Seedance 2.5 or 2.0 for a 15 s clip: $8.67 vs $5.67 at 720p

For a 15-second clip, Seedance 2.5 costs $8.67 at 720p against $5.67 for Seedance 2.0, a premium of $3.00 or 53% (as of 2026-10-08). Both accept 15 s, so the extra money buys something other than length.

Same length, two prices

15 s is the Seedance 2.0 ceiling and a mid-point for 2.5.

Where the gap comes from

The catalog prices Seedance 2.5 at $21.40 per 1000 video tokens list and Seedance 2.0 at $14.00. The ratio is 21.4 / 14 = 1.53, which is the gap in every cell. Resolution does not change the ratio, only the base.

The docs do not say what Seedance 2.5 does better than 2.0, so this post does not claim quality differences. The documented differences are the 30 s maximum and the extra 'no bitrate_mode' constraint on 2.5.

A decision rule

Choose 2.5 when you need more than 15 seconds in one shot, or when a test of your own prompts shows it is worth 53% more. Choose 2.0 for 4 to 15 s clips where it already passes your review.

Test cheaply: run the same prompt at 480p on both. At 15 s the pair costs $4.04 for 2.5 and $2.64 for 2.0, a $6.68 experiment.

Cost at volume

For fifty 15 s clips at 720p, Seedance 2.5 is $433.50 and Seedance 2.0 is $283.50, a gap of $150.00. At 1080p the gap is 50 x (2133 - 1276) = $428.50.

If only one clip in five needs 2.5, run the other four on 2.0: 10 clips at 2.5 and 40 at 2.0 cost $86.70 + $226.80 = $313.50 at 720p, between the two extremes.

Check the number yourself

To confirm the figure behind this post, read the seedance-2 entry from GET /v1/video-router/models and check that 15 s and 720p are inside its duration_seconds and resolutions. The grid price for that cell is 567 cents ($5.67). 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.