Seedance 2.5 API
ByteDance Seedance 2.5 generates up to 30 seconds of video in a single pass, takes up to 50 multimodal references, and co-generates audio with the picture.
Call it directly, or generate with it inside ChatSlide today — pick Seedance 2.5 per video, see the credit cost before you press go, and skip the API key and the polling loop.
Quick answer
The Seedance 2.5 API is ByteDance's video generation endpoint, served through Volcano Engine and authorized providers. It produces 4–30 second clips in one pass at 480p or 720p, with 1080p live from 17 August 2026 and no 4K tier, accepts text, image, video, and audio references — up to 50 multimodal inputs — and co-generates audio. Calls are asynchronous: submit a job, then poll or take a webhook. Billing is per token, not per second: a 5-second 1080p clip costs ¥18.71 (¥3.74/s) and a 30-second one about ¥112, roughly US$16.6. Only successful generations are charged.
Seedance 2.5 specifications
| Max duration | 4–30 seconds, generated in a single pass (no stitching, no extension calls) |
| Resolution | 480p and 720p; 1080p from 17 August 2026. Seedance 2.5 has no 4K tier on Volcano Engine — Seedance 2.0 does. 4K on 2.5 means an upscale step, not native generation |
| Aspect ratios | 21:9, 16:9, 4:3, 1:1, 3:4, 9:16, 9:21 |
| Reference inputs | Marketed as up to 50 multimodal references; published schemas cap them per type (≈20 images, ≈6 video clips, ≈6 audio files) |
| Audio | Co-generated with the picture via a generate_audio flag — not dubbed on afterwards |
| Camera control | 3D camera blockouts, plus a camera_fixed flag to lock the shot |
| Modes | Text-to-video, image-to-video, reference, keyframe (first/last frame), video edit and extend |
| Determinism | seed parameter (0–4294967295, or -1 for random) |
| Call pattern | Asynchronous — submit, receive a job id, poll or take a webhook. ~2 minutes typical for a short clip |
Compiled from published provider schemas and Volcano Engine documentation, August 2026. Limits move — verify against your provider's current docs before you build against them.
The 50-reference number needs a caveat
“Up to 50 references” is the marketed ceiling for total multimodal assets. The published request schemas are stricter per type: roughly 20 reference images, 6 video clips, and 6 audio files in a single call. If you plan a shot around 40 character stills, you will hit a per-type cap long before 50.
Practically, this rewards curation over volume: a handful of well-chosen, clearly-roled references conditions the shot better and costs less than a large unlabelled pile.
How the API call works
Every provider serving Seedance 2.5 uses the same asynchronous shape: submit a job, get an id, then poll or take a webhook. Endpoint paths and parameter names differ, so treat this as the pattern rather than a copy-paste target.
# 1. submit
curl -X POST https://<provider>/v2/videos/generate \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"model": "seedance-2.5",
"prompt": "slow dolly in on a ceramic espresso cup, morning light, steam rising",
"duration": 10,
"resolution": "1080p",
"generate_audio": true,
"reference_image_urls": ["https://.../cup-front.jpg"],
"seed": 42
}'
# -> 202 Accepted { "jobId": "..." }
# 2. poll until done
curl https://<provider>/v2/jobs/$JOB_ID -H "Authorization: Bearer $API_KEY"Short clips typically complete in about two minutes. Budget longer for 30-second and upscaled jobs, and handle failed generations — per-second billing normally only charges for successful ones.
Seedance 2.5 API pricing
ByteDance does publish official Seedance 2.5 rates — on Volcano Engine's Chinese model-pricing page, which is why most English guides still say pricing is unavailable and extrapolate from Seedance 2.0. The extrapolations are wrong in a structural way: Seedance 2.5 is billed by token, not per second.
These are ByteDance's own worked examples for a 5-second 16:9 clip with no video input — the only figures it states directly in currency.
| Resolution | 5s clip | Per second | Per second (USD) | 30s clip |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 480p | ¥3.36 | ¥0.67 | $0.099 | ¥20.16 (~$2.99) |
| 720p | ¥7.56 | ¥1.51 | $0.224 | ¥45.36 (~$6.72) |
| 1080p | ¥18.71 | ¥3.74 | $0.554 | ¥112.20 (~$16.63) |
The number worth carrying away: a 30-second 1080p clip — the capability Seedance 2.5 is sold on — costs about ¥112 (US$16.6) at list price, or roughly ¥81 (US$12.0) during the promotional window. That is about 33× a five-second 480p generation, so the headline feature is also the expensive one.
The token rates behind those numbers
| 480p / 720p, no video input | ¥70.00 per million tokens |
| 480p / 720p, with video input | ¥42.00 per million tokens |
| 1080p, no video input | ¥77.00 list — ¥55.44 during the promo |
| 1080p, with video input | ¥46.00 list — ¥33.12 during the promo |
Token usage is estimated as (input duration + output duration) × width × height × frame rate / 1024, and the price is that figure multiplied by the token rate. Actual billing uses the usage.completion_tokens field returned by the API, so treat the formula as a budgeting tool rather than an invoice.
Three things the formula does not show. Video input raises the floor, not just the rate: a 5-second 1080p output with 2–30 seconds of input video runs ¥20.12–¥78.25, and there is a minimum token charge that applies when input includes video. Only successful generations are billed — clips that fail moderation are free. And 1080p is discounted 28% until 17 September 2026 (from 14 August), which is the only reason the per-second floor reaches ~¥2.7.
Read from Volcano Engine's official 模型价格 documentation on 17 August 2026 (UTC+8). USD converted at 1 USD = 6.7487 CNY. Promotional rates expire — verify before committing to volume.
Seedance 2.5 vs Seedance 2.0
| Feature | Seedance 2.5 | Seedance 2.0 |
|---|---|---|
| Max single-shot length | 30s | 4–15s |
| Reference inputs | Up to 50 multimodal | Not quantified |
| Resolution ceiling | 1080p (from 17 Aug 2026); no 4K tier | 480p–4K by variant |
| Audio | Co-generated | Limited |
| Camera control | 3D blockouts | Prompt-based |
| Official list price, 5s 1080p | ¥18.71 (¥3.74/s) | ¥12.39 (¥2.48/s) |
| Official list price, 5s 720p | ¥7.56 (¥1.51/s) | ¥4.97 (¥0.99/s) |
Seedance 2.5 vs Veo 3.1 vs Sora 2
| Feature | Seedance 2.5 | Veo 3.1 | Sora 2 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Max single-shot length | 30s | 8s | ~20s |
| Resolution ceiling | 1080p (2.5); 4K on 2.0 | 1080p | 1080p |
| Reference conditioning | Up to 50 inputs | Limited | Limited |
| Audio | Co-generated | Co-generated | Co-generated |
| Camera control | 3D blockouts | Prompt-based | Prompt-based |
| Billing | Per token, not per second | Per second of output | Per generation |
Vendor-published specs and official Volcano Engine pricing, current as of 17 August 2026.
Prompting a 30-second single take
If you do not want to integrate anything
Most people searching for a video API do not want an API — they want a finished video. Raw model access means you still own prompt engineering, reference curation, job polling, retries on failed generations, storage, captioning, and voiceover.
Seedance 2.5 is live in ChatSlide — what a clip costs
You pick Seedance 2.5 per video, choose the resolution and length, and see the exact credit cost before you generate. No API key, no polling loop, and no token arithmetic: the raw API bills per token with a minimum-token floor and a multiplier when your input includes video, so the price of a clip is only knowable after the fact.
| Resolution | 5-second clip | 30-second clip | Plan |
|---|---|---|---|
| 480p | 30 credits | 180 credits | Pro |
| 720p | 55 credits | 330 credits | Pro |
| 1080p | 140 credits | 840 credits | Ultimate |
Text-to-video and image-to-video, 4–30 seconds, 16:9 / 9:16 / 1:1 and the other native ratios, audio generated with the picture. Failed generations are not charged. See credit pricing for how credits map to plans.
ChatSlide runs generative video as a finished pipeline rather than a raw endpoint — Seedance 2.5 sits next to Veo 3.1 in the same picker, and the output lands in your library rather than on an expiring CDN URL you have to go and fetch. Building at team scale? Talk to us about Enterprise for SSO, team billing, and shared templates.
Frequently Asked Questions
Generate with Seedance 2.5 in ChatSlide
Create a 4–30 second clip from a prompt and references, with synchronized audio. Free to start, no credit card.
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