ByteDance Seedance 2.5 Pricing: Real Credit Costs Per Second

Seedance 2.5 on VdoBloom is billed per second of output: 9.2 credits per second at 480p, 20 credits per second at 720p and 36 credits per second at 1080p — so a 10-second 720p clip costs 200 credits, which is $10.00 at the Lite plan rate of $0.05 per credit. Nothing about that pricing is hidden behind a “contact us” tier or a per-model subscription. You hold one credit balance, the exact cost for the settings you have chosen is displayed before you press generate, and if the render fails the credits come back.

This page breaks down every tier of ByteDance Seedance 2.5 with the real numbers from VdoBloom’s pricing table, including the cheaper reference-video rate that most write-ups miss, and the one billing rule that can surprise you.

The credit-to-dollar conversion used here

Every figure below converts at $0.05 per credit, which is the Lite plan rate: $15 a month for 300 credits. That is the honest reference point, not the cheapest one. One-time credit packs start at $2.49 for 75 credits, which works out at roughly $0.033 per credit and never expires, and annual billing at the 2,000-credit Pro tier ($49/month) brings the effective rate down to about $0.025. In other words, the dollar figures in the tables are a ceiling for most accounts, not a floor.

Seedance 2.5 text-to-video and image-to-video pricing

Seedance 2.5 generates from 4 to 30 seconds in one-second steps — the longest duration ladder in the Seedance family — at 480p, 720p or 1080p, in six aspect ratios (16:9, 4:3, 1:1, 3:4, 9:16 and 21:9). Because billing is strictly per second, you can price any duration yourself by multiplying the rate. These are the standard rates, which apply to text prompts and to image-driven generations alike.

Resolution	Per second	5 s	10 s	15 s	30 s
480p	9.2 credits	46 cr — $2.30	92 cr — $4.60	138 cr — $6.90	276 cr — $13.80
720p	20 credits	100 cr — $5.00	200 cr — $10.00	300 cr — $15.00	600 cr — $30.00
1080p (10-bit)	36 credits	180 cr — $9.00	360 cr — $18.00	540 cr — $27.00	1080 cr — $54.00

The floor is the 4-second render: 37 credits ($1.85) at 480p, 80 credits ($4.00) at 720p and 144 credits ($7.20) at 1080p. The ceiling is a 30-second 1080p clip at 1,080 credits. That spread — roughly 29× between the cheapest and most expensive single generation — is why picking the right tier matters more on Seedance 2.5 than on almost any other model in the catalog.

The cheaper tier: generating with a reference video

Seedance 2.5 charges a materially lower per-second rate when you supply a reference video rather than starting from text or a still image. This is the tier people mean when they talk about Seedance style transfer. The rates drop to 6.8 credits per second at 480p, 15.2 at 720p and 27.4 at 1080p.

Resolution	Per second (with reference video)	5 s	10 s	15 s	30 s
480p	6.8 credits	34 cr — $1.70	68 cr — $3.40	102 cr — $5.10	204 cr — $10.20
720p	15.2 credits	76 cr — $3.80	152 cr — $7.60	228 cr — $11.40	456 cr — $22.80
1080p	27.4 credits	137 cr — $6.85	274 cr — $13.70	411 cr — $20.55	822 cr — $41.10

The rule that surprises people: on the reference-video tier, billing counts input plus output seconds, not output alone. VdoBloom measures the length of the clip you upload and charges the same per-second rate for it. So a 10-second 720p render driven by an 8-second reference video is not 152 credits — it is 15.2 × (10 + 8) = 274 credits, or $13.70. The upstream provider bills us that way, and we pass the real number through rather than quietly absorbing it or capping quality instead. Input length is capped at 30 seconds for Seedance 2.5.

The practical consequence: trim your reference clip before you upload it. Cutting a 20-second source down to the 6 seconds you actually need saves 14 seconds of billing at full rate — 213 credits at 720p, over $10 of real money on a single render.

Worked example: a 15-second vertical ad

Say you want a 15-second 9:16 product spot at 720p, from a text prompt. That is 300 credits, or $15.00 — exactly one month of Lite. Most people should not spend it that way. The sensible sequence is to draft at 480p first: three 15-second 480p passes cost 138 credits each, 414 credits total, and let you settle composition, pacing and framing. Then one 720p finish at 300 credits. Total 714 credits. Alternatively, run the drafting stage on a cheaper family member and reserve every Seedance 2.5 credit for finals.

Where the free 10 credits actually get you

New accounts get 10 credits free with no card. Be clear-eyed about what that buys on this model: nothing. The cheapest possible Seedance 2.5 generation is 37 credits, so the free balance does not reach the 4-second 480p floor. If you want to spend your free credits on the Seedance family before paying anything, use Seedance 2 Mini, where a 4-second 480p clip currently costs 6 credits — you get a real Seedance render, with a real result to judge, for free.

When a different Seedance tier is the better buy

Seedance 2.5 is not automatically the right spend. Seedance 2 tops out at 15 seconds but adds a 4K tier the 2.5 model does not have, at 82.7 credits per second (827 credits for 10 seconds). If your deliverable is short and needs genuine 4K, Seedance 2 wins on capability regardless of price. If you need anything longer than 15 seconds, or you want 10-bit 1080p colour, Seedance 2.5 is the only member of the family that offers it. And if your job is iteration volume rather than final quality, the Fast and Mini tiers exist precisely so you are not burning 36 credits a second on experiments.

Model	Max duration	Top resolution	Cheapest 10 s render
Seedance 2.5	30 s	1080p (10-bit)	92 cr — $4.60 (480p)
Seedance 2	15 s	4K	76 cr — $3.80 (480p)
Seedance 2 Fast	15 s	720p	48 cr — $2.40 (480p)
Seedance 2 Mini	15 s	720p	16 cr — $0.80 (480p)

What the credits include

A paid plan downloads Seedance 2.5 output without a watermark and with commercial rights, so the credit cost is the whole cost — there is no separate export fee, licence upgrade or resolution unlock. Credits bought in one-time packs never expire. You can start a render from the text-to-video page, and the Seedance prompt library is a good place to find prompt structures that work on this family before you spend 1080p credits testing your own. Full plan and pack details are on the pricing page.

Frequently asked questions

How much does a 10-second Seedance 2.5 video cost?

92 credits at 480p ($4.60), 200 credits at 720p ($10.00) and 360 credits at 1080p ($18.00), using the Lite rate of $0.05 per credit. With a reference video the standard rates fall to 68, 152 and 274 credits — but the length of the reference clip is added to the billed seconds.

Why is my reference-video render costing more than the table says?

Because that tier bills input plus output duration. The per-second rate is lower, but your uploaded clip counts toward the total at the same rate. Trim the source video to the shortest usable length before uploading.

What is the cheapest way to test Seedance 2.5?

A 4-second 480p render at 37 credits, or 27 credits if you are driving it with a very short reference video. Below that, drop to Seedance 2 Mini, which starts at 6 credits.

Do Seedance 2.5 credits cost less on an annual plan?

Yes. The $0.05 per credit figure used throughout this page is the Lite monthly rate. Annual billing at the 2,000-credit Pro tier brings the effective rate to roughly $0.025 per credit, which halves every dollar figure in the tables above.

Does Seedance 2.5 support vertical and cinema-wide framing?

Yes. Six aspect ratios are available at every resolution and duration: 16:9, 4:3, 1:1, 3:4, 9:16 and 21:9. Aspect ratio does not change the credit cost — only resolution and duration do.