ElevenLabs Avatars credit cost vs Sume per-second tiers
ElevenLabs says Avatar credits vary by lip-sync model, resolution and duration. Sume Avatar 1.0 publishes a fixed per-second rate for each quality tier.
ElevenLabs does not give a single price for an Avatar clip: its documentation says credits follow Image & Video pricing and vary by lip-sync model, resolution and duration, and are shared across ElevenCreative tools. Sume prices Avatar 1.0 per second of video by quality tier, so you can compute the cost before you submit.
Sume rates
Rates below are per second without and with a product_image, from the Sume API pricing page. Clip length is estimated from the script and must fall between 4 and 60 seconds.
| Quality | Per second |
|---|---|
| standard | $0.184 / $0.194 |
| plus (default) | $0.245 / $0.258 |
| max | $0.55 / $0.58 |
Worked examples
For a 15 second clip with no product image, standard is $2.76, plus is $3.675 and max is $8.25. A 30 second clip is $5.52, $7.35 and $16.50. A full 60 second clip is $11.04, $14.70 and $33.00. The numbers are the per-second rate multiplied by duration.
Avatar creation is a separate flat $0.95, paid once per avatar.
Why it matters for planning
With model-dependent credits you learn the cost after choosing a model. With fixed tiers you can model a campaign in a spreadsheet. If you use an agent, dry_run=true previews cost without submitting, and max_spend_usd caps spend when you provide it, per the MCP tools and gates page.
Neither approach is cheaper by itself. Compare the same script length and the resolution you will really publish at.
Sources
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Written by Sume