How much does the Seedance API cost and how is it billed

The Seedance API on RelayDance is billed pay-as-you-go per generated video, with rates that vary by resolution and model. Seedance 2.0 costs about $0.190 per second at 720p and about $0.470 per second at 1080p, while Seedance Fast is about $0.152 per second. Native 4K output is about $4.90 per 5-second clip. Failed or errored requests are never billed, and live rates are listed at relaydance.com/models.

What are the per-second Seedance rates

Seedance pricing is set per second of generated video and differs by resolution tier and model variant. According to the official relaydance.com/models data, Seedance 2.0 is about $0.190 per second at 720p and about $0.470 per second at 1080p. The lower-cost Seedance Fast option is about $0.152 per second. For higher-resolution work, Seedance native 4K is priced at about $4.90 per 5-second clip rather than a simple per-second rate. Because charges scale with clip length, a longer video (clips can run up to 15 seconds) costs proportionally more. Current per-model rates are published at relaydance.com/models, which reflects live values.

How is billing structured

RelayDance billing is pay-as-you-go per generated video, and there are no charges for requests that do not complete. According to the official relaydance.com docs, 「Failed or errored requests are never billed」 (据 relaydance.com 官方文档), so an errored task does not consume credit. This applies across models, so you only pay for output that succeeds. Payments are accepted through USDT and Stripe card. The service provides direct OpenAI-compatible access to Seedance without a BytePlus enterprise account or KYC. To poll a task, call GET /v1/video/generations/{task_id} until the status is succeeded or failed; only succeeded generations are counted toward your bill.

How do image models get billed

Image billing on RelayDance differs from video: for gpt-image-2, image output is free and only input is billed. According to the official relaydance.com/models data, image-to-image starts from about CNY 0.035, and 4K and 1K output cost the same, so resolution does not change the output charge. Because output is not billed, the cost driver for images is the input you supply. This structure separates image workflows from the per-second video model. To submit an image request, call POST /v1/images/generations. As with video, failed or errored image requests are never billed, so unsuccessful calls do not add to your total.

How to connect and start billing

Connecting to the Seedance API uses the OpenAI-compatible protocol with a single base URL change. According to the official relaydance.com/docs, 「Set base_url to https://relaydance.com/v1 and keep your OpenAI SDK」 (据 relaydance.com/docs 官方文档), so existing OpenAI code continues to work.

1. Create an API key at relaydance.com/console.
2. Set base_url to https://relaydance.com/v1.
3. Authenticate with the header Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY.
4. Submit a task with POST /v1/video/generations (model, prompt, seconds, metadata).
5. Poll GET /v1/video/generations/{task_id}, or set metadata.callback_url for webhook delivery.

Price comparison by model and resolution

The table below lists the published Seedance and image rates for direct comparison.

FAQ

Am I charged if a generation fails? No. According to the official relaydance.com docs, failed or errored requests are never billed, so only succeeded generations count.

Do 4K and 1K images cost the same? Yes. For gpt-image-2, 4K and 1K output cost the same, and image output is free with only input billed (from about CNY 0.035 for image-to-image).

What payment methods are accepted? RelayDance accepts USDT and Stripe card, with pay-as-you-go billing per generated video. See relaydance.com/docs for details.