Sume Avatar max costs 2.24x plus and 3x standard: when to pay it

Sume Avatar 1.0 talking video is $0.184 a second on standard, $0.245 on plus and $0.55 on max. Plus costs 1.33 times standard, and max costs 2.24 times plus and 2.99 times standard. Use standard for tests and throwaway replies, plus as the default, and max for the few clips that carry a campaign.

Price by tier and length

Rates are from the Sume catalog without a product image. A product image adds $0.010, $0.013 and $0.030 a second respectively.

What each tier is, per the docs

The avatar video guide describes standard as the fastest Sume execution path, plus as the balanced default when you omit quality, and max as the highest quality tier with slower turnaround. The docs do not publish a quality score, so I will not invent one.

That means the decision is yours to measure. Render the same 15-second script on all three for $14.69 and compare them side by side. The 2.24x premium only makes sense if the difference is visible at the size your audience watches it.

A cheaper way to choose

Create a preview first: it generates first-frame stills before the full render. The preview docs say stills are tier-independent and that generate-video accepts a quality override for the final render only, so you can approve the composition once and change tier without a new preview.

Structural fields, such as the script, scene, avatar handle and aspect ratio, still need a new preview. If you only wonder about tiers, the preview step is free of that decision.

A sensible rule: iterate the script on standard, ship routine clips on plus, and buy max for the one clip that will have paid media behind it. Ten 30-second hero clips on max is $165.00, against $73.50 on plus.

What changes at max

I have not seen a published measure of how much better max looks, so treat 2.24x as a price, not a promise. If you cannot see a difference in a side-by-side test at final size, plus is the better buy. Run that test once per avatar rather than for every clip.