Max-tier 60-second avatar video: the $33.00 balance reserve

A 60-second avatar video at the max tier reserves $33.00 from your Sume balance when you submit it, or $34.80 with a product image. If your balance is lower, the request is refused with a 402 and the code insufficient_credits, and no job is created.

The reserve at each tier

Sume reserves the estimated price of a job in exact USD micros, rounds it up to whole cents at submit, captures it when the job completes, and refunds it if the job fails or is canceled. For avatar video, the estimate is the script's estimated length times the per-second price.

What the reserve means in practice

The reserve is held from your available balance while the job runs. Two max-tier 60-second jobs at once need $66.00 free, and three need $99.00. A balance of $50 can start one, but a second request would return 402 even though the first has not finished.

When a job completes, the captured amount matches the estimate. If the job fails or is canceled, the amount is released and the balance returns. A shorter script reserves less. A 45-second script at max is $24.75.

Handling a 402

The errors and credits page lists the error shapes.

• Read the error code: insufficient_credits means top up or reduce the request.
• Lower the tier or shorten the script to fit the balance, for example 60 seconds at plus is $14.70.
• Do not retry in a loop; a retry with the same Idempotency-Key and the same balance gives the same answer.
• Check the balance before queueing a batch so the later jobs do not fail halfway.

Use previews first

Before spending $33.00 on a max-tier take, check the first-frame preview. Preview stills do not depend on the tier, so a standard-quality look at the framing tells you what max will produce at the start. The avatar video docs cover the request fields.

Budgeting a batch at max

For a batch of ten 60-second max-tier videos the total is $330.00. If you submit all ten at once, the whole amount must be free at the moment of submission, since each request reserves its own price. Submitting two at a time keeps the held amount at $66.00.

Teams that run on a small balance often prefer standard for drafts and max only for the approved script. A standard draft of the same 60 seconds holds $11.04, which is $21.96 less than max.