Is a square Seedance 2.5 clip cheaper than 16:9? 10 s on Sume

Barely. A 10-second Seedance 2.5 clip costs $2.57 square (1:1) and $2.69 at 16:9 at 480p, and exactly $5.78 either way at 720p. Sume prices Seedance by video tokens, which come from width times height times seconds, so a ratio only matters where its pixel count differs.

ByteDance describes Seedance 2.5 as generating 30-second audio-video clips in a single pass (Seed blog, read 2026-10-07), and Sume lists it as seedance-2.5 at 4 to 30 seconds and 480p, 720p or 1080p.

The token formula, applied to two ratios

Sume bills the provider list rate multiplied by 1.25 on every video model (Video Router). The figures here come from the price estimators in Sume's repository, run on 2026-10-07, and are rounded to the cent. The live numbers for your workspace are in the catalog response and on the API pricing page.

The estimator computes tokens as width x height x seconds x 24 fps / 1024, then multiplies by the per-1,000-token rate ($0.0214 at 480p and 720p, $0.0234 at 1080p) and by 1.25. The output sizes differ by ratio: at 480p, 16:9 renders 864x496 while 1:1 renders 640x640, which is 4 percent fewer pixels, so square is a little cheaper there. At 720p and 1080p the two ratios round to the same pixel count.

Vertical is not a discount

9:16 uses the 16:9 dimensions rotated (496x864 at 480p), so it prices exactly like 16:9. I confirmed this with the estimator: 9:16 at 720p is $5.78 for 10 seconds, the same as landscape. 4:3 and 3:4 come out slightly dearer, $5.81 at 720p, because their pixel counts are a touch higher. 21:9 sits at $5.81 for 10 seconds at 720p.

• Choose the ratio for the placement, not the bill: the spread is under 5 percent at every resolution.
• Resolution is the real lever: 1080p is about 2.5 times the 720p price for the same 10 seconds.
• Seconds are linear: a 30-second clip is three times the 10-second figure.

What to do with the numbers

Sume reserves the estimated amount when it accepts a job, captures it on success, and refunds the reservation if the job fails or is cancelled before capture (Usage, Generation admission). So the balance you need on hand at submit time is the price of everything in flight, not only the final total.

If you are testing hooks, draft at 480p square ($2.57 for 10 seconds) and keep the 16:9 or 9:16 master for the winner. Remember that Sume's Seedance models report no seed support, so a final render is a new take, not a bigger copy of the draft (Video generation).