Seedance 2.5 leads 2.0 by 27 Elo on text-to-video, not image-to-video

Seedance 2.5 is ahead of Seedance 2.0 on two of the three Artificial Analysis video boards: 27 Elo on text-to-video (1,143 against 1,116) and 75 on video editing (1,151 against 1,076). On image-to-video the order flips: Seedance 2.0 at 720p is fifth with 1,176, and Seedance 2.5 does not appear in the top 12 rows I read. On Sume, 2.5 costs $0.5778 per second at 720p against $0.378 for 2.0, about 1.53 times as much.

What the boards say

Board prices are the vendors' list prices per minute, as read.

What each costs on Sume

Sume prices Seedance by video tokens: tokens = ceil(width x height x seconds x 24 / 1024). At 720p (1280 x 720) one second is 21,600 tokens. The 2.5 list rate is $0.0214 per 1,000 tokens and the 2.0 rate is $0.014, each x 1.25.

Reading the split

For a prompt-only brief, 27 Elo is a 53.9% win chance on the usual Elo scale, and it comes with a 53% price premium. The extra length is the stronger reason to pay: Seedance 2.5 accepts 4 to 30 seconds, and 2.0 accepts 4 to 15.

For animating a still, the board says 2.0 is the one to try first. It is cheaper by $1.00 on a 5 second clip ($2.889 less $1.89) and ranks well above 2.5 on that task. Check that claim with your own frames; the board does not say why the order flips.

• Need more than 15 seconds in one job: Seedance 2.5 or Wan 3.0.
• Need a still to move for 5 seconds: try Seedance 2.0 first.
• Need a text-to-video clip and the cheapest board leader: see Wan 3.0 at $7.50 a minute.

Where to go next

The 2.5 or 2.0 decision page lists the four questions that pick between them, and the board-to-Sume list shows the rest of the top 12.

Cost of a split workflow

Because the order flips by task, a split workflow is worth costing. Animate stills on Seedance 2.0 at 720p ($1.89 for 5 seconds) and write prompt-only clips on Seedance 2.5 ($2.889 for 5 seconds). Ten of each cost 10 x $1.89 + 10 x $2.889 = $47.79.

Compare with running all twenty on 2.5: 20 x $2.889 = $57.78. The split saves $9.99 on twenty clips. The saving is small, so only split if the image-to-video clips from 2.0 look at least as good to you.

Check duration before price. A 20 second shot cannot run on Seedance 2.0, whose maximum is 15 seconds, so the question is closed before the Elo is read. For a 12 second clip both models are open, and 2.0 is cheaper by 12 x ($0.5778 - $0.378) = $2.40 at 720p.