Seedance draft to final: Mini 480p drafts, 2.5 1080p finals, priced

Draft 20 shots on Seedance 2 Mini at 480p, then re-render the approved few on 2.5 at 1080p. Total cost for 3, 6 and 10 finals, with the request change.

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Draft all 20 shots on seedance-2-mini at 480p for $8.7885, then re-render the approved ones on seedance-2.5 at 1080p at $7.1078 each. Six finals bring the total to $51.435; rendering all 20 straight at 1080p would be $142.155.

Sume's Seedance ids share the same request shape, so the upgrade changes model and resolution, nothing else. The docs' Seedance 2 listing shows seed: false, so plan on the final being a new generation from the same prompt, not a pixel-exact upscale.

Total cost by number of finals

20 drafts at 5 s on Mini 480p, plus N finals at 5 s on 2.5 1080p.

Sume list price, read 2026-10-08
FinalsDraftsFinals costTotalAll 20 at 1080p
3$8.7885$21.3233$30.1118$142.155
6$8.7885$42.6465$51.435$142.155
10$8.7885$71.0775$79.866$142.155
20$8.7885$142.155$150.9435$142.155

The upgrade call

# draft
{"model":"seedance-2-mini","prompt":"P","duration":5,"resolution":"480p","aspect_ratio":"9:16"}

# final: same prompt, same ratio, new model and resolution
{"model":"seedance-2.5","prompt":"P","duration":5,"resolution":"1080p","aspect_ratio":"9:16"}

Where the break-even sits

Drafting beats rendering everything at 1080p as long as the finals plus the $8.7885 of drafts stay under $142.155. That holds up to 18 finals out of 20, so the draft pass pays for itself unless nearly every shot is approved. Keep the draft prompt and the final prompt identical so you compare like with like.

Intermediate step

If 480p is too rough to judge, draft at 720p on Mini ($0.945 per 5 s shot) instead.

Sources

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