Mix 480p and 720p Seedance 2.5 clips in one 180 s Short: $67.26

Four 480p clips and two 720p clips, all 30 seconds, 9:16, Seedance 2.5, make a 180-second Short for $67.26 on Sume: $32.28 + $34.68 for generation and $0.30 for three Timeline minutes. If you first draft all six at 480p and then regenerate the two clips you want sharper, the total is $83.40, because the drafts are paid in full.

Four plans for one 180-second Short

Each plan below makes six 30-second clips. The billable price is the provider list price times 1.25, rounded up to the cent: 807 cents for 480p and 1,734 cents for 720p, at 9:16 and 30 seconds. A 180-second render is three ceil minutes, so Timeline 1.0 adds $0.30 in each row.

Why plan C works in one timeline

Timeline 1.0 places each video[] slot on a fixed canvas. The default output is 1080x1920, and fit defaults to cover, so a clip of a different size is scaled to fill the frame. The program table has no field that requires clips of the same size. You can therefore put the two sharper clips where the viewer looks most, such as the first slot and the last slot, and use the cheaper clips in the middle.

Scaling a 480p clip to 1080 pixels wide makes it softer than a native 720p clip. Look at a still before you commit. The cheapest check is a render of the plan with the drafts in place.

Where the 180 seconds sit against the rules

YouTube's Shorts page (read 2026-10-08) says a Short can be up to three minutes and must be square or vertical. A render of exactly 180 seconds sits on the line. The audio spine (audio.duration_seconds) sets the output length, and it accepts 1-1800 seconds, so you can set 179 and stay inside the limit. The cost does not change: 179 seconds is still three Timeline minutes.

• Plan B is the floor for a three-minute Short: $48.72.
• Plan C saves $37.08 against plan A ($104.34 - $67.26).
• Plan D buys a safety net: you see the whole story in drafts for $48.72 before you pay for the sharper clips.

When a draft pass is worth it

The draft pass in plan D adds $16.14 over plan C ($83.40 - $67.26). It is worth that money only if you expect to throw away at least one clip. At $8.07 a draft, one rejected 720p clip you did not draft would cost $17.34 to regenerate, which is more than twice the draft price.