ByteDance V1 Lite Image-to-Video Pricing: 4 to 40 Credits Per Clip

ByteDance V1 Lite Image-to-Video costs 4, 8, 9, 18, 20 or 40 credits per clip on VdoBloom — that is the complete price list, because the model has exactly six tiers: 480p, 720p or 1080p at 5 or 10 seconds. At the Lite plan rate of $0.05 per credit, that works out to $0.20 for the cheapest clip and $2.00 for the most expensive one. There are no other variables: V1 Lite does not expose aspect ratio settings, so nothing else can move the bill.

The complete price table

V1 Lite is strictly image-to-video. Every generation starts from a photo you upload, with your text describing the motion. Because the option set is so small, the entire pricing structure fits in one table.

Resolution	Duration	Credits	Cost at $0.05/credit	Per second
480p	5 s	4	$0.20	0.8 credits/s
480p	10 s	8	$0.40	0.8 credits/s
720p	5 s	9	$0.45	1.8 credits/s
720p	10 s	18	$0.90	1.8 credits/s
1080p	5 s	20	$1.00	4.0 credits/s
1080p	10 s	40	$2.00	4.0 credits/s

Doubling the duration exactly doubles the credits at every resolution — there is no discount for going long and no premium either. The interesting jump is vertical. Moving from 480p to 720p costs 2.25× more; moving from 720p to 1080p costs another 2.2×. A 1080p clip is five times the price of the same clip at 480p.

That five-to-one gap is the whole cost strategy for this model, and it is why V1 Lite keeps a 480p tier at all when its sibling does not. A 4-credit test render is nearly free; a 40-credit finish render is not.

What a credit is worth

One credit is $0.05 on the entry subscription — Lite at $15/month for 300 credits. Three other routes get you a cheaper credit or no cost at all:

• Annual Lite, $10/month — about $0.033 per credit, so a 1080p 10-second clip drops from $2.00 to about $1.33.
• Credit packs from $2.49 for 75 credits — about $0.033 per credit, and they never expire. Good fit for occasional image animation.
• Free signup credits — 10 credits with no card. That is two 480p 5-second animations with 2 credits to spare, or one 720p 5-second clip.

See the pricing page for the full plan ladder. Paid plans also remove the watermark and carry commercial rights, which matters if you are animating product shots — the details are covered on the no-watermark generator page.

How many clips each plan buys

Credits available	480p 5 s (4 cr)	720p 5 s (9 cr)	720p 10 s (18 cr)	1080p 10 s (40 cr)
10 (free signup)	2	1	0	0
75 ($2.49 pack)	18	8	4	1
300 (Lite, $15/mo)	75	33	16	7
2,000 (Pro tier, $49/mo annual)	500	222	111	50

For a small online store animating listing photos, the Lite plan covers 75 short 480p clips or 33 sharper 720p ones each month — enough for most catalogues. For an agency delivering 1080p, budget roughly 20 credits per finished 5-second asset plus a couple of cheap tests, so about 28 credits per delivered clip in practice.

The cost-efficient workflow

Because the 480p tier is one fifth the price of 1080p, the sensible pattern is a two-pass job:

1. Pass one, 480p, 5 seconds, 4 credits. Upload the still and describe the motion. You are checking one thing: does the model move the subject the way you asked, or does it distort a face, hand or logo? Resolution does not tell you that — motion does.
2. Pass two, 1080p, 20 or 40 credits. Once the motion description works, re-run it at delivery resolution with the same image and the same wording.

Three failed 480p attempts plus one good 1080p render costs 32 credits. Three failed attempts at 1080p alone costs 60 credits before you have anything usable. On a month of steady work that difference is the whole point of the 480p tier existing.

If your source image is not ready yet, generate it first with text to image and feed the result straight into V1 Lite. And if you would rather not write a motion prompt at all, the guided effect pages such as hair flip supply tested prompt templates for common photo-motion jobs. Whenever you animate a photo of a real person, you must have that person’s consent before generating.

V1 Lite versus V1 Pro Fast: which is cheaper?

These two are the image-to-video pair from the same first ByteDance Seedance generation, and their price relationship is not what the names suggest.

Tier	V1 Lite credits	V1 Pro Fast credits	Cheaper option
480p 5 s	4	not offered	V1 Lite (only option)
720p 5 s	9	7	V1 Pro Fast
720p 10 s	18	15	V1 Pro Fast
1080p 5 s	20	15	V1 Pro Fast
1080p 10 s	40	29	V1 Pro Fast

Read that honestly: at every tier they share, V1 Pro Fast is the cheaper model — 11 credits cheaper on a 1080p 10-second clip, a 28 percent saving. V1 Lite’s advantage is the 480p tier, which Pro Fast does not offer at all. So the cost-optimal combination is to test on V1 Lite at 480p for 4 credits, then deliver on V1 Pro Fast at 1080p for 15 or 29 credits. Use V1 Lite end-to-end when 480p or 720p is your actual delivery format and you value the single-page simplicity; the full spec sheet is on the V1 Lite model page.

Frequently asked questions

What is the cheapest way to animate a photo with V1 Lite?

480p at 5 seconds, 4 credits, about $0.20 on the Lite plan or roughly $0.13 on annual billing. It is the lowest single-clip price in the model’s table.

Can V1 Lite make video from text alone?

No. It is image-to-video only — there is no text-only mode, so every generation needs an uploaded picture. Your prompt describes the motion applied to that image.

Are there durations other than 5 and 10 seconds?

No. V1 Lite offers exactly two lengths. Models elsewhere in the Seedance family provide per-second duration control if you need a length that fits an edit precisely.

Does choosing a vertical format cost more?

V1 Lite does not expose an aspect ratio control at all — output framing follows your source image. Only resolution and duration affect the price.

Do I see the price before I generate?

Yes. The credit cost of your selected resolution and duration is displayed before the job runs, and your balance is checked up front so a render never starts that you cannot pay for.