# Pricing and credits

URL: https://docs.bithuman.ai/pricing

> Credits pay for active session time, talking or idle, by the exact second. Rates per model and platform, creation costs, plans, offline licensing, and how to check your balance.

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](https://docs.bithuman.ai/start/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`](https://docs.bithuman.ai/api/billing#get-the-pricing-schedule) (`data.realtime`).

| Model | Cloud | Self-hosted and on-device |
|---|---|---|
| [Essence 2](https://docs.bithuman.ai/models/essence-2) (`essence-2`) | 4 credits/min | 2 credits/min |
| [Expression 2](https://docs.bithuman.ai/models/expression-2) (`expression-2`) | 4 credits/min | 2 credits/min |
| [Essence 1](https://docs.bithuman.ai/models/first-generation#essence-1) (`essence-1`) | 2 credits/min | 1 credit/min |
| [Expression 1](https://docs.bithuman.ai/models/first-generation#expression-1) (`expression-1`) | 4 credits/min | — |

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.

| Surface | Rate |
|---|---|
| Managed agent — voice chat (all-inclusive) | 10 credits/min |
| Managed agent — camera on (vision chat; replaces the chat rate) | 30 credits/min |

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.

*Diagram: A session and what it bills.* A realtime session bills active session time, talking or idle, to the second, from the moment it starts until it ends. Online self-hosted and on-device sessions check your credential when they start and keep rendering through a network drop of up to 5 minutes.

## Creation — one-time credits

| Action | Credits |
|---|---|
| Create an agent: `essence-1` or `expression-1` | 250 |
| Create an agent: `essence-2` | 500 |
| Create an agent: `expression-2` | 2000 |
| Create an agent: `auto` | the routed model's rate (500 or 2000) |
| [Add a model](https://docs.bithuman.ai/api/agents#add-a-model-to-an-existing-agent) to an agent | the same per-model rates; 0 for Expression 1 |
| Generate gestures (dynamics) | 250 |

A failed creation is refunded automatically. [`GET /v1/pricing`](https://docs.bithuman.ai/api/billing#get-the-pricing-schedule) returns this schedule as JSON.

## Talking video — per minute of output

[Talking-video renders](https://docs.bithuman.ai/api/video) bill per minute of finished output, rounded up, minimum one minute. A failed render is refunded.

| Model | Per minute of output |
|---|---|
| `essence-2` | 4 credits |
| `expression-2` | 4 credits |
| `essence-1` | 2 credits |
| `expression-1` | 4 credits |

## 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`](https://docs.bithuman.ai/api/errors#authentication).

| Plan | Monthly | Yearly | Credits / month | Agents | Concurrent cloud sessions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| **Creator** | $20 | $204 | 1,800 | 7 | 3 |
| **Pro** | $99 | $1,010 | 10,000 | 40 | 10 |
| **Business** | $299 | $2,990 | 50,000 | 200 | 50 |
| **Enterprise** | $999 | $9,990 | 250,000 | unlimited | 200 |
| **Custom** | [Contact sales](https://www.bithuman.ai/sales) | — | by agreement | by agreement | by agreement |

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](https://docs.bithuman.ai/api/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`](https://docs.bithuman.ai/api/errors) and creates nothing.

Essence 2 Max is available on the Enterprise plan only. [Contact sales](https://www.bithuman.ai/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.

One avatar session running 60 minutes a day for 30 days, billed as active session time, talking or idle:

| Mode | Rate | Credits a month | At the top-up rate | Smallest plan that covers it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| On the device or your servers | 2 credits per minute | 3,600 | $36.00 | Pro |
| bitHuman cloud avatar | 4 credits per minute | 7,200 | $72.00 | Pro |
| Managed voice chat, all-inclusive | 10 credits per minute | 18,000 | $180.00 | Business |

## 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](#creation--one-time-credits)); the [companion app](https://docs.bithuman.ai/build/companion-app) recipe shows how to close the avatar when the app leaves the screen.

| Mode | On the device or your servers | bitHuman cloud avatar | Managed voice chat, all-inclusive |
|---|---|---|---|
| Credits per minute of active session time | 2 | 4 | 10 |
| At the top-up rate ($1 = 100 credits) | about $0.02 a minute | about $0.04 a minute | about $0.10 a minute |
| At the Business plan's credit price | about $0.012 a minute | about $0.024 a minute | about $0.060 a minute |
| Minutes in a Creator month (1,800 credits) | 900 | 450 | 180 |
| Speech, language model and voice | your own services | your own services | included |
| Sessions at once | limited by credits | [per plan](https://docs.bithuman.ai/pricing#plans) | [per plan](https://docs.bithuman.ai/pricing#plans) |

- **Idle is billed.** A session bills for as long as it runs, talking or idle. End it when the user leaves, and show a still frame when nobody is talking.
- **Worked example.** One user whose sessions add up to 20 minutes a day on the device uses about 1,200 credits a month ($12.00 at the top-up rate).

## 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](https://docs.bithuman.ai/deploy/offline#first-command)). 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](https://www.bithuman.ai/sales) to arrange an offline license. Where it runs and what it covers: [Fully offline](https://docs.bithuman.ai/deploy/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

| Situation | What happens |
|---|---|
| No API secret, or a rejected one, at the start | the session does not start |
| No network when a session starts | the session does not start; retry when connected |
| The network drops after the session started | the session continues for 5 minutes, then pauses until the connection returns; usage is reported when it does |
| Credits run out | the session stops at the next usage report; top up to continue |

## Check your balance

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

```json
{
  "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](https://docs.bithuman.ai/api/billing) · [Rate limits](https://docs.bithuman.ai/api/rate-limits) · [Create your own avatar](https://docs.bithuman.ai/build/create-avatar)