How to Use ByteDance Seedance 2: 4K, 21:9 and Exact Credit Costs

Seedance 2 is ByteDance’s flagship video model on VdoBloom: clips of any whole-second length from 4 to 15 seconds, four resolution tiers up to native 4K, and six aspect ratios including cinema-wide 21:9, from either a text prompt or a starting image. It is also the most expensive way to be careless on the platform — a 10-second 4K render costs 827 credits, about $41, while the identical prompt drafted at 480p costs 76 credits, about $3.80. Learning Seedance 2 is mostly learning to spend the second number before the first.

What Seedance 2 is best at

Seedance 2 has the widest spec sheet of any ByteDance model in VdoBloom’s catalog, and the Seedance family carries a 4.9 rating in the directory. Three capabilities justify choosing it over cheaper models:

• Native 4K. It is one of very few models on the platform with a true 4K tier. That matters for anything viewed large: a landing-page hero loop, a trailer beat, a clip destined for a screen behind a stage.
• 21:9 cinema-wide. Most video generators offer 16:9 and 9:16 and stop. 21:9 is the frame that reads as film without any grading trick, and Seedance 2 generates it natively rather than cropping down to it.
• Single-second duration control across 4 to 15 seconds. Twelve lengths, each one generated at the length you asked for. If your cut needs 11 seconds, you get 11 seconds.

It handles both text-to-video and image-to-video from the same page, so one model covers a written scene description and an animated key visual. If you are animating a photograph of a real person, you must have that person’s consent before generating.

Where it is not the right answer is volume work. The 1080p and 4K tiers are priced for finals, not for exploration, and its content filtering carries the MODERATE label — standard moderation comparable to mainstream providers, a step stricter than the HOT label on Seedance 1.5 Pro.

Real specs

Specification	Seedance 2
Inputs	Text prompt or starting image
Durations	4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 seconds
Resolutions	480p, 720p, 1080p, 4K
Aspect ratios	16:9, 9:16, 1:1, 4:3, 3:4, 21:9
Content label	MODERATE
Family rating	4.9

Exact credit costs

Dollar figures below convert at the Lite plan rate of $15 for 300 credits, so 1 credit is $0.05. These are the real table values, not estimates, and the same numbers apply to text-to-video and image-to-video at 480p, 720p and 1080p.

Resolution	4 s	5 s	8 s	10 s	15 s
480p	31 cr / $1.55	38 cr / $1.90	61 cr / $3.05	76 cr / $3.80	113 cr / $5.65
720p	66 cr / $3.30	82 cr / $4.10	131 cr / $6.55	163 cr / $8.15	244 cr / $12.20
1080p	162 cr / $8.10	203 cr / $10.15	325 cr / $16.25	405 cr / $20.25	608 cr / $30.40
4K	331 cr / $16.55	414 cr / $20.70	662 cr / $33.10	827 cr / $41.35	1240 cr / $62.00
4K with a reference video	204 cr / $10.20	255 cr / $12.75	407 cr / $20.35	509 cr / $25.45	763 cr / $38.15

The pattern worth memorising: 720p is roughly double 480p, 1080p is roughly two and a half times 720p, and 4K is roughly double 1080p. The one discount in the table is the last row — when a reference video is supplied, the 4K tier is billed meaningfully lower, because the upstream provider charges less for that path. Every other tier prices image-to-video identically to text-to-video.

VdoBloom shows the exact credit cost for your chosen duration, resolution and ratio before every generation, so you never commit to a 4K render by accident. New accounts get 10 free credits with no card — not enough for a Seedance 2 run, which is a fair reason to spend those credits on a cheaper family member first. Subscriptions start at $15 per month for 300 credits, one-time packs start at $2.49 for 75 credits that never expire, and paid plans download watermark-free with commercial rights. See the pricing page for the full ladder, including the cheaper annual rates.

How to prompt Seedance 2 well

Seedance 2 rewards specificity about the camera far more than it rewards adjectives about mood. Build the prompt in this order: subject, action, camera behaviour, lighting, environment.

• One action per clip. Twelve duration options tempt people into writing three-beat scenes. Do not. Generate the beats separately at the exact lengths your edit needs and cut them together — that is what per-second control is for.
• State the camera move and its speed. Slow push in, static locked-off, orbit right at walking pace. An unspecified camera is an invented camera.
• Choose the ratio before the prompt. A 21:9 prompt should describe a wide environment with something at the edges of frame. Writing a tight portrait description into a 21:9 render wastes two thirds of the image.
• Keep the prompt identical between draft and final. Changing wording at the same time you change resolution means you cannot tell which change caused the difference.
• Long clips want slow motion design. At 14 and 15 seconds, a single continuous move holds together; rapid action drifts.

Tested prompt starting points live in the Seedance prompt collection, and the Seedance effects tab has ready-made photo-motion templates if you would rather not write one.

A worked example

Target: a 21:9 hero loop for a landing page, 8 seconds, delivered at 4K.

1. Open the image-to-video tab and select Seedance 2 from the Seedance family in the picker.
2. Set aspect ratio 21:9, resolution 480p, duration 8 seconds. Cost preview: 61 credits.
3. Prompt: a lone cyclist rides across a salt flat at dawn, wide empty horizon, low pink sun behind them, camera tracks alongside at a steady pace, long lens compression, fine dust lifting from the tyres.
4. Run it twice at 480p — 122 credits, about $6.10 — and pick the composition that works.
5. Optionally confirm at 720p for 131 credits before committing.
6. Re-run the winning prompt unchanged at 4K, 8 seconds, 21:9: 662 credits, about $33.10.

Total: 784 credits for two drafts and one 4K final. Three 4K rerolls instead would have cost 1,986 credits, roughly $99. The drafting discipline is the whole cost story on this model.

When to pick a different model

You need	Pick instead	Why
Cheap iteration in the same frame shapes	Seedance 2 Fast	Identical durations and all six ratios, capped at 720p, faster returns
High-volume throwaway clips	Seedance 2 Mini	The cheapest and fastest of the family, 480p and 720p only
Clips longer than 15 seconds	Seedance 2.5	Extends the ladder to 30 seconds
More flexible content filtering	Seedance 1.5 Pro	Carries the HOT label rather than MODERATE, at up to 1080p

Because Fast and Mini share Seedance 2’s exact duration ladder and all six aspect ratios, a composition proven on either transfers to the flagship without re-framing. That symmetry is the intended workflow: draft on the cheap sibling, print on Seedance 2. The rest of the lineup is in the model directory.

Frequently asked questions

How much does a Seedance 2 video cost?

From 31 credits for a 4-second 480p clip to 1,240 credits for a 15-second 4K one. Common points: 5 seconds at 720p is 82 credits (about $4.10), 10 seconds at 1080p is 405 credits (about $20.25), and 8 seconds at 4K is 662 credits (about $33.10), converting at the Lite rate of $15 for 300 credits.

Does Seedance 2 really output 4K?

Yes, 4K is the top of its four resolution tiers, above 480p, 720p and 1080p. It is the reason to choose this model over its Fast and Mini siblings, both of which stop at 720p.

Is image-to-video cheaper than text-to-video?

At 480p, 720p and 1080p the cost is identical. The only difference appears at 4K, where generations supplied with a reference video are billed lower — 407 credits instead of 662 for an 8-second clip, for example.

What aspect ratios does Seedance 2 support?

Six: 16:9, 9:16, 1:1, 4:3, 3:4 and 21:9. The 21:9 cinema-wide frame is native, not a crop, and few video models generate it at all.

How strict is Seedance 2’s content filter?

It carries the MODERATE label, meaning standard filtering comparable to mainstream video providers. Commercial, editorial and hero-shot work passes normally. If a concept keeps getting refused, Seedance 1.5 Pro is the family’s HOT-labeled option with more flexible filtering; explicit and illegal content stays blocked on every model.

Can I generate a 7-second or 11-second clip?

Yes. Every whole-second length from 4 to 15 is selectable, which means you generate clips at edit length instead of trimming a fixed 5- or 10-second render.