Tavus
Tavus · Video
Tavus is an AI video platform that lets developers build realistic digital twins and real-time conversational video experiences through an API.
About Tavus
What Is Tavus
Tavus is a developer platform for AI video generation. Its core product is the Conversational Video Interface (CVI), an end-to-end pipeline that turns a language model into a face and voice you can actually talk to. You build a PAL, which is the unit Tavus uses for each digital twin, then set its Face to control how it looks and its Voice to control how it sounds.
The company positions the product around "the human layer to AI." In practice, that means teams use Tavus where a text chatbot feels too thin: screening candidates, answering customer questions, and running sales conversations. The faces are generated with Phoenix, Tavus's own model for hyper-realistic video.
The biggest limitation is access. Tavus isn't a sit-down editor you open in a browser and start dragging clips into. It's API-first, so you need a developer to build even the simplest experience. If you don't have that, the product stays out of reach.
Getting Started
- Create an account at tavus.io and grab an API key from the dashboard.
- Pick a pre-built Face and Voice, or train a custom digital twin from your own footage.
- Configure a PAL with a system prompt, knowledge, objectives, and guardrails.
- Wire up a conversational video session through the API and test it with a live conversation.
- Ship it into your app, then monitor usage and latency in the dashboard.
Product Information
A quick look at Tavus's pricing, supported platforms, and performance.
Best for
The users, tasks, and scenarios where this tool fits best.
Users
- Developers building video into a product
- Product and growth teams testing video onboarding
- Support and sales leads
Tasks
- Building a conversational video agent
- Creating a digital twin from recorded footage
- Personalizing outreach at scale
Scenarios
- Screening job candidates
- Answering customer questions on a site
- Running product demos without a person
Key features
Conversational Video Interface
CVI is the pipeline that makes real-time conversation possible. It listens, thinks through a language model, and renders a matching face and voice fast enough to feel like a real call rather than a laggy recording. You don't stitch these parts together yourself, which is the main reason the latency stays low.
Digital Twins with Phoenix
Phoenix builds the faces. You train one on your own footage and get a replica that moves and speaks like the source. For teams that need a consistent spokesperson across dozens of videos, training once and reusing beats recording each time.
Plug-and-Play Faces and Voices
Not every project needs a custom twin. Tavus ships stock Faces and Voices you can drop into a PAL in minutes, which is handy for prototypes or internal tools where realism matters less than speed.
API-First Build
Does it fit your stack? Everything runs through endpoints, so Tavus slots into whatever you already have. The docs list REST endpoints for PALs, Faces, and video sessions, and legacy persona and replica names still work for backward compatibility.
Configurable Behavior and Guardrails
A PAL does more than look the part. You give it a system prompt, knowledge sources, objectives, and guardrails that shape what it will and won't say. That control matters when the agent talks to real customers or candidates.
Realtime Interactivity
The interface supports live back-and-forth, not just canned clips. That's the difference between a video that plays and a video that answers back.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Real-time conversation, not just one-way video generation.
- Custom digital twins trained on your own footage.
- Solid API and documentation for developers who want control.
- Pre-built Faces and Voices let you prototype fast.
- Guardrails and knowledge settings keep the agent on script.
Cons
- API-first means non-developers can't really use it without help.
- Real-time video eats compute, so costs climb with usage.
- Custom twin training needs decent source footage and some setup time.
- Pricing details require a sales conversation for larger volumes.
Frequently asked questions
Tavus is used to build AI video experiences where a face talks back in real time. Common uses are candidate screening, customer support, and sales conversations, plus any product that wants a digital twin or a lifelike AI avatar instead of a text-only bot.
Related content
Explore related tools, skills, and articles for Tavus.
Tavus Alternatives
ngram 2.0
ngram · Video · Marketingngram 2.0 is an AI video generator for teams. It turns a prompt, a screen recording, or a product URL into a narrated explainer, product demo, or AI avatar video, and every scene stays editable.
OpenScreen 2
OpenScreen (open-source project) · Video · ProductivityOpenScreen 2 is a free, open-source screen recorder and demo video editor for Windows, macOS, and Linux, with automatic zooms, styled frames, local captions, and agent edits.
Skreno
Skreno · Video · ProductivitySkreno is a browser screen recorder that captures a tab, a window or your whole display, then attaches AI transcripts, summaries and console logs to one share link.