Newsletter paid-upgrade pitch as a 45-second avatar clip: cost

A 45-second talking-avatar pitch for a paid newsletter tier costs $8.28 at Sume's Standard quality and $11.03 at Plus, using the per-second avatar rates on the rate card read 2026-10-04: $0.184 and $0.245 per second with no product image. Avatar Video accepts scripts that run 4 to 60 seconds, so a 45-second pitch fits in a single request.

Newsletter platforms keep adding paid tiers and community features, so more writers are asking readers to upgrade. A short face-to-camera pitch in the welcome email is the same ask that works in person, and you only record it once.

What does the pitch say?

Three beats at about 15 seconds each: who the paid issue is for, what they get that free readers do not, and how to upgrade. At a speaking pace of roughly 150 words a minute, 45 seconds is about 110 words. Sume estimates the duration from your script, and anything over 60 seconds is refused, so trim rather than rush.

What are the three quality tiers?

quality accepts standard, plus and max; plus is the default if you omit it, standard is the fastest path and max is the highest quality and slowest (Avatar videos). Aspect ratio defaults to 9:16, and resolution is 720p.

What does the request look like?

You need a ready avatar, either one you created or one from the catalog, referenced by avatar_handle. Send exactly one of script or video_inputs. The request is async: the response is a job, and you read GET /v1/jobs/{id}/status until it is completed.

import os, requests

r = requests.post(
    "https://api.sume.com/v1/avatar-1.0/talking-video",
    headers={
        "Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['SUME_API_KEY']}",
        "Idempotency-Key": "paid-pitch-001",
    },
    json={
        "avatar_handle": os.environ["AVATAR_HANDLE"],
        "aspect_ratio": "9:16",
        "quality": "standard",
        "script": "If you read me on Tuesdays, Friday is for you. Paid readers get the long issue, the archive and one reply a week. It costs less than a coffee. Tap upgrade below.",
    },
    timeout=60,
)
print(r.status_code, r.json())

Is the pitch worth that price?

Test at Standard and render Plus only for the version you keep. Never resubmit a paid request because your client timed out; read the job instead (Jobs and results). Put the price of your tier in the email text, not in the spoken script, so the clip stays valid when the price changes.