Sume API pricing: 0% markup on video models
Sume API's founder explains a 0% markup policy across models, argues it is sustainable, and calls out Kie AI and Higgsfield for markup and credit tactics.
Plans on the pricing of Sume API: 1. We're keeping 0% markup. We've checked our prices against the foundation model providers more than 20 times. If you find any model where our price is different from what the foundation model company charges, tell me and we'll fix it. 2. "Is this business model actually sustainable?" Yes. Even at 0% markup we're not losing money, so keeping it is not a problem. Because of the competition, video model prices will converge to 0% markup anyway. We're just doing it first. Our plan is to bring in users by providing models, and later offer a separate SaaS product subscription that covers marketing workflows. So markup on video models stays at 0%. 3. "Kie AI is cheaper on some models?" If you look at Kie AI, they act like they're giving big discounts on cheap models, but they put a pretty big markup on frontier models like Seedance. My guess is they heavily discount some low-usage models to look cheap, bring users in with that branding, then make their net profit from the markup on Seedance and others. We hate that kind of trick and care about transparency, so it's 0% markup on everything. No tricks. As you know, other providers play games. The "most accessible" pricing only gets you that price if you subscribe annually to credits that expire every month. And Higgsfield looks cheap with their discount events, but when you buy top-up credits, they take a huge markup. We learned trust is the most important thing in business. As an early startup, we're promising 0% markup to earn that trust. In return, just recommend us to your friends!
This post quotes another post: x.com/sumelabs/status/2113520551625195811