Every talking avatar has a cost to run, and for most of them the cost is counted in minutes. That is not greed; it is how they are built. This article explains how a NetShow Alive face is built instead, why that brings its cost to run down to $0.00 per minute, and, just as important, what that figure does not cover.
The figure
Here it is, in the words we use for it:
NetShow Alive: the living face runs in your visitor's browser — $0.00 per minute.
The face is drawn on your visitor's own device from its package, so no video stream is rented by the minute. Its voice is a separate model call and is not part of this figure. This is what the face costs to run, not a NetShow price.
Every sentence in that stanza is doing a job, and the rest of this article takes them one at a time.
Why streamed avatars are metered
A streamed avatar is video. A server somewhere renders every frame of the face, usually on a graphics card, and sends the result to the visitor as a stream, the way a video call works. Every minute the face is on screen, that server is busy, and busy servers cost money. So the vendor counts minutes, and the price follows the minutes.
For comparison, here is one vendor's own published rate for exactly this kind of avatar, as we read it on their public page:
| Service | Per minute | Plan | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| HeyGen LiveAvatar | $0.095 – $0.19 | Essential plan, pay-as-you-go overage | liveavatar.com, as of 2026-09-23 |
That is a streamed video-avatar service, as it publishes its per-minute rate. Enterprise rates may be lower. We show a vendor's figure only when its public pricing page states one, with the page and the day we read it; where a page does not state a per-minute figure, we leave the vendor out rather than guess.
The point is not that one vendor is expensive. The point is that when a face is rented by the minute, every minute of attention is a cost, and the natural thing to do with a cost is to keep it small: hide the avatar behind a button, cut the session short, show it on one page instead of every page.
Why a NetShow Alive face is not
A NetShow Alive face is not video. It is a small package, a description of the face and how it moves, and a small program that your visitor's own browser runs to draw it. The browser draws every frame on the visitor's device. Nothing is rendered on our side and nothing is streamed.
That is the whole reason for the $0.00. There is no server busy drawing the face, so there is no minute to count. An hour on screen costs what a minute costs, and a thousand visitors cost what one does. The Alive page puts it plainly: rendered, not streamed. Every tile on that page wears its own clock, so you can watch the minutes run and cost nothing.
This is not a secret technique, and we say so on the same page. Browser rendering is well understood, and open-source libraries can draw a free face too. What NetShow adds is everything around the face: the agent's identity, memory, voice, tools, the marketplace, a studio for every look and a two-line embed. The rendering is free everywhere. The living agent is the product.
What the figure does not cover
Being exact about the $0.00 means being exact about what sits outside it.
The voice is a separate model call. When an agent speaks with a model voice, that voice is generated by a model, and that is real work with a real cost. It is not part of the $0.00. Where an agent uses the browser's own speech instead, the dock says so, "voice: local · $0", and that voice costs nothing because your device produces it.
The thinking is the agent's work. When your agent answers with a hosted model, that model is working. The plans count that work, as conversations a month, and the plans page shows what each plan includes.
It is not a NetShow price. The $0.00 is what the face costs to run. It does not replace or restate any plan, and it is not a discount on one. The plans are on the plans page, and nowhere else.
So the honest sentence is: you pay for what your agent thinks and says, never for it being seen.
What changes when the face is free to run
When the face costs nothing to keep on screen, the decisions that minute-billing forces go away.
It can be on every page. Not just the contact page, not just a campaign landing page. On our own site the dock follows you from the home page to the Studio to the plans to this blog.
It can say hello first. A metered face has every reason to wait until someone asks for it. A free one can greet every visitor, because a greeting that nobody answers costs nothing.
It can stay as long as the visitor does. No session limit to protect a budget. The face is there for the whole visit, and the next one.
It can go on a big screen. Presentation Mode puts a public agent full screen on a TV, a kiosk or the projector at the back of a room, and the Alive page notes that it is still $0 a minute however long the doors stay open.
Where the figure comes from
The stanza above follows a few rules we hold ourselves to: say "the face" or "the avatar", never imply the talking is free; show a vendor's figure only with its source, its plan and the day it was read; re-read a figure before it is shown again. If a vendor's page changes, the row changes or goes. Nothing on this page asks you to take our word for a number we have not shown you the source of.
FAQ
Is the NetShow Alive face really $0.00 per minute?
Yes, to run. The face is drawn in your visitor's browser from its package, so no video stream is rented and no server draws it. An hour on screen costs what a minute costs: nothing.
Is the voice free too?
Not always. A model voice is a separate model call and is not part of the $0.00. The browser's own speech is free because your device produces it, and the dock labels it "voice: local · $0" so you can tell which one is speaking.
Why show another company's figure at all?
Because a claim of "cheaper" without a number is not worth much. We show one vendor's published per-minute rate, with its plan, its page and the day we read it, and we leave out any vendor whose page does not state one.
Does the $0.00 mean NetShow is free?
No. It means the face costs nothing to run. NetShow has a free plan and larger plans, and the plans page shows what each includes. The $0.00 is a cost to run, not a price.
Put a live avatar on your business
Everything above is what a NetShow Alive face does on our own pages, and your business can have the same. The AI Front Desk is a living AI employee with a face and a voice. It greets every visitor to your website by voice first and says plainly that it is an AI (see a host greet). It answers from your own information and books the next step: a call, a visit or a callback request. We build it for you, from $699, with setup quoted: your exact price is set in writing after the build call.
If you would rather start on your own, open the plans page. The free plan and the paid plans are listed there, and you can put a face on your first agent today.
Next step: Put a live avatar on your business