Where to use Seedance 2.5 in 2026 (and what each option really costs)
Dreamina, CapCut, BytePlus, Vercel, OpenRouter, fal.ai or Imaginode: where to run Seedance 2.5, and what the same 5-second clip costs on each as of October 17, 2026.
Frank HoubreFounder of Imaginode
9 min read
Where to use Seedance 2.5: the short answer
You can use Seedance 2.5 in ByteDance's own apps (Dreamina and CapCut), through the official BytePlus ModelArk API, or through a middleman such as Vercel AI Gateway, OpenRouter, fal.ai or Imaginode; a 5-second 720p clip ranges from a few cents on Dreamina's first-month deal to about $2.37 on fal.ai.
Seedance 2.5 came out on July 31, 2026. It's ByteDance's video model that runs up to 30 seconds in a single generation, with sound generated alongside the picture. Finding it isn't hard anymore. Picking where to run it is, because the same shot costs very different amounts depending on the door you walk through.
To keep the comparison fair, every price below is brought back to one clip: 5 seconds, 16:9, 720p, no input video. Prices come from each service's official page, checked on October 17, 2026. Full disclosure: Imaginode, the site you're reading, is Frank Houbre's product. It's in the table with its limits, and further down we say plainly where it costs more than the raw API.
Seedance 2.5: one 5-second 720p clip depending on where you run it
| Option | Type | 5 s at 720p | Listed ceiling | Code needed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BytePlus ModelArk | Official API | $1.156 | 1080p, 30 s | Yes |
| Vercel AI Gateway | API middleman | About $1.16 | 1080p, 30 s | Yes |
| OpenRouter | API middleman | About $1.16 | 30 s | Yes |
| fal.ai | API reseller | About $2.37 | 1080p listed, 30 s | Yes |
| Dreamina | Official app | From €0.03 per second on the first-month offer | 30 s, 180 s in beta, 4K advertised | No |
| CapCut | Official app | Not shown on the page | 4K advertised, 30 s, 180 s in beta | No |
| Imaginode (Frank's product) | Node canvas | 120 credits | 720p, 30 s | No |
ByteDance's official routes
ByteDance ships Seedance 2.5 to consumers through Dreamina and CapCut, through Jimeng and Doubao in China, and to developers through BytePlus ModelArk; the official model page also links to Dola and a playground.
The official page at ByteDance Seed describes a model that generates picture and audio together, up to 30 seconds per generation, with two extensions on top. What it pushes is production work: "white model" control (a grey 3D blockout that guides the motion), green-screen compositing, camera moves and actor blocking. Its buttons point to Dola, a playground and the API.
CapCut, plus Jimeng and Doubao in China
For regular creators outside China, the two official doors are Dreamina and CapCut. The CapCut page advertises native 4K over 30 seconds, up to 50 references (scripts, images, product shots, style guides, audio, motion) and a Long Video Mode in beta up to 180 seconds. It also spells out the rollout: global launch on July 31, 2026, then a gradual arrival in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and South America. North America isn't on that list. And the page doesn't show what Seedance 2.5 costs inside CapCut.
In China, the model runs in Jimeng and Doubao, two apps built for the Chinese market. We didn't look at them closely, and for most readers of this page they aren't the practical route.
Dreamina: the intro price and what comes after
Dreamina shows Seedance 2.5 "from €0.03/sec" on its Basic plan, a rate tied to a €1.39 first month; after that the plan renews at €13.99 a month for 1,361 credits.
Dreamina is the most visible way in, and its intro rate is the lowest number in the table. On the Seedance 2.5 page, the Basic card carries a "Seedance 2.5 from €0.03/sec" banner and the Ultra card "from €0.04/sec". Our session was served prices in euros. At €0.03 a second, a 5-second clip works out to 15 euro cents.
Read the line underneath, though. That Basic plan is €1.39 for the first month, then €13.99 a month on auto-renewal. Standard goes from €19 to €31, Advanced from €83 to €138, Ultra from €270 to €450. Dreamina's own pricing guide, dated September 28, says it outright: its per-second figures are effective usage rates during a promotion, not renewal prices. That guide quoted $0.035 a second during the September 23 to October 9 offer, and $0.097 a second on the annual Advanced plan in an August 10 snapshot.
What Dreamina doesn't tell you
What we couldn't find anywhere: how many credits Dreamina charges for one second of Seedance 2.5 at the regular rate. Without that number, there's no way to work out the price of a clip after month one. The Standard and Advanced cards mention saving 59% of credits on Seedance 2.5 at 720p, and the Ultra card 75%, without saying compared with what.
The official API: BytePlus ModelArk
On BytePlus ModelArk, Seedance 2.5 costs $10.70 per million tokens at 480p and 720p without input video, which the official examples put at $0.514 for a 5-second 480p clip, $1.156 at 720p and $2.843 at 1080p.
BytePlus is the international arm of ByteDance's cloud, and ModelArk is its model platform. This is the reference price, the one middlemen either pass through or mark up. The official table bills by token: $10.70 per million at 480p and 720p without input video, $6.40 with an input video, $11.70 and $7.00 at 1080p. Offline inference, cheaper on other models, is listed as "not supported yet" for 2.5.
How BytePlus prices a clip
The formula is public: tokens = (input video duration + output duration) × width × height × frame rate / 1024. Five seconds at 1280 × 720 and 24 frames per second gives 108,000 tokens, or $1.1556. The page lists exactly that in its examples: $1.156 for a 5-second 720p clip, $0.514 at 480p, $2.843 at 1080p.
Two details change the bill. An input video (to edit an existing shot) triggers a minimum token charge, so a price floor: at 720p, the page gives $1.244 to $4.838 for 5 seconds of output depending on the source length. And the service is meant for professional or commercial use by people 18 or older, according to the agreement window that pops up on the docs.
Vercel AI Gateway, OpenRouter, fal.ai: same model, different price
Vercel AI Gateway lists the same rate as BytePlus ($10.70 per million tokens) and OpenRouter routes to ByteDance Seed at $0.23112 per second, about $1.16 for 5 seconds at 720p; fal.ai charges about $0.473 per second, around $2.37 for the same clip.
If you're building an app, you don't have to open a BytePlus account. Three well-known middlemen carry Seedance 2.5, and the gaps are wide.
Vercel AI Gateway lists $10.70 per million generated tokens, the same as the official table, with ByteDance as the provider. Its playground offers 4 to 30 seconds, 480p to 1080p, up to 30 images and 10 videos as input. Worth knowing: Vercel gives $5 of credits every 30 days to accounts that haven't paid anything yet.
OpenRouter and fal.ai up close
OpenRouter says "from $0.1028/second", dates the model's release to August 7, 2026, and notes that a single provider hosts it, Seed, at $10.70 per million tokens, or $0.23112 per second. Five seconds at 720p comes to about $1.16, same as BytePlus.
fal.ai runs its own rate: $0.0214 per 1,000 tokens at 480p and 720p, with a different token formula from BytePlus. fal translates that into roughly $0.2205 a second at 480p, $0.4730 at 720p and $1.164 at 1080p. At 720p that's about twice the official price. fal offers three endpoints: text to video, image to video and reference to video. Our Imaginode vs fal.ai page compares the two approaches.
No code at all: Imaginode
On Imaginode, Frank Houbre's product, Seedance 2.5 costs 60 credits for 5 seconds at 480p and 120 credits at 720p, from 4 to 30 seconds, with no code; it doesn't offer 1080p or 4K.
Imaginode is a node canvas: you drop a Video node, pick Seedance 2.5, write the prompt and wire in reference images. The credit cost shows before every generation, and a failed generation is refunded in credits. The same subscription covers the rest of the catalog (over 100 models), images, voice and text included.
What Imaginode really costs, and where it stops
On price, one credit is worth about $0.012 at the reference rate, so 120 credits come to $1.44. Paid at the monthly Starter price ($17 excl. tax for 900 credits), the same clip is closer to $2.27, and $2.13 on Creator ($55 for 3,100 credits). That's well above the raw BytePlus API and about the same as fal.ai. What the extra buys you: no code, no developer account, and every other model on the same canvas. Full plans are on the pricing page, and the calculator prices a project shot by shot.
The limits too. Imaginode stops at 720p for Seedance 2.5: no 1080p, no 4K, no 180-second long mode. If you need a 4K deliverable, our piece on AI video in 4K covers upscaling after the fact, and where it falls short. And the 15 free credits you get at sign-up won't cover a Seedance 2.5 clip: they're meant for your first three images.
Free access, outside China, unofficial sites
No option gives you Seedance 2.5 for free with no strings today; Vercel's $5 a month for unpaid accounts and Dreamina's discounted first month are the two cheapest ways to run a few tests.
Free first. Dreamina's earlier offer, 4 free Seedance 2.5 generations over 3 days, has ended, and Dreamina's own pricing guide says so. That leaves the €1.39 Basic first month. For developers, the $5 Vercel hands unpaid accounts every 30 days covers about four 5-second 720p clips at the listed rate. The BytePlus price table lists no free quota for video models.
As for using it outside China: BytePlus ModelArk is the official international door to the API, and Dreamina says Seedance 2.5 is live worldwide. CapCut is more careful, naming Europe, Asia, the Middle East and South America, not North America. When Seedance 2.0 reached CapCut in March, the US was left out and real faces were blocked as input, according to TechCrunch.
One last thing. Several sites with "Seedance" in their domain rank well for these searches. None of them appear among the links on the official Seed page, which points to Dola, a playground and the API. That doesn't make them dishonest. But before you pay, check who runs the site and which model it actually calls.
Which route fits you
To test without code, take Dreamina's first month; to build at the official price, use BytePlus, Vercel AI Gateway or OpenRouter; to chain Seedance 2.5 with other models in one project without code, Imaginode.
Just want to see what Seedance 2.5 does on a handful of shots? Dreamina's €1.39 first month is the cheapest line in the table. Write down the renewal date.
Building an app or a script? Stay at the official price. BytePlus if you want the source, Vercel AI Gateway or OpenRouter if you already have an account there: same token price, one key for several models. fal.ai makes sense if your other models already run there, knowing 720p costs about twice as much.
Working on a full project, a short, an ad, a vertical series, where Seedance 2.5 is one model among several? That's where a canvas like Imaginode earns its keep: the long take in Seedance 2.5, the images in Nano Banana or Flux, the voiceover, the edit, all in one place. Still unsure about the model itself? Our roundup of the best AI video generators puts it next to Kling, Veo and the rest, and the piece on AI videos longer than 10 seconds explains how to hold a long shot together.
How we analysed this
No video was generated for this article and no account was created: we didn't test anything, we read prices and compared them. The public pages of ByteDance Seed, Dreamina, CapCut, BytePlus ModelArk, Vercel AI Gateway, OpenRouter, fal.ai and Imaginode were read and captured on October 17, 2026, logged out.
Every price is brought back to one 5-second, 16:9, 720p clip with no input video. For Vercel AI Gateway, the clip price is our calculation from the token rate and BytePlus's published formula; for fal.ai, it's fal's listed per-second price times 5. Dreamina's prices depend on the current offer and region: they were served in euros during our check.