
  echo "cURL Error #:" . $err;
} else {
  echo $response;
}

package main

import (
	"fmt"
	"strings"
	"net/http"
	"io"
)

func main() {

	url := "https://api.heygen.com/v3/templates/{template_id}"

	payload := strings.NewReader("{\n  \"variables\": {},\n  \"title\": \"<string>\",\n  \"caption\": false,\n  \"subtitles\": {\n    \"preset_name\": \"<string>\",\n    \"alignment\": 2,\n    \"disable_highlight\": false,\n    \"font_size\": 123,\n    \"position\": {\n      \"x\": 0,\n      \"y\": 0\n    }\n  },\n  \"callback_id\": \"<string>\",\n  \"callback_url\": \"<string>\",\n  \"folder_id\": \"<string>\",\n  \"brand_voice_id\": \"<string>\",\n  \"dimension\": {\n    \"width\": 2112,\n    \"height\": 2112\n  },\n  \"fps\": 25,\n  \"scene_ids\": [\n    \"<string>\"\n  ],\n  \"reorder_music\": true,\n  \"keep_text_vertically_centered\": false,\n  \"include_gif\": false,\n  \"enable_sharing\": false\n}")

	req, _ := http.NewRequest("POST", url, payload)

	req.Header.Add("x-api-key", "<api-key>")
	req.Header.Add("Content-Type", "application/json")

	res, _ := http.DefaultClient.Do(req)

	defer res.Body.Close()
	body, _ := io.ReadAll(res.Body)

	fmt.Println(string(body))

}

HttpResponse<String> response = Unirest.post("https://api.heygen.com/v3/templates/{template_id}")
  .header("x-api-key", "<api-key>")
  .header("Content-Type", "application/json")
  .body("{\n  \"variables\": {},\n  \"title\": \"<string>\",\n  \"caption\": false,\n  \"subtitles\": {\n    \"preset_name\": \"<string>\",\n    \"alignment\": 2,\n    \"disable_highlight\": false,\n    \"font_size\": 123,\n    \"position\": {\n      \"x\": 0,\n      \"y\": 0\n    }\n  },\n  \"callback_id\": \"<string>\",\n  \"callback_url\": \"<string>\",\n  \"folder_id\": \"<string>\",\n  \"brand_voice_id\": \"<string>\",\n  \"dimension\": {\n    \"width\": 2112,\n    \"height\": 2112\n  },\n  \"fps\": 25,\n  \"scene_ids\": [\n    \"<string>\"\n  ],\n  \"reorder_music\": true,\n  \"keep_text_vertically_centered\": false,\n  \"include_gif\": false,\n  \"enable_sharing\": false\n}")
  .asString();

require 'uri'
require 'net/http'

url = URI("https://api.heygen.com/v3/templates/{template_id}")

http = Net::HTTP.new(url.host, url.port)
http.use_ssl = true

request = Net::HTTP::Post.new(url)
request["x-api-key"] = '<api-key>'
request["Content-Type"] = 'application/json'
request.body = "{\n  \"variables\": {},\n  \"title\": \"<string>\",\n  \"caption\": false,\n  \"subtitles\": {\n    \"preset_name\": \"<string>\",\n    \"alignment\": 2,\n    \"disable_highlight\": false,\n    \"font_size\": 123,\n    \"position\": {\n      \"x\": 0,\n      \"y\": 0\n    }\n  },\n  \"callback_id\": \"<string>\",\n  \"callback_url\": \"<string>\",\n  \"folder_id\": \"<string>\",\n  \"brand_voice_id\": \"<string>\",\n  \"dimension\": {\n    \"width\": 2112,\n    \"height\": 2112\n  },\n  \"fps\": 25,\n  \"scene_ids\": [\n    \"<string>\"\n  ],\n  \"reorder_music\": true,\n  \"keep_text_vertically_centered\": false,\n  \"include_gif\": false,\n  \"enable_sharing\": false\n}"

response = http.request(request)
puts response.read_body

200

{
  "data": {
    "id": "<string>",
    "title": "My Generated Video",
    "created_at": 1711929600,
    "completed_at": 1711930200,
    "video_url": "https://files.heygen.ai/video/abc123.mp4",
    "thumbnail_url": "https://files.heygen.ai/thumb/abc123.jpg",
    "gif_url": "https://files.heygen.ai/gif/abc123.gif",
    "captioned_video_url": "https://files.heygen.ai/video/abc123_captioned.mp4",
    "subtitle_url": "https://files.heygen.ai/srt/abc123.srt",
    "duration": 30.5,
    "folder_id": "folder_abc123",
    "output_language": "en-US",
    "failure_code": "rendering_failed",
    "failure_message": "Avatar rendering timed out",
    "video_page_url": "https://app.heygen.com/video/abc123"
  }
}

{
  "error": {
    "code": "invalid_parameter",
    "message": "Variable 'company_name' is not defined in this template.",
    "param": "variables",
    "doc_url": null
  }
}

{
  "error": {
    "code": "authentication_failed",
    "message": "Invalid or expired API key. Verify your x-api-key header.",
    "param": null,
    "doc_url": null
  }
}

{
  "error": {
    "code": "template_not_found",
    "message": "Template not found.",
    "param": null,
    "doc_url": null
  }
}

{
  "error": {
    "code": "request_in_progress",
    "message": "A request with this Idempotency-Key is already in progress. Retry shortly.",
    "param": null,
    "doc_url": null
  }
}

{
  "error": {
    "code": "rate_limit_exceeded",
    "message": "Too many requests. Retry after the duration specified in the Retry-After header.",
    "param": null,
    "doc_url": null
  }
}

Authorizations

ApiKeyAuthBearerAuth

x-api-key · string · header · required

HeyGen API key. Obtain from your HeyGen dashboard.

Headers

Idempotency-Key · string

Optional client-supplied key for safely retrying mutations. Subsequent calls within 24 hours that share this key replay the original response — even if the request body differs slightly (a warning is logged). A retry that arrives while the original is still in flight gets a 409 request_in_progress. Keys must be 1–255 characters from [A-Za-z0-9_:.-]; a UUID is a safe default. Scope is per-endpoint and per-resource: the same key on a different route or path parameter is independent.

Required string length: 1 - 255

Pattern: ^[A-Za-z0-9_\-:.]{1,255}$

Path Parameters

template_id · string · required

Unique template identifier

Body

application/json

Request body for POST /v3/templates/{template_id}.

variables · Variables · object · required

Template variable replacements, keyed by the variable name defined in the template

Show child attributes

title · string | null

Title for the generated video

caption · boolean · default: false

Whether to burn captions into the video

subtitles · TemplateSubtitleSettings · object | null

Subtitle style settings. Implies captions when provided.

Show child attributes

callback_id · string | null

Opaque ID echoed back in webhook events for this video

callback_url · string | null

URL called with the video result in addition to registered webhook endpoints

folder_id · string | null

Folder to place the generated video in

brand_voice_id · string | null

Brand voice ID controlling pronunciation

dimension · TemplateVideoDimension · object | null

Output resolution override. Must match the template's aspect ratio.

Show child attributes

fps · number · default: 25

Output frame rate. One of 25, 30, or 60.

scene_ids · string[] | null

Scene IDs to render, in order (repeats allowed). Scenes must already exist in the template; the API can select, reorder, and repeat scenes but cannot create new ones. Omit to render all scenes in template order.

reorder_music · boolean · default: true

When true (default), background audio tracks move with their scenes. When false, tracks stay pinned to layout positions.

keep_text_vertically_centered · boolean · default: false

When true, replaced text elements are vertically re-centered based on their rendered height

include_gif · boolean · default: false

Whether to include a GIF preview in the webhook payload

enable_sharing · boolean · default: false

Whether the generated video's share page is publicly accessible

Response

200

application/json

Successful response

data · VideoDetail · object

Video resource returned by list and detail endpoints.

If output_language is present the video is a translated video; otherwise it is a generated video.

Show child attributes