Synthesia API on Pro at $89 a month vs Sume's avatar API

Synthesia's pricing page lists its API under Pro and Enterprise, with Pro at $89 a month for 6,000 credits and about 60 video minutes, which is roughly $1.48 a minute by my division if you use them all. Sume's avatar API sits on a USD balance from a prepaid balance, but I have no fixed Sume price per avatar minute to put beside it. Get that from a priced job, not from this post.

What Synthesia lists

The page shows Basic free with 500 credits and about 10 minutes, watermarked, Starter at $29 a month with 1,250 credits, Pro at $89 a month with 6,000 credits and 5 personal avatars, and Enterprise on request with unlimited video minutes. Annual pricing is listed as $18 a month for Starter and $64 a month for Pro. The line 'Automate video creation with Synthesia API' is attached to Pro and Enterprise.

How Sume is different

Sume Avatar 1.0 takes a photo or a saved avatar and returns a talking video through POST /v1/avatar-1.0/generate, with an Idempotency-Key. Billing follows the platform rule: provider list times 1.25, reserved on submit from the workspace balance, refunded if the job fails. Per the authentication docs, the plan sets rate limits.

Steps: price an avatar minute on Sume

• Check GET /v1/catalog for the avatar and TTS model you plan to use.
• Submit one 30-second avatar job with a short script.
• Read usage.cost on the finished job and double it for a minute.
• Compare it with $1.48 and decide on volume.

curl -X POST https://api.sume.com/v1/avatar-1.0/generate \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SUME_API_KEY" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: avatar-image-001" \
  -d '{"avatar_handle":"reference_presenter","input":{"type":"photo","image_url":"https://example.com/reference.png"}}'

What Sume does not do

Sume does not offer Synthesia's studio, its 5 personal avatars on a plan, or an unlimited-minutes enterprise contract in the docs I read. It is a pay-per-job API.

What the credit figure hides

Synthesia's page says Pro includes 6,000 credits and about 60 video minutes, but the minutes figure is approximate and the page text gave Starter a similar approximate. Treat $1.48 as a lower bound that assumes full use. A team that renders 20 minutes in a month pays $89 for 20, or $4.45 a minute. A metered balance never has an unused-minutes cost. The flip side is that metered usage can surprise you if a script is long, so set a spend cap in your own code.

Annual billing and seats

Synthesia's annual Pro is listed at $64 a month with 72,000 credits a year, about 720 video minutes, which is where the $1.07 figure comes from. That requires paying a year up front and using every minute. Enterprise is custom and lists unlimited video minutes. Sume's route has no annual contract in the docs I read, which suits uncertain volume and loses to a fully used annual plan.

Verdict

A team that wants a studio with an API bundled: Synthesia Pro. A developer who wants pay-per-job avatars and no monthly minimum: Sume. Measure one job each way before choosing.