Tavus Starter or Growth? The break-even is about 1,014 live minutes

On the Tavus pricing page, Growth ($397) becomes cheaper than Starter ($59 plus overage) at about 1,014 live minutes a month. Below that, Starter wins; at 1,014 minutes Starter costs $397.18, and the Growth plan already includes 1,250.

The two plans

The pricing page lists Starter at $59 a month with 100 minutes included, $0.37 per minute overage and 3 concurrent conversations. Growth is $397 with 1,250 minutes, $0.32 overage and 10 concurrent. Each conversation has a 30-second minimum charge.

The arithmetic

Starter cost for m minutes above 100 is $59 + $0.37 x (m - 100). Set that equal to $397: $0.37 x (m - 100) = $338, so m - 100 = 913.5 and m = 1,013.5. At 1,013 minutes Starter is $59 + 913 x $0.37 = $396.81. At 1,014 it is $59 + 914 x $0.37 = $397.18. So from 1,014 minutes Growth is cheaper, and at 1,250 minutes Starter would cost $59 + 1,150 x $0.37 = $484.50 against $397.

Effective rate per minute

• Starter at 100 minutes: $59 / 100 = $0.59 a minute.
• Growth at 1,250 minutes: $397 / 1,250 = $0.3176 a minute.
• Growth over 1,250 minutes: $0.32 a minute, flat.
• If concurrency matters, 3 versus 10 may decide it before price does.

Where a rendered clip comes in

Live minutes are billed for as long as someone is in the conversation. A rendered Sume avatar clip is billed once. A 60-second plus-quality clip is 60 x $0.245 = $14.70. At the Growth overage of $0.32 a minute, 14.70 / 0.32 = 45.9, so if more than 46 people would each spend a live minute on the same message, one rendered clip costs less than delivering it live. Below that, live is cheaper per minute, but it is also a conversation, not a recording.

What to do

Count minutes for last month, not guesses. If they sit under 1,000, stay on Starter. If concurrency is the limit, check the plan row before the price. Move the parts that are the same for everyone into rendered clips.