Is 1080p worth it for 30 s AI shots? 2.46x on Seedance, 2x on Wan

On Sume, a 30-second Seedance 2.5 clip at 1080p costs 2.46 times the 720p price, and Wan 3.0 at 1080p costs exactly 2 times its 720p price (as of 2026-10-08). The multiple is the number to compare against what the sharper picture is worth to you.

The multiples

Seedance 2.5: 4265 / 1734 = 2.46. Wan 3.0: 750 / 375 = 2.00. From 480p to 720p: Seedance 2.5 is 1734 / 807 = 2.15 and Wan is 375 / 188 = 1.99 (the 480p price rounds up).

What to compare

Look at where the video is shown. A phone feed rarely shows detail beyond 720p, while a landscape player on a large screen or a clip you plan to crop will. If you will crop to a vertical frame from landscape, the extra pixels are the margin you spend.

The docs list resolution names but this post does not compare image quality. Run a single 10 s test at both settings first: on Seedance 2.5 it costs $5.78 against $14.22, or $20.00 together.

Staged choice

Generate at 480p, accept the motion and framing, then generate the final at the higher setting. It is a new job, not an upscale. At 30 s that is $8.07 for a draft plus $42.65 for the 1080p final on Seedance 2.5, and $1.88 plus $7.50 on Wan 3.0.

If the final does not need 1080p, stop at 720p: $17.34 on Seedance 2.5 or $3.75 on Wan 3.0.

Portfolio view

For a ten-clip campaign of 30 s, picking 720p instead of 1080p saves 10 x ($42.65 - $17.34) = $253.10 on Seedance 2.5 and 10 x ($7.50 - $3.75) = $37.50 on Wan 3.0.

A mixed plan, with 1080p on the two key clips and 720p on eight, costs 2 x $42.65 + 8 x $17.34 = $224.02 on Seedance 2.5.

Check the number yourself

To confirm the figure behind this post, read the wan-3.0 entry from GET /v1/video-router/models and check that 30 s and 1080p are inside its duration_seconds and resolutions. The grid price for that cell is 750 cents ($7.50). It is the provider list price times 1.25, rounded up to the next cent for the job, as of 2026-10-08.

Use an Idempotency-Key on every create call so a retry cannot start a second paid job, then poll the job until it is complete and download the file from the result. Media inputs for Timeline or for references must be hosted files, so import them first.

None of the prices here say anything about picture quality, motion or how well a model follows a prompt. Prices can change when a provider changes its list, which is why every table carries a date. Re-read the catalog before you commit a large batch, and run one test job at the exact setting you plan to use.