We show that if $λ_1,\ldots,λ_k$ are algebraic numbers, then $$|A+λ_1\cdot A+\dots+λ_k\cdot A|\geq H(λ_1,\ldots,λ_k)|A|-o(|A|)$$ for all finite subsets $A$ of $\mathbb{C}$, where $H(λ_1,\ldots,λ_k)$ is an explicit constant that is best possible. The proof combines several ingredients, including a lower bound estimate on the measure of sums of linear transformations of compact sets in $\mathbb{R}^d$, a variant of Freiman's theorem tuned specifically to sums of dilates and the analysis of what we call lattice density, which succinctly captures how a subset of $\mathbb{Z}^d$ is arranged relative to a given flag of lattices. As an application, we revisit the study of sums of linear transformations of finite sets, in particular proving an asymptotically best possible lower bound for sums of two linear transformations.