Sume vs Synthesia: AI avatar video platforms compared

Synthesia and Sume both generate videos with AI avatars and both offer an API and a hosted MCP server. Synthesia describes itself as an AI video platform for communicating, training, and upskilling teams, with videos that can run for hours. Sume is a video agent platform: short avatar clips sit next to a multi-model video catalog, and a finished workflow becomes a Format your backend calls.

Synthesia facts come from Synthesia's own pages, read on 2026-09-24. Sume facts come from Sume's docs, pricing page, and public catalog.

What is Synthesia?

Synthesia's site calls it “the AI video platform trusted by 90%+ of the Fortune 100 to communicate, train, and upskill teams in 160+ languages”.

• Avatars and voices: “Build any avatar or character from a prompt, clone yourself, or pick from 240+ ready-made avatars,” with “1,000+ AI voices across 160+ languages and accents” (avatars).
• Long videos: “A Synthesia video can contain a maximum of 150 scenes, each up to 5 minutes long, with a total duration of up to 4 hours” (video creation).
• Dubbing: “Dub videos into 140+ languages with voice cloning and perfect lip-sync” (AI dubbing). The pricing page lists 70+ dubbing languages on self-serve plans and 140+ on Enterprise, and says lip-sync “Uses 2× credits when enabled.”
• Drafting: the AI Video Assistant turns a prompt, file, or URL into “a structured, multi-scene video draft.”
• API and MCP: the Video API is asynchronous, “you submit a job and poll or get a webhook when it's ready” (API introduction). A hosted MCP server at https://mcp.synthesia.io/mcp is in public beta (MCP).

What is Sume?

Sume is a video agent platform: people brief an agent in the Agents tab, save the result as a reusable Format, and call that Format, the agent, or individual models from their own backend over one API, a hosted MCP server, a CLI, and a TypeScript SDK, all billed from one wallet.

• Agents: a chat workspace at sume.com/agents where the agent plans a video, asks before it spends, and generates stills, avatars, voice, lip-sync, and a finished timeline.
• Formats: a saved recipe your backend calls with POST /v1/formats/{handle}/{slug}/runs, plus 27 ready-made Formats at the sume handle. See What is a Sume Format?.
• Models: an OpenRouter-compatible POST /v1/videos endpoint over a catalog of video models, with sume/auto routing, plus image, music, speech, and Avatar 1.0.
• Avatar 1.0: create a reusable avatar ($0.95 per avatar) and generate 4–60 second talking videos at $0.184/s standard, $0.245/s plus, $0.55/s max (no product image).
• Developer surfaces: the Developer API, a hosted MCP server for Claude Code, Cursor, and Codex, a CLI, and a TypeScript SDK.
• Plans are Free $0, Pro $40 / month, Startup $120 / month, Scale $400 / month. Usage draws from one prepaid wallet at each model's published USD rate plus a 5.5% agent fee by default; routed video models are priced at the provider's list price × 1.25. The public catalog states both.

How do Sume and Synthesia compare?

How does Synthesia's pricing compare with Sume's?

Synthesia is subscription-only. Its pricing FAQ answers the pay-per-video question with “No. Synthesia is based on monthly and yearly subscriptions,” and credits are “one common pool for everything you create” (pricing).

• Synthesia credits: Basic includes 1,200 credits a month (up to 10 minutes of video), Creator 3,600 credits a month (30 minutes of video), and Enterprise unlimited video minutes; unused videos do not roll over (pricing).
• Synthesia API: “Access to Synthesia's API is available for Creator plans or above” (Video API), and on Creator the API is “Up to 360 minutes of video / year, deducted from the plan's usage limits” (pricing).
• Sume Avatar 1.0: $0.184/s standard, $0.245/s plus, $0.55/s max (no product image); creating an avatar is $0.95 per avatar. Each video is 4–60 seconds.
• Sume plans: Free $0, Pro $40 / month, Startup $120 / month, Scale $400 / month. One prepaid wallet; each model's published USD rate plus a 5.5% agent fee; routed video models at the provider's list price × 1.25. API, CLI, and MCP access from the Pro plan up.

Which one fits which job?

• Synthesia documents videos of up to four hours, 240+ stock avatars, and dubbing with lip-sync (140+ languages on Enterprise). For long-form training and internal communication, those are its stated strengths.
• Sume's avatar clips are 4–60 seconds and sit in the same API and wallet as other video models, image, music, and speech, with usage billed from one wallet as you go. For short product and marketing clips built by an agent, that is the fit.
• For repeatable backend jobs, a Sume Format is one HTTP call per run with an idempotency key, a spend cap, and an optional webhook.

How do I try Sume?

Start a thread in the Agents tab, or create an API key and follow the quick start. Plans and per-model rates are on Pricing and API pricing; How Sume pricing works explains the wallet.

Vendor details change often. Everything we say about other products here comes from their own pages as of 2026-09-24; check those pages before you decide.