Synthesia Starter: 12 minutes for $29, or the same 12 minutes on Sume?

Short answer

Twelve minutes of Sume Avatar 1.0 video costs $132.48 at the standard tier, $176.40 at plus and $396.00 at max. Synthesia's pricing page lists Starter at $29 per month for about 12 video minutes a month, which is $2.42 per minute if you use every minute. On raw price per finished minute, a subscription is cheaper than per-second API pricing at that volume. The right question is what each one gives you for the money.

The numbers

Twelve minutes is 720 seconds. Multiply by each Sume rate. For Synthesia, divide $29 by 12 minutes.

What Synthesia lists for Starter

The Synthesia pricing page shows Starter at $29 per month with about 12 video minutes a month, 125+ AI avatars and Full HD output. The Basic plan is $0 with 10 minutes a month and a Synthesia watermark. Pro is $89 per month for about 60 minutes.

What the price gap buys you

A subscription is a fixed monthly cost for a bundle of studio features. Sume's API price is metered per second, and it is aimed at teams that submit jobs from code and want a single bill that follows usage. You pay nothing in a month when you render nothing. At low volume that pattern can win: one 30-second clip at standard is $5.52, so a month with only two clips costs $11.04, less than the Starter plan.

• Heavy monthly use of 10+ minutes: a subscription is likely cheaper per minute.
• Light or uneven use: pay per second avoids a flat fee.
• API-driven pipelines: Sume exposes the flow as endpoints.

Pick by volume

Break-even against Starter at standard is $29 / $0.184 = 157 seconds, a bit over two and a half minutes. Under that, per-second pricing costs less. Over it, Starter costs less for the same duration, if the features it bundles suit you. Resolution is also different: Synthesia lists Full HD, and Sume Avatar 1.0 renders 720p.

Two other cautions. First, Synthesia's minutes are a monthly allowance; if you do not use them, you have still paid. Second, the Sume figure is for video with no product image. Adding a product image adds $0.010, $0.013 or $0.030 per second at standard, plus and max, so a 12-minute catalog of product spots would cost a little more than the table shows.

An example with a mixed month

A team that ships 90 seconds of avatar video in a quiet month and 600 seconds in a busy one pays 90 x $0.184 = $16.56 and 600 x $0.184 = $110.40 at standard. Over two months that is $126.96, against $58 for two Starter months. The subscription wins on cost if the busy months are common and the features fit. If the busy month is rare, the gap narrows.