Pricing and credits

Credits pay for the time an avatar session is running, talking or idle, billed by the exact second. Every platform (cloud, self-hosted and on-device) bills the same way, against your API secret. This page is the one source for every price; other pages link here.

Serving — credits per live minute

The table and the billing rule under it are generated from GET /v1/pricing (data.realtime).

A managed conversational agent bills ONE all-inclusive rate: it covers the avatar, whether it renders in the bitHuman cloud or in the viewer’s browser.

An avatar-only session (your own agent through the plugin or the API) that renders in the viewer’s browser bills the model’s self-hosted rate above. Inside a managed agent’s chat the all-inclusive rate covers it.

How live sessions are billed: active session time, talking or idle: exact seconds x rate / 60, rounded down per session with the remainder carried to your next session; no minimum.

A session bills while it is running, whether the avatar is talking or idle, to the exact second: seconds × rate ÷ 60, rounded down per session, with the fraction carried to your next session. A stopped or disconnected session accrues nothing. File rendering (bithuman render, or render() in the Python SDK) bills the duration of the video it writes, at the self-hosted rate.

Expression 1 (expression-1) runs in the bitHuman cloud only.

Creation — one-time credits

A failed creation is refunded automatically. GET /v1/pricing returns this schedule as JSON.

Talking video — per minute of output

Talking-video renders bill per minute of finished output, rounded up, minimum one minute. A failed render is refunded.

Plans

From 2026-10-12 (00:00 UTC), API and SDK use requires the Creator plan or higher. Free accounts cannot create agents or buy credit top-ups. A Free account with top-up credits bought before 2026-09-27 keeps API and SDK access until those credits are spent. The exact responses are under PLAN_REQUIRED.

Annual plans bill twelve months of credits up front.

• Agents: a creation over your plan’s limit returns 403 AGENT_LIMIT_REACHED. Existing agents keep working.
• Concurrent sessions limit live cloud sessions; a session over the limit is refused with 403 CONCURRENCY_LIMIT_REACHED (rate limits). Self-hosted and on-device sessions are limited only by credits.
• Creation costs credits: a creation you cannot pay for returns 402 INSUFFICIENT_BALANCE and creates nothing.

Essence 2 Max is available on the Enterprise plan only. Contact sales to enable it.

Estimate a month

Choose where the avatar renders, then how long sessions run. The estimate counts active session time, talking or idle, at the rates above.

Budget an app

What an Essence 2 or Expression 2 avatar costs inside an iPhone, Android, Mac or web app, per minute of active session time. Creating your own avatar is a one-time cost (Creation); the companion app recipe shows how to close the avatar when the app leaves the screen.

Offline licensing

Offline license is only available to Business and Enterprise clients who want to run realtime avatars completely locally, off the internet — e.g. kiosks, trade shows, ATM machines, embedded screens. Linux PCs and terminals; arranged through sales.

• Models: Essence 1 on Linux (x86_64 and ARM64), available now: buy a pack in the console, then run python -m bithuman pack redeem (bitHuman 2.11.16 or later) once on the machine (how). Essence 2 and Expression 2 offline come later.
• Credit-based: from 100,000 credits, metered on the machine at the self-hosted rate, with no required reconnection.
• Creation is online: you create the avatar from a portrait in the bitHuman cloud; the finished avatar model then runs on your machines.
• Not for phones: the Swift package and the Android SDK stay online.
• Not file rendering: bithuman render writes a video file and signs in online; it needs no offline license.

Contact sales to arrange an offline license. Where it runs and what it covers: Fully offline.

Top-up credits

On the Creator plan or higher, top up any time at $1 = 100 credits. Top-up credits never expire and are spent after plan credits.

Connectivity

Check your balance

curl https://api.bithuman.ai/v2/credit-summaries -H "api-secret: $BITHUMAN_API_SECRET"

{
  "success": true,
  "data": {
    "user_id": "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000",
    "balance": 5240,
    "plan_credits": 240,
    "topup_credits": 5000,
    "is_enterprise": false,
    "minutes_estimate": {
      "essence_2_cloud": 1310,
      "essence_2_self_hosted": 2620,
      "expression_2_cloud": 1310,
      "expression_2_self_hosted": 2620,
      "essence_1_cloud": 2620,
      "essence_1_self_hosted": 5240,
      "expression_1_cloud": 1310,
      "voice_chat": 524,
      "camera_chat": 174,
      "essence_cloud": 2620,
      "essence_self_hosted": 5240,
      "expression_cloud": 1310
    }
  }
}

Each <model>_cloud and <model>_self_hosted value is the balance divided by that rate. Ignore expression_1_self_hosted and expression_self_hosted: Expression 1 has no self-hosted mode. The unversioned essence_* and expression_* keys are the first-generation models; for Essence 2 read essence_2_*.

What is not billed

• Stopped or disconnected sessions.
• API secrets, SDK installs and model downloads.
• Failed creations and renders (refunded) and failed authentication.

Next

• Billing API · Rate limits · Create your own avatar