Express vs Studio — Which One Should You Pick?

Avatune has two training tiers: Express and Studio. I get asked which one to pick all the time, so here's the short version.

The numbers

With 6 photos, that's 420 vs 650 training steps — about 55% more training with Studio.

More steps means the AI spends more time studying the details of your face. Jawline shape, how light hits your skin, hair texture, eye color. Studio picks up things Express approximates.

Start with Express

For most people, Express is the right call. The quality is good — genuinely good, not "good for a cheap option" good. It handles social media avatars, Discord profiles, and casual use perfectly.

It's also what makes the free tier work. You get 30 credits when you sign up. Express costs 20, leaving you 10 for portraits. That's enough to try 10 different styles and actually see what Avatune does before spending anything.

When Studio is worth the extra 10 credits

Studio shines when two things are true: you have great input photos and you care about the fine details.

If you're uploading sharp, well-lit photos with varied angles, Studio will noticeably outperform Express. The extra training iterations have real detail to work with.

If your photos are average selfies all taken in the same room? Express and Studio will look nearly identical. More training steps can't extract detail that isn't in the photos.

Don't pick Studio to fix bad photos. Pick it to get the most out of good ones.

The common pattern

Most people who end up loving Studio do this:

1. Train an Express model first to see how Avatune works
2. Realize they want better quality
3. Take better training photos (see what photos to upload)
4. Train a Studio model with those photos

Both models stay in your account. You can switch between them and compare.

Bottom line

Start with Express. If you like the results and want to push the quality further, Studio is there. But Express alone is enough for most people — don't overthink it.