Seedance 2.5 Pricing: Per-Second Rates (October 2026)

How Much Does Seedance 2.5 Cost? Per-Second Rates, Billing Rules, and Worked Examples

As of October 2026, Seedance 2.5 on Kie.ai is billed per second of video: 28 credits/s ($0.140/s) at 480p, 63 credits/s ($0.315/s) at 720p, and 158 credits/s ($0.790/s) at 1080p for text- or image-driven generations, with lower per-second rates when you upload reference video. The authoritative numbers live on the Seedance 2.5 API price card; this page explains how those rates turn into the cost of a real clip.

Key Takeaways

• Billing is per second of video, by resolution. 480p, 720p, and 1080p each have their own rate (Kie.ai price card, as of October 2026).
• Two rate columns. Requests without video input pay the higher rate on the generated duration only; requests with reference video pay a lower rate on the uploaded video duration plus the generated duration.
• Reference images and reference audio add no billable seconds (docs.kie.ai, Seedance 2.5).
• Draft first, upgrade later. Draft mode runs at 480p only; a draft can be upgraded with the Seedance 2.5 Draft endpoint, which bills at the standard Seedance 2.5 rate table and inherits the draft's with-video / no-video billing mode.
• Prices are in beta. The price card states that rates may be adjusted; always check it before budgeting.

Seedance 2.5 Pricing Breakdown

All figures below are as of October 2026 and come from the Kie.ai Seedance 2.5 price card. One credit equals $0.005 at the listed rates.

Resolution	Without video input	With video input
480p	28 credits/s ($0.140/s)	17 credits/s ($0.085/s)
720p	63 credits/s ($0.315/s)	38 credits/s ($0.190/s)
1080p	158 credits/s ($0.790/s)	95 credits/s ($0.475/s)

Source: Kie.ai Seedance 2.5 price card, as of October 2026. The card also notes that high-tier top-ups include a +10% credit bonus, which lowers the effective per-credit price on those tiers, and that prices are currently in beta.

How Seedance 2.5 Billing Works

Without video input (text prompt, first/last frames, reference images, or reference audio only), the charge is:

rate × generated video duration

With video input (one or more reference videos), the per-second rate is lower, but the uploaded footage is billed too:

rate × (total uploaded reference-video duration + generated video duration)

Both formulas are stated on the Kie.ai price card (as of October 2026). The Seedance 2.5 page in docs.kie.ai adds two clarifications: reference images and reference audio do not add billable seconds, and when you set duration to -1 (automatic duration), billing follows the length the model actually generates.

Draft mode. Setting draft: true limits the request to 480p for a quick, lower-cost preview, and the draft task ID stays valid for 7 days (docs.kie.ai, as of October 2026). To turn a draft into a final clip, call the Seedance 2.5 Draft model with that draft_task_id and a target resolution. Per the Kie.ai price card, the upgrade step inherits the billing mode (with-video or no-video) of the source draft, takes its per-second rate from the standard Seedance 2.5 table, and totals rate × duration — input plus output with video, output only without. The price card does not list a separate per-second rate for the 480p draft itself, so check the credit estimate in the Playground before running large draft batches.

What That Costs in Practice

Every example below is arithmetic on the October 2026 price card; actual charges follow the card at the time you run the job.

Job	Calculation	Credits	USD
10-second 720p clip from a text prompt	63 × 10	630	$3.15
15-second 1080p clip from a first frame	158 × 15	2,370	$11.85
30-second 480p clip from text plus reference images	28 × 30	840	$4.20
15-second 720p clip guided by a 10-second reference video	38 × (10 + 15)	950	$4.75
30-second 1080p clip guided by two reference videos totaling 20 seconds	95 × (20 + 30)	4,750	$23.75

Two patterns stand out. Resolution is the biggest lever: the same 30 seconds costs 840 credits at 480p and 4,740 credits at 1080p without video input. And reference video is not free even though its rate is lower — in the last row, the 20 seconds of uploaded footage account for 1,900 of the 4,750 credits.

Limits That Affect Your Bill

From the Seedance 2.5 reference on docs.kie.ai (as of October 2026):

• Duration: 4 to 30 seconds per generation, or -1 for automatic duration.
• Resolution: 480p, 720p, or 1080p (default 720p); draft mode is 480p only.
• Reference images: up to 30 per request, no billable seconds.
• Reference videos: up to 10 per request, each 2 to 30 seconds, with a combined length of no more than 30 seconds — so the uploaded portion of a with-video bill is capped at 30 seconds.
• Reference audio: up to 10 clips, each 2 to 30 seconds and 30 seconds combined, no billable seconds; reference audio cannot be combined with first/last frames.

Free Credits and Top-Ups

New Kie.ai users receive 80 free credits (Kie.ai Seedance 2.5 page, as of October 2026). That is below the 112 credits of the shortest Seedance 2.5 job (4 seconds at 480p without video input), so a full run needs a top-up. High-tier top-ups carry the +10% credit bonus noted on the price card.

What This Page Does Not Cover

This page covers Seedance 2.5 as billed through the Kie.ai API. It does not track ByteDance's own consumer apps or other API resellers, whose credit systems and rates differ. For the model itself — capabilities, inputs, and how it compares — see what Seedance 2.5 is.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does Seedance 2.5 cost? As of October 2026, Seedance 2.5 on Kie.ai costs 28, 63, or 158 credits per second ($0.140, $0.315, or $0.790) at 480p, 720p, and 1080p for requests without video input, per the Kie.ai price card. Requests with reference video use lower rates of 17, 38, or 95 credits per second but also bill the uploaded video duration.

How much does a 30-second Seedance 2.5 video cost? Without video input, a 30-second clip costs 840 credits ($4.20) at 480p, 1,890 credits ($9.45) at 720p, or 4,740 credits ($23.70) at 1080p, based on the October 2026 Kie.ai price card. With reference video, add the uploaded duration at the lower with-video rate.

Do reference images or audio cost extra? No. According to the Seedance 2.5 documentation on docs.kie.ai (October 2026), reference images and reference audio add no billable seconds. Only reference videos add billable time.

Why is the with-video rate lower? Because both the uploaded reference video and the generated video are billed. The Kie.ai price card states the with-video charge as rate × (total uploaded video duration + generated video duration).

How does draft mode affect cost? Draft mode generates a 480p preview whose task ID stays valid for 7 days. Upgrading it with the Seedance 2.5 Draft model bills at the standard Seedance 2.5 rate for the chosen resolution and inherits the draft's with-video or no-video billing mode (Kie.ai price card, October 2026).

Is Seedance 2.5 free? No. New Kie.ai users get 80 free credits (Kie.ai Seedance 2.5 page, October 2026), which is below the 112 credits of the shortest Seedance 2.5 job (4 seconds at 480p without video input), so running Seedance 2.5 requires a top-up. Usage is billed per second from your credit balance.

Will Seedance 2.5 prices change? They can. The Kie.ai price card labels current Seedance 2.5 prices as beta and says they may be adjusted, so treat the Seedance 2.5 price card as the source of truth.

Try related models on Kie.ai: Seedance 2.5, Seedance 2.0 and MiniMax H3 (Hailuo-03).