Tavus describes itself as a human computing company: an AI research lab building foundational models that let machines see, hear, understand, and respond to people in real time, so using a computer feels like talking to a person. Its flagship abstraction is the PAL — a real-time video agent with a face that expresses emotion, a natural speaking voice, defined personality and memory, and practical skills such as presenting slides, generating visuals on the fly, driving a browser, and joining video calls.
Developers reach Tavus through the CVI (Conversational Video Interface) API, which is the core building block for embedding a live, talking avatar into a product — AI SDRs, healthcare intake agents, interview practice, and learning-and-development coaches are among the named use cases. A PAL Maker provides a no-code route to build and deploy an agent, and an Enterprise tier covers larger rollouts. Tavus also publishes its own research models, including Phoenix-4.5, Raven-1, and Sparrow-2, with Griffin previewed as a real-time video model that reportedly passed a video Turing test.
The company positions itself as pioneering human computing since 2020 and says its platform powers more than 150,000 developers. Two account types exist: a Developer account for teams integrating the API, and a PALs account for individuals who want an AI companion to talk with. Pricing spans a free/self-serve starting point plus paid and enterprise plans — check the pricing page for current tiers.