A 4-second avatar clip on Sume: $0.736, $0.98 or $2.20 by tier

The cheapest avatar video Sume accepts is 4 seconds, which comes to $0.736 at Standard, $0.98 at Plus and $2.20 at Max by the tier rates. Only the Standard figure has a fraction of a cent.

The floor math

Rates: Standard $0.184, Plus $0.245, Max $0.55 per second without a product image; $0.194, $0.258, $0.58 with one (Sume pricing page, as of 2026-10-08). The docs set a 4-second minimum for the estimated duration, so the minimum video costs:

Why this matters for per-second math

Standard at $0.184 per second produces sub-cent amounts unless the length is a multiple of 5 seconds (5 x $0.184 = $0.92). Plus at $0.245 is exact at even lengths and Max at $0.55 is exact at even lengths. When you total many odd-length Standard clips, expect the invoice to differ from a hand calculation by fractions of a cent.

The cited pages do not state the rounding mode, so plan with the exact figure and check the first invoice line.

• A 5-second Standard clip is 5 x $0.184 = $0.92 exactly.
• With a product image the 4-second prices are $0.776, $1.032 and $2.32 (4 x $0.194, 4 x $0.258, 4 x $0.58).

Staying above the floor

If your line is shorter than 4 seconds, either lengthen it or use a multi-scene plan with a silence beat. The silence beat needs a duration and cannot carry a script, and the total planned duration must reach 4 seconds.

Practical notes

Output format. Avatar video output is 720p at this time, and the aspect ratio defaults to 9:16 with 1:1, 3:4, 4:3 and 16:9 also accepted. Choose the ratio in the request rather than cropping afterward, since a crop throws away part of a frame you paid for by the second.

Job lifecycle. Every Sume avatar request is job-backed. You submit, store the job id, and poll GET /v1/jobs/{id}/status until it completes, then read GET /v1/jobs/{id}/result. The shared lifecycle also lets you wait with sync or subscribe mode for a limited time instead of polling, and the result carries Sume-hosted artifacts rather than provider URLs, so you never handle a provider queue id. Plan your client around the job, not around a single blocking response.

Media inputs. Any media field, whether product_image, scene.image_url or an avatar image_url, must be a fetchable public HTTPS URL. Sume rejects localhost, private-network and non-HTTPS addresses before it submits anything, so a broken link fails fast instead of consuming a render. Host reference images where Sume can fetch them and keep them available until the job finishes.

Idempotency. The docs examples send an Idempotency-Key header on every create call. Use one key per intended job and reuse it only when you retry the same request. A network timeout followed by a fresh submit with a new key is the one path that can create, and bill, a second job. Keep keys human-readable, such as the campaign and scene, so a support lookup is easy.