480p plus AI upscale vs native 720p: quality and cost compared

Native 720p on RelayDance uses Seedance 2.0 at about $0.190 per second, producing frames rendered directly at target resolution. A 480p plus AI upscale path is not a billed native tier on RelayDance; the platform prices native resolutions (720p at $0.190/second, 1080p at $0.470/second). Native rendering preserves motion detail that post upscaling cannot reconstruct, while native 4K is billed at about $4.90 per 5-second clip. See relaydance.com/models for live rates.

What native resolution tiers cost

RelayDance bills native output per second, so higher resolution raises the per-second rate directly. Seedance 2.0 at 720p costs about $0.190 per second, and the same model at 1080p costs about $0.470 per second, roughly 2.5 times higher. Seedance Fast is priced at about $0.152 per second for lower cost workflows, and native 4K is billed at about $4.90 per 5-second clip. Because billing is pay-as-you-go per generated video, According to the official relaydance.com docs, 「Failed or errored requests are never billed」, so test renders that error carry no charge. Current per-model rates are listed at relaydance.com/models.

Quality differences: native versus post upscale

Native 720p renders every frame at target resolution, so fine detail and motion coherence come from the model itself rather than an interpolation pass. A 480p source scaled up afterward carries the source frame count and detail, which upscaling can sharpen but not fully reconstruct. On RelayDance the practical choice is between native tiers: 720p (about $0.190/second) and 1080p (about $0.470/second). For workflows needing native detail at the top end, native 4K is available at about $4.90 per 5-second clip. Selecting a native tier that matches your delivery resolution avoids a separate upscale stage and keeps detail consistent across the full clip length (up to 15 seconds per request).

Cost comparison at a glance

The table below compares the native options and their listed RelayDance rates.

For a 5-second clip, native 720p costs about $0.95 and native 1080p costs about $2.35, calculated from the per-second rates above. Rates can change, so confirm at relaydance.com/models.

How to generate a native clip via the API

Use the OpenAI-compatible endpoint to submit and poll a native render.

1. Set your client base URL. According to the official relaydance.com/docs docs, 「Set base_url to https://relaydance.com/v1 and keep your OpenAI SDK」.
2. Authenticate with a header: Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY (create keys at the console).
3. Submit the task: POST /v1/video/generations with model, prompt, seconds, and metadata (ratio, resolution, generate_audio).
4. Poll GET /v1/video/generations/{task_id} until status is succeeded or failed, then read the video url.
5. Optionally set metadata.callback_url to receive the final state by webhook.

Reference media go in metadata.content[] and are cited as @image1 to @imageN, with up to 9 reference images, 3 reference videos, and 3 audio tracks per request. See relaydance.com/docs.

FAQ

Is 480p plus upscale a billed tier on RelayDance? No. RelayDance bills native resolutions (720p at about $0.190/second and 1080p at about $0.470/second) and native 4K at about $4.90 per 5-second clip.

Do failed renders cost money? No. Billing is pay-as-you-go per generated video, and failed or errored requests are never billed.

Which tier is cheaper for testing? Seedance Fast at about $0.152 per second is the lowest listed per-second rate; confirm current rates at relaydance.com/models.