Retake cost: a flawed 30 s clip is $17.34, a flawed 10 s shot $5.78

If the end of a Seedance 2.5 clip at 720p fails review, regenerating a 30-second clip costs $17.34 while regenerating a 10-second shot costs $5.78, a difference of $11.56 per retake (as of 2026-10-08).

Why the shot size matters

Sume bills each generation separately, and a regenerated clip is a new job at the full price. There is no per-second repair of a clip in the video docs, so the unit of retake is the unit of generation.

Expected cost with two failures

Suppose two of three attempts fail on a 30 s clip: you pay 3 x 17.34 = $52.02. With three 10 s shots and the same two failures on the same shot, you pay 3 x 5.78 for the first pass plus 2 x 5.78 for the redos = $28.90, plus $0.10 to join. The failure pattern here is an example, not a measured rate.

The saving grows with the resolution. At 1080p the same comparison is 3 x 42.65 = $127.95 for the 30 s case against 5 x 14.22 = $71.10 for shots.

When to keep the long shot

A long shot gives continuous motion and a single lighting setup. If your scene depends on that, pay for the long clip but draft first at 480p ($8.07 for 30 s) so the expensive attempt is rarely wasted.

On Wan 3.0 the same logic holds at lower stakes: a 30 s retake is $3.75 at 720p and a 10 s retake is $1.25.

Rule of thumb

Limit one generation to the amount of footage you can afford to throw away twice. At $100 of retake budget on Seedance 2.5 at 720p, that is five 30 s redos or seventeen 10 s redos.

Whether to do this depends on the scene: a shot with a fixed camera and one subject rarely needs splitting.

Check the number yourself

To confirm the figure behind this post, read the seedance-2.5 entry from GET /v1/video-router/models and check that 10 s and 720p are inside its duration_seconds and resolutions. The grid price for that cell is 578 cents ($5.78). 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.