Avatar clips of 60 seconds or less and the Shorts one-minute line

A Sume avatar job is capped at 60 seconds, which happens to be the line where YouTube's Shorts rules change. YouTube's help page, read 2026-10-07, says square or vertical videos up to three minutes long, uploaded after October 15, 2024 on standard channels, are categorised as Shorts. It also says a Short over one minute with an active Content ID claim of any kind is blocked globally, while limits for Shorts under one minute are unchanged. A 60-second avatar clip stays at or under that line.

What the YouTube page says

How that fits Sume's output

Sume's talking-video route defaults to 9:16 and also accepts 1:1, both of which are shapes YouTube calls Shorts-eligible. The duration window is 4 to 60 seconds inclusive, so one job never crosses the one-minute line. If you want a longer Short, you would combine jobs yourself, and then the over-one-minute claim rule applies to the combined upload. That is a reason to be careful with background music, which you would add separately.

Practical steps

• Render at 9:16 for a normal Short, or 1:1 if you want a square frame.
• Keep the script at or under 60 seconds by Sume's estimate, which the API checks.
• If you add music, use tracks from YouTube's own audio libraries as the page suggests, and check the track's limit against your length.
• For a long-form video that should not become a Short, use 16:9; the page names a wider ratio as the way to prevent it.

Costs

A 60-second plus-tier clip is 14.70 dollars at 0.245 dollars per second. Standard is 11.04 dollars and max is 33.00 dollars. If you only need 30 seconds, the cost halves, and shorter clips hold attention better on a feed anyway. The daily Shorts budget post covers a 30-day plan.

This post makes no claim about reach or monetisation. YouTube's page describes eligibility and claim handling, and its policies can change, so reread the page before a campaign.

A short checklist before upload

Confirm the aspect ratio is 9:16 or 1:1. Confirm the duration in the file is at most 60 seconds. If there is music, check that it comes from a source you may use and that the Studio upload screen shows no claim. Add the AI-generated note where your channel discloses synthetic content, and check YouTube's own current disclosure settings, since those rules are outside this post.