# LiveAvatar

> Real-time Avatar API. Product-ready on Day 1. Minutes to integrate, scale with cost-efficiency and production-grade avatar realism.

LiveAvatar is HeyGen's real-time AI avatar API platform. It enables developers to integrate lifelike, interactive digital humans into their applications — avatars that listen, respond, and speak back in real time with natural lip-sync, expressions, and gestures over WebRTC.

## Quick Facts

- Company: HeyGen (https://www.heygen.com)
- Product: LiveAvatar (https://www.liveavatar.com)
- Type: Real-time avatar streaming API
- API Base URL: https://api.liveavatar.com/v1
- Docs: https://docs.liveavatar.com
- App / Dashboard: https://app.liveavatar.com
- SDK (npm): @heygen/liveavatar-web-sdk
- SDK source: https://github.com/heygen-com/liveavatar-web-sdk
- Transport: WebRTC via LiveKit
- Auth: API key via X-API-KEY header

## Who It's For

Developers building real-time avatar experiences into products — their own, their clients', or their company's. Common use cases include customer support agents, language learning tutors, sales training, interactive presentations, and AI-powered onboarding.

## Integration Modes

### FULL Mode
HeyGen provides everything: LLM (OpenAI 4o-mini), TTS (ElevenLabs Flash v2.5), ASR (Deepgram / AssemblyAI), and avatar streaming infrastructure. You configure the avatar, voice, and knowledge context. Best for fast prototyping and production with minimal setup.

- You configure: avatar_id, voice_id, context_id, language
- HeyGen manages: ASR, LLM, TTS, avatar rendering, WebRTC room
- Credit cost: 1 credit = 30 seconds of streaming

### LITE Mode (formerly Custom Mode)
HeyGen provides only the avatar streaming layer. You bring your own LLM, TTS, and ASR. Maximum flexibility for custom AI pipelines.

- You manage: STT, LLM, TTS, orchestration
- HeyGen manages: avatar rendering, WebRTC streaming
- Credit cost: 1 credit = 1 minute of streaming

## Core API Flow

1. Create session token: POST /v1/sessions/token (with X-API-KEY header)
2. Start session: POST /v1/sessions/start (with Bearer session_token)
3. Receive LiveKit room URL and token for WebRTC connection
4. Interact via events and callbacks throughout the session lifecycle

## Key API Endpoints

- POST /v1/sessions/token — Create authenticated session token
- POST /v1/sessions/start — Start a session, returns LiveKit room credentials
- GET /v1/sessions — List active sessions
- GET /v1/avatars/public — List available public avatars
- GET /v1/avatars/custom — List your custom avatars
- Contexts (knowledge bases) managed via dashboard or API

## Avatars

- Public avatars: Library of pre-built 1080p avatars across age, ethnicity, and style
- Custom avatars: Create from 2 minutes of continuous video footage (720p on Essential, 1080p on Business)
- Image-to-avatar: Create from a photo (with video generation step)
- Non-human / 3D characters: Supported with manual review

## Pricing

### Free — $0/mo
- 10 credits included
- Full 1080p preset avatar library
- Full API and integration access
- Max 2 minutes per session
- Max 1 concurrency
- Watermark included

### Starter — $19/mo
- 150 credits included
- Everything in Free, plus:
- Pay-as-you-go overage at $0.12/credit, billed in $20 increments, no caps
- Max 5 minutes per session
- Max 1 concurrency

### Essential — $99/mo
- 1,000 credits included
- Everything in Starter, plus:
- 720p custom avatar add-on
- Pay-as-you-go overage at $0.11/credit, billed in $100 increments, no caps
- Max 20 minutes per session
- Max 20 concurrency
- Watermark removed

### Business — Custom pricing
- Everything in Essential, plus:
- 1080p custom avatars
- Large-scale credit volume
- Max 60 minutes per session
- Starting from 100 concurrency
- Dedicated high-priority support

## Key Features

- Real-time two-way conversation (voice, video, text)
- Natural lip-sync, facial expressions, body language
- Sub-second latency optimized infrastructure
- Bring Your Own LLM/TTS/ASR (Lite mode)
- Knowledge base / context injection
- Push-to-talk support
- Sandbox mode for development (conserve credits)
- Event-driven architecture with callbacks
- Custom avatars from 2 min of footage
- Image-to-avatar creation
- Public avatar library (diverse styles)
- Background removal (via API, advanced)

## Technology

- Avatar rendering: Proprietary CPU-based model (cost-efficient, scalable)
- Transport: WebRTC via LiveKit
- Default ASR: Deepgram, AssemblyAI
- Default TTS: ElevenLabs Flash v2.5
- Default LLM (Full mode): OpenAI 4o-mini
- Scalability: Supports thousands of concurrent sessions

## Security & Compliance

- SOC 2 certified infrastructure
- Consent-based avatar creation (video + consent verification required)
- Separate credit system from HeyGen main platform
- API key management via dashboard

## Documentation Map

- Overview: https://docs.liveavatar.com/
- Quickstart: https://docs.liveavatar.com/index#two-development-paths
- Sandbox Mode: https://docs.liveavatar.com/docs/sandbox-mode
- FULL Mode Guide: https://docs.liveavatar.com/docs/full-mode/overview
- FULL Mode Lifecycle: https://docs.liveavatar.com/docs/full-mode/lifecycle
- FULL Mode Config: https://docs.liveavatar.com/docs/full-mode/configuration
- FULL Mode Events: https://docs.liveavatar.com/docs/full-mode/events
- Push-to-Talk: https://docs.liveavatar.com/docs/full-mode/push-to-talk
- LITE Mode Guide: https://docs.liveavatar.com/docs/lite-mode/overview
- LITE Mode Lifecycle: https://docs.liveavatar.com/docs/lite-mode/lifecycle
- LITE Mode Config: https://docs.liveavatar.com/docs/lite-mode/configuration
- LITE Mode Events: https://docs.liveavatar.com/docs/lite-mode/events
- Integrations & Plugins: https://docs.liveavatar.com/docs/lite-mode/integrations
- API Reference: https://docs.liveavatar.com/api-reference/sessions/create-session-token
- Changelog: https://docs.liveavatar.com/changelog
- Migration from Interactive Avatar: https://docs.liveavatar.com/docs/faq/migration-guide
- API Key Setup: https://docs.liveavatar.com/docs/faq/api-key
- Firewall Config: https://docs.liveavatar.com/docs/faq/firewall
- Credits & Subscriptions: https://docs.liveavatar.com/docs/faq/credits
- Video Avatars: https://docs.liveavatar.com/docs/core-concepts/avatars#video-avatars
- Image to Video Avatars: https://docs.liveavatar.com/docs/core-concepts/avatars#image-avatars
- Custom Avatar FAQ: https://docs.liveavatar.com/docs/core-concepts/avatars#custom-avatars

## Ecosystem Integrations

- LiveKit Agents plugin: https://docs.livekit.io/agents/models/avatar/plugins/liveavatar/
- npm SDK: https://www.npmjs.com/package/@heygen/liveavatar-web-sdk
- GitHub SDK source: https://github.com/heygen-com/liveavatar-web-sdk
- GitHub demo: https://github.com/heygen-com/liveavatar-web-sdk/tree/master/apps/demo

## Support

- Help Center: https://help.heygen.com
- API Support: https://docs.liveavatar.com/discuss
- Email: support@heygen.com
- LiveAvatar FAQ: https://help.heygen.com/en/articles/12758866-liveavatar-faq
- Pricing FAQ: https://help.heygen.com/en/articles/10060327-heygen-api-liveavatar-pricing-subscriptions-explained

## Customer Success Stories

- Reid Hoffman's digital twin: 50M+ impressions
- edYOU: 3,000%+ growth with personalized learning
- Zeligate: 27 hours saved per hire in recruitment
- Speakology: Language learning across 600 schools
- Copient AI: 2,500+ hours of sales training scaled