100-second AI presenter explainer: two 50-second jobs, $24.50 at Plus

The video spend is $18.40 at Standard, $24.50 at Plus and $55.00 at Max; adding the $0.20 join gives $18.60, $24.70 and $55.20.

The numbers

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).

Why 50 + 50

Each half stays well below the 60-second ceiling, so a script that runs a little long still fits. You also get a natural chapter break at the midpoint. The docs expect one avatar and one shared scene per final video, so reuse the same avatar_handle, aspect_ratio and scene prompt for both halves and the join will not change who is on screen.

• Use separate Idempotency-Key values for the two halves.
• Turn on inline captions per half with the same style so the join looks uniform.
• Poll each job and fetch /result for the video_url to feed the join.

The join

Timeline 1.0 charges $0.10 per ceil(output minute) (Timeline 1.0). A 100-second output is 2 billable minutes, $0.20. That is under 1 percent of the Plus video spend.

Practical notes

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.

Reading results. A completed result can include public media.sume.com video artifacts, and for avatar videos also public-safe preview fields such as preview_image_url and scene_previews. You can list or read finished videos with GET /v1/avatar-videos and GET /v1/avatar-videos/{id}. Store the job id and the video id together so a billing line can be traced back to a creative.

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.