Three 30 s Seedance 2.5 clips at 1080p: a 90 s Short costs $128.15

A 30-second Seedance 2.5 clip at 1080p and 9:16 bills 4,265 cents ($42.65) on Sume. Three of them cost $127.95, and the 90-second Timeline render adds two ceil minutes at $0.10, so the Short costs $128.15. The same three clips at 720p cost $52.22, and at 480p they cost $24.41. YouTube allows Shorts of up to three minutes (page read 2026-10-08), so 90 seconds is well inside the limit; the question is what the sharper picture is worth.

The price at each resolution

Prices are the provider list price times 1.25, rounded up to the cent, from the Video Router catalog (30 s, 9:16, Seedance 2.5).

What the extra money buys

Going from 720p to 1080p adds $25.31 for each 30-second clip (4,265 - 1,734 = 2,531 cents), and $75.93 for three clips. That is 2.46 times the 720p price for 2.25 times the pixels (1080x1920 against 720x1280, in the usual naming). The Timeline price is the same at any size, so the difference is entirely generation.

A way to spend less is to make the clips at 720p and run only the best one at 1080p. For example, two clips at 720p and one at 1080p cost $34.68 + $42.65 = $77.33, plus $0.20 for Timeline, which is $77.53.

• Check one still from a 720p clip first; for a phone screen it is often enough.
• The default Timeline canvas is 1080x1920, so a 720p clip is scaled up by fit: cover.
• A 4-second clip is the shortest Seedance 2.5 job; a 30-second clip is the longest.

Per second and per minute

Per finished second, the three tiers cost 26.9 cents at 480p (807 / 30), 57.8 cents at 720p (1,734 / 30) and 142.2 cents at 1080p (4,265 / 30). A 60-second Short is therefore $16.14 at 480p, $34.68 at 720p and $85.30 at 1080p before the $0.10 Timeline minute. Use these figures to budget a series: multiply the per-second price by the seconds in an episode, and then add $0.10 for each ceil minute of the render.

The prices come from the catalog and can change, so ask GET /v1/video-router/models and GET /v1/catalog for the current numbers before you plan a large batch.

A note on the small print

The TikTok ad page (read 2026-10-08) wants at least 540x960 for 9:16 non-Spark ads, which both 720p and 1080p clear and 480p does not. For YouTube Shorts, the Shorts page names the aspect ratio and the length, not a resolution. Choose the resolution for the audience and the platform, and not only for the bill.