Skip to main content
COST CALCULATOR

AI avatar cost calculator: MeshLite vs HeyGen LiveAvatar, Tavus and Anam

Up to ten times cheaper than per-minute, cloud-rendered avatars. No per-minute MeshLite avatar fee. Pay for the plan, not the minutes.

See their public prices, how we calculate and how we build.

See every MeshLite plan
HOW WE CALCULATE

How we calculate

Avatar alone, on both sides: your voice and AI cost the same with them or with us.Dates

1. Your usage

For your own site, staff and visitors: conversations a month × average length = minutes a month.

For your product’s users: monthly avatar users × minutes per user = minutes a month.

2. People at once

For your own site: estimated over 220 h of opening a month, busiest moment = minutes / 2,500, at least 1.

For your product: 1% of monthly avatar users online together (research range 0.1–2%), at least 5.

3. Their bill

Cost = subscription + minutes beyond the included volume × overage price.

We pick the cheapest plan whose session cap fits your session length and the estimated people at once. Beyond its largest self-serve plan, we use its lowest advertised Enterprise rate, by quote, not a guaranteed offer.

4. Your MeshLite bill

A flat plan price. No per-minute MeshLite avatar fee.

For your own site, staff and visitors

  • Creator: $19/mo billed yearly ($21 billed monthly), up to 5 simultaneous conversations, 4 custom avatar slots.
  • Plus: $99/mo billed yearly ($129 billed monthly), up to 10 simultaneous conversations, 10 custom avatar slots.
  • Business: $499/mo billed yearly ($599 billed monthly), 50 simultaneous conversations included; each extra 25 is $200/month, up to 150.
  • Above 150 at once: Scoped with the founding team.

For your product’s users

  • Lite: $249/mo billed yearly ($299 billed monthly), up to 250 monthly avatar users.
  • Starter: $999/mo billed yearly ($1,299 billed monthly), 1,000 monthly avatar users included; each extra 1,000 is $250/month, up to 10,000.
  • Growth: up to 50,000 monthly avatar users. Scoped with the founding team.
  • Scale: above 50,000 monthly avatar users. Scoped with the founding team.

5. Voice and AI

We compare the avatar alone, on both sides: your voice and AI cost the same with them or with us. With “Voice & AI included”, we add your provider’s price on the MeshLite side:

  • Budget cascaded estimate (STT + LLM + TTS): about $0.04/min, or $2.40/h
  • OpenAI Realtime · speech-to-speech: about $0.072/min, or $4.32/h
Voice and AI providers, public pricesDates
ProviderPrice
OpenAI gpt-live-1$0.05/min + language model
Cartesia Agents$0.06/min
Deepgram Voice Agent$0.075/min
ElevenLabs Agents$0.08/min + language model

6. Savings

Monthly saving = their monthly total − your MeshLite monthly total. Yearly saving = 12 × the monthly saving. Percentages compare these totals.

Public self-serve prices, excluding negotiated discounts and tax. Our plans are counted on annual billing; a platform that publishes an annual price is counted the same way, the others at their monthly price. Other platforms’ Enterprise offers, on quote, can be much cheaper at high volume. These prices change often: we check them regularly.

Use cases in the calculator

Our estimates of typical usage. Pick one in the calculator, or set your own numbers.

For your own site, staff and visitors
Use casePer monthLength
Website assistant1,000 conversations5 min each
Sales training200 conversations20 min each
Customer support2,000 conversations5 min each
Employee onboarding100 conversations30 min each
Candidate screening500 conversations10 min each
Compliance training300 conversations10 min each
For your product’s users
Use casePer monthTime
Onboarding platform1,000 monthly users10 min per user
Sales role-play platform500 monthly users30 min per user
Language learning app2,000 monthly users30 min per user
In-app guidance1,000 monthly users10 min per user
Interview prep app1,000 monthly users20 min per user
PUBLIC PRICES

HeyGen LiveAvatar, Tavus and Anam pricing

These are the prices the calculator uses. We read each platform’s public pricing page.Dates

HeyGen LiveAvatar pricing

HeyGen LiveAvatar, “Avatar Only” mode (LITE), without voice or AI
PlanSubscriptionIncludedExtra minuteAt onceMax sessionCustom avatars
Essential $99/mo 1,110 min $0.095/min Unlimited 20 min 1
Business $475/mo 6,010 min $0.09/min Unlimited 60 min 1
HeyGen LiveAvatar, FULL mode: 2 credits per minute
PlanSubscriptionIncludedExtra minuteAt onceMax sessionCustom avatars
Essential $99/mo 555 min $0.19/min Unlimited 20 min 1
Business $475/mo 3,005 min $0.18/min Unlimited 60 min 1
  • Extra custom avatar: $49/month per extra avatar.
  • Enterprise: down to $0.01/min, by quote, not a guaranteed offer.
  • LiveAvatar bills credits; the table converts them to minutes. “Unlimited”: no cap on simultaneous sessions on its paid plans.

Sources

Tavus pricing

Tavus, Echo mode (your audio)
PlanSubscriptionIncludedExtra minuteAt onceMax sessionCustom avatars
Builder $59/mo 175 min $0.35/min 3 15 min 3
Growth $397/mo 1,300 min $0.31/min 10 60 min 7
Business $975/mo 4,000 min $0.26/min 15 60 min 15
  • Tavus publishes no separate price for Echo mode, so we use its standard rate.
  • Enterprise: volume discounts, by quote, not a guaranteed offer.

Sources

Anam pricing

Anam, audio passthrough mode (your voice)
PlanSubscriptionIncludedExtra minuteAt onceMax sessionCustom avatars
Starter $9/mo billed yearly$12/mo billed monthly 50 min $0.16/min 1 5 min —
Explorer $36/mo billed yearly$49/mo billed monthly 250 min $0.14/min 3 10 min —
Growth $224/mo billed yearly$299/mo billed monthly 2,000 min $0.12/min 5 120 min —
Professional $749/mo billed yearly$999/mo billed monthly 8,000 min $0.11/min 10 120 min —
  • Anam charges the same minute with your own voice; no reduced avatar-only rate is published.
  • Enterprise: from $0.04/min, by quote, not a guaranteed offer.

Sources

THE MESHLITE DIFFERENCE

AI avatars.
Reimagined for scale.

The same AI generation technology. A different way to bring your avatar to life.

Generate once. Animate in the browser.

With competitors, the video server runs throughout each conversation, for every visitor.

MeshLite uses it once to create your avatar. Each visitor’s browser then animates the avatar.

FAQ

Questions, answered.

Something else on your mind? Write to hello@meshlite.io.

What does “unlimited avatar minutes” mean?

MeshLite doesn’t charge per minute for the avatar. Your plan sets how many conversations can run at the same time, not how long they last. Your voice and AI providers bill you separately for their own usage.

How does the quality compare to cloud-rendered avatars?

MeshLite uses the same AI generation technology to create the avatar. The difference is where it’s animated: in the visitor’s browser instead of a remote server. The quickest way to judge is to try the live demo.

Give your AI product a live visual presence

Bring us the experience you want to build. Let’s explore how MeshLite fits.

Discuss your use case Explore plans