Does Sume use credits or dollars? Reading a credit quote in USD

Sume quotes generation prices in US dollars per unit, not in abstract credits, and your account holds a USD balance that you top up in the dashboard (read 2026-10-03). The 'credits' in Sume's dashboard and error messages are that dollar balance. So to compare a vendor's credit quote with Sume, convert the quote to dollars per second, per image or per track, then compare the unit.

This matters because the 'cost to make N clips' question has a different answer at every vendor depending on what a credit buys. A quote like '300 credits a month' tells you nothing until you know what one clip consumes. With dollar pricing, the arithmetic is the same everywhere: units multiplied by the rate.

What Sume publishes

The Billing and credits page says the dashboard's Billing & subscription page shows plan status and available balance and lets you buy credits for Developer API usage, and that older docs called this surface Credits. Prices live on the API pricing page, which is the rate card of record. The error docs use the word 'credits' in 402 insufficient_credits, which means the spendable balance is not enough for the requested generation.

The public API exposes GET /v1/balance and GET /v1/usage, both read-only and scoped to the key's workspace. It does not expose a top-up endpoint; top-ups are a dashboard operation backed by Stripe checkout when billing is configured.

Converting someone else's credit quote

Take the quote and ask three questions. How many credits does one 15-second clip consume at the quality you want? What is the dollar price per credit at your plan size? Do unused credits expire? Multiplying the first two gives dollars per clip, and you can compare that with 15 seconds at Sume's rates: $2.76 on Standard, $3.675 on Plus, $8.25 on Max.

Do the conversion on the plan you would actually buy, not the headline tier, because per-credit prices usually fall with commitment. And check for hidden multipliers: higher resolutions, longer clips or priority queues sometimes cost more credits.

Reservation and reconciliation

Sume checks that the balance covers a generation before provider work starts, and fails with 402 insufficient_credits if it does not. After a batch, compare the ledger from GET /v1/usage with your own planned seconds. If you track dollars per published second, you will notice drift quickly.

Quota-type job failures carry the next action 'add funds or lower request cost', so both fixes, topping up or shortening the script, are available without contacting anyone.

A worked comparison

Suppose another vendor sells 1,000 credits for $50 and charges 25 credits for a 10-second clip. That is $1.25 for ten seconds, or $0.125 per second. At Sume's listed rates a ten-second clip costs $1.84 on Standard and $2.45 on Plus. The numbers are invented for illustration, and the point is the method: convert to dollars per second, then compare tier to tier, and with the same resolution and duration limits.

Do not forget what is included. Sume's avatar price is per second of video, with a separate $0.95 per avatar. A vendor that includes avatar creation in a monthly plan, or limits custom avatars by plan, has a different shape of cost. Put both on the same 20-clip scenario before deciding.

Questions to ask before you buy credits anywhere

Do credits expire, and when? Are they pooled across a team or tied to a seat? Does a failed generation consume credits? Does the price per credit change by plan? Is there a separate charge for creating an avatar or voice? These affect your real cost more than the headline. Sume's answers are on its pages: prices are listed in USD, the balance is a USD balance, and avatar creation is a separate $0.95. Check the billing page for anything about expiry that applies to your workspace, since this article only covers what the docs state.