Draft at Seedance 2 Mini 480p, finish at 2.5: cost per 100 SKUs

A draft pass on Seedance 2 Mini at 480p 9:16 costs $0.35154 for 4 seconds on Sume, against $2.3112 for the same 4 seconds on Seedance 2.5 at 720p. For 100 SKUs that is $35.15 of drafts and $231.12 of finals, so the draft pass is worth it if it removes even 16 percent of the finals.

Prices

Per-second figures are the provider list rate times the 1.25 Sume margin that the docs describe, as of 2026-10-08. Read capabilities from GET /v1/video-router/models before you bill a batch, because rates and envelopes can change.

Break-even

Draft cost is $35.15 for 100. Each final rejected before you render it saves $2.3112. 35.154 / 2.3112 = 15.2, so if the drafts spare you 16 or more finals out of 100, the drafts pay for themselves. If you will finalize all 100 regardless, skip the drafts.

• Seedance 2.5 accepts 4 to 30 seconds; Mini accepts 4 to 15.
• All Seedance models list 16:9, 9:16, 4:3, 3:4, 1:1 and 21:9.
• Use the same prompt and seed across the draft and the final where the API lets you, so the draft predicts the result.

Caveat

A different model will not give an identical shot, so a draft predicts composition and pacing, not texture. Use it to cull concepts, not to approve a final.

Matching drafts to finals

Mini and 2.5 differ in more than price, so keep the draft purpose narrow: composition, pacing, whether the product is recognizable. If the draft shows a bad product shape, the final will too. A cheap pass at 480p also costs less to reserve: $0.35154 against $2.3112 per clip, so a Pro wave of 18 drafts reserves $6.33 against $41.60.

Seedance 2 Fast ($0.3024 per second at 720p) and 2.0 ($0.378) sit between them if Mini drafts are too far from the final.

• 18 Mini drafts: 18 x $0.35154 = $6.33.
• 18 finals at 2.5: 18 x $2.3112 = $41.60.
• Keep the draft prompt equal to the final prompt.

Before you scale

Finally, decide the rule before you render drafts, not after. For example: keep the top 30 percent of drafts, and finalize those. At 100 SKUs that is 30 finals at $2.3112, $69.34, plus $35.15 of drafts, for a total of $104.49 against $231.12 for rendering all 100 finals directly. State your own cut rate and recompute.