Published: 3 min read
Stream economics: minutes, commission and how to calculate payback
The cost of a live hour on Starter, Pro and Business, how the sales commission works, and the revenue at which the avatar pays for itself.
By Avatar team · Billingpricingeconomicsminutes
The platform's pricing model is "base + overage minutes + commission on sales". It looks more complex than a flat subscription, but it reflects what you actually pay for: time on air and results. Let's go through the numbers.
What the invoice consists of
| Starter | Pro | Business | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly base | $99 | $399 | $999 |
| Minutes included | 600 | 3,000 | 12,000 |
| Overage per minute | not available | $0.12 | $0.10 |
| Commission on platform sales | 2% | 2% | 1.5% |
| Avatars / social accounts | 1 / 1 | 3 / 5 | 10 / unlimited |
In roubles: 9,900 ₽, 39,900 ₽ and 99,900 ₽, with overage at 15 ₽, 12 ₽ and 10 ₽ per minute. Rouble prices are a separate price list and are never converted from the dollar rate.
What a live hour costs
Divide the base by the included minutes:
- Starter: $99 / 600 min ≈ $0.165 per minute, about $9.90 per hour. Overage is disabled on Starter: the platform warns at 80% of the quota and stops the stream at 100%. That is deliberate protection against a surprise invoice on the entry plan.
- Pro: $399 / 3,000 min ≈ $0.133 per minute, about $8 per hour. Overage is $0.12 per minute, so an extra hour costs $7.20.
- Business: $999 / 12,000 min ≈ $0.083 per minute, about $5 per hour. An extra hour is $6.
Only minutes of actual broadcasting are metered. Onboarding test streams, preparation and console time without a stream are free.
How the commission works
Commission applies only to orders paid through channels connected to the platform: Stripe Connect or your own YooKassa shop. If the avatar sends the viewer to an external product page in your online store, there is no commission — the platform simply does not see that payment.
Example: $80,000 of orders paid through the platform in a month. On Pro the commission is $1,600; on Business, $1,200.
Calculating payback
Take a clothing store on Pro: three two-hour streams a week, roughly 26 hours or 1,560 minutes a month — within the quota.
- Base: $399.
- Suppose an average stream brings $6,000 in paid orders, $72,000 a month.
- 2% commission: $1,440.
- Total to the platform: $1,839 on $72,000 of revenue, i.e. 2.6% of turnover.
Break-even on the subscription at a 40% margin: $399 / 0.4 ≈ $1,000 of monthly revenue. Anything above that is a result, not a tool expense. For comparison, a human host for 26 hours of streaming plus preparation usually costs more than the base fee alone.
When to move to the next plan
A simple rule: if you regularly hit the minute quota, price the overage. On Pro an extra 1,000 minutes cost $120, and the gap between Pro and Business is $600. Upgrading makes sense when overage consistently exceeds 5,000 minutes a month, or when you need more than three avatars, multiple stores and API access.
Mid-period upgrades are prorated for the remaining days. Downgrades take effect from the next period, and the minutes you have already paid for do not expire before it ends.
About the trial
The trial lasts 7 days and includes 300 minutes — enough for two or three full streams. A card is attached right away, but the first charge happens only when the trial ends. You can cancel in Billing with one click, no emails to support.