How much does an AI avatar cost? 3D and video avatar prices for 2026

"How much does an AI avatar cost?" has no single answer, because the words cover very different products. A tool that makes training videos and a 3D receptionist that talks to your visitors can differ in price many times over. This guide sets out what each kind costs, using prices vendors publish.

A note on where we stand: Lobbyface sells one of these options, the managed 3D avatar. We've included the numbers that favour the others, and you can check every price on the pages linked below. All prices were read on 6 November 2026, in US dollars and before tax, and they change often.

AI avatar prices at a glance

The first question is whether you need a live conversation at all. If you need a presenter for training or marketing videos, a video tool is much cheaper and a live avatar would be wasted money. If visitors need to ask questions and get answers, only the other rows do the job. Our comparison of 3D and video avatars covers the differences beyond price.

Worked example: what you'd pay per month

Real-time video avatars charge by the minute, because each conversation keeps a GPU busy on the provider's side. A 3D avatar is drawn by the visitor's own device, so that cost doesn't grow with every conversation, and a package can include thousands of minutes. Here is what the published prices come to, taking the cheapest plan at each volume:

To picture those volumes: if the average conversation lasts 3 minutes (our assumption; yours will differ), 2,000 minutes is about 670 conversations a month.

The table leaves out one-time costs, so here's the first year in full:

Where the lines cross. Anam is the cheapest per-minute option here: it costs less than a Lobbyface package in year one below about 1,400 minutes a month, and from year two, with the setup fee paid, below about 800. Tavus costs less only below about 300 minutes in year one and about 200 after that, apart from a short stretch just above 500 minutes in year one, where you'd move up from Starter to Pro. The Pro column uses the $999 setup; with your own 3D model it's $599, or $2,147 for the first year.

These compare the fees, not the whole project. The video columns are API prices: you still need to build or buy the website widget, connect your knowledge and maintain it. Lobbyface's monthly fee covers hosting, AI and voice, up to the minutes in the package, and its packages include the character, the knowledge setup and embedding on your site, with lead capture and booking from the Pro package up. Lobbyface prices are "from" prices, confirmed after a short call, so if you expect more minutes than a package includes, ask about it then.

What makes an AI avatar cost more

Whichever type you choose, the same things push the price up:

• The character. A ready-made character in your colours is cheapest. A custom-designed 3D character costs more, and a cinematic MetaHuman-quality one more again. If you already have a 3D model with ARKit blend shapes, you can skip part of that: Lobbyface's Pro setup drops from $999 to $599. Video avatars have their own version: Synthesia charges $1,000 a year for a studio-recorded custom avatar.
• Where it renders. A character drawn in the visitor's browser needs no GPU of yours. One rendered in Unreal Engine and streamed to a screen pays for GPU hours for as long as it's on.
• Knowledge. An avatar that answers from your website is quick to set up. One that needs a cleaned-up knowledge base takes more work, and somebody has to keep it current.
• Integrations. Booking systems, CRMs, product catalogues and handover to staff are usually the largest custom items.
• Languages and voices. Check that each language you need has a good voice, and whether a cloned or custom voice costs extra.
• Speed to launch. A Lobbyface Starter host takes about 2 weeks, a custom character 4 to 6 weeks, and a cinematic one 10 to 14 weeks. Self-serve video APIs can start the same day, though a finished integration takes longer.

Costs that don't appear on the pricing page

Ask about these before you compare two quotes:

• Overage. What does the 1,001st minute cost? On a popular month it can matter more than the plan price. D-ID, for example, rounds minutes up to 15 seconds and lets unused ones expire each month.
• Billing rounding and minimums. Tavus rounds to the nearest 6 seconds and charges at least 30 seconds per conversation, so many very short chats cost more than their minutes suggest.
• Simultaneous sessions. Plans cap how many people can talk at once. Anam's $49 plan allows 3, and its $299 plan allows 5. A busy launch or trade show can hit the ceiling.
• Conversation length limits. Anam's lower plans cap a single conversation at 5 or 10 minutes.
• Custom avatar slots. Tavus plans include 1 to 15 custom face slots. Check what an extra one costs.
• Upkeep. Prices, services and opening hours change. Budget a little staff time each month to keep the avatar's answers right, or check that your provider covers it.
• Compliance. In the EU, visitors must be told they're talking to an AI, and personal data needs a proper basis. See AI avatars, the EU AI Act and GDPR.
• Phones. A heavy 3D scene that crashes on an iPhone costs you visitors rather than money, but it still costs. Ask to test the demo on an older phone.

How much does it cost to build your own 3D AI avatar?

Building your own has no price tag, but it does have a shopping list. A talking 3D avatar needs:

1. A 3D character with a skeleton and ARKit face shapes, bought, generated or modelled.
2. An AI model to write the answers, paid by usage or run on your own hardware.
3. Speech recognition, if visitors can talk to it.
4. A voice, either a paid service or an open-source model such as Kokoro.
5. Lip sync to move the mouth. Our lip sync API, now in early access, lists plans from $6.99 a month for 300 minutes to $159 for 10,000, and open-source options exist too.
6. The application around it: the web player, knowledge retrieval, gestures, emotions, lead capture and monitoring.

The services are the small part. Most of the cost is engineering time, especially on the details that decide whether it feels alive: answering quickly, and staying up on phones. We've written up what that took for Riya, on response time and iPhone memory. Building makes sense if the avatar is your product or you already have a 3D team. If it's a feature on your website, buying is usually cheaper.

Which should you choose?

• You need videos, not conversations: a pre-recorded tool, from about $19 a month.
• You're testing the idea at low volume and have developers to integrate it: a real-time video API.
• You want a live host under your brand and expect steady traffic: a managed 3D avatar, with minutes included in the monthly fee.
• You need a flagship screen or event presence: a cinematic character, rendered in a game engine.
• The avatar is your product: build it, or license the parts.

To get a realistic number, estimate your monthly conversations first: take your monthly visitors, assume a small share will talk, and multiply by a few minutes each. Then price that volume on each option, and ask every vendor the questions above. Our guide to adding an AI avatar to a website lists the other things to check, and our overview of interactive AI avatars compares the main vendors.

Our own prices are on the packages section. If you'd like a figure for your business, book a call and we'll confirm it, or watch Riya at work first.