Seedance vs Seedream: Which ByteDance Model Do You Need?

Seedance and Seedream sound like two versions of the same thing. They are not. Both come from ByteDance, but Seedance makes video and Seedream makes images. The useful question is not which one is better — it is which one your project needs, and, quite often, how to use them together.

Everything below comes from the Reelina catalogue as of October 2026: the variants we run, their settings and what each costs in coins. The live price of every run is shown in the studio before you press Generate.

The short answer

	Seedance 2.0	Seedream 4.5 / 5.0
Output	Video clips	Still images
Inputs	Text, an image, or references (images, videos, audio)	Text, or images to edit
Length / size	4–15 seconds per clip	Up to 6240×2656 px (Seedream 4.5)
Audio	Generated with the clip (voice, effects, music) — on by default	—
Price on Reelina	From 68 coins (Mini, 5 s) to 136 coins (full, 5 s at 720p)	From 6 coins (5.0 Flash) to 11 coins (4.5, 5.0 Pro)

If you need motion, you need Seedance. If you need a picture — a poster, a product shot, a character sheet — you need Seedream, and it costs roughly a tenth as much per result.

Seedance 2.0 in detail

Seedance 2.0 comes in three tiers, each as text-to-video, image-to-video and reference-to-video:

Tier	Coins (5 s)	Native resolutions	Upscaled options
Seedance 2.0 Mini	68	480p, 720p	720p, 1080p, 1440p (SR)
Seedance 2.0 Fast	110	480p, 720p	720p, 1080p, 1440p (SR)
Seedance 2.0	136	480p, 720p, 1080p, 4K	720p, 1080p, 1440p (SR)

Every tier takes any length from 4 to 15 seconds and seven aspect ratios — 16:9, 9:16, 1:1, 4:3, 3:4, 21:9 and adaptive, which follows your input image. Longer clips cost proportionally more: the prices above are for 5 seconds at the lowest resolution.

Two settings matter more than they look:

• Generated audio. Seedance 2.0 can produce synchronised sound — dialogue, effects and music — in the same pass as the picture. It is on by default.
• Reference-to-video. Instead of one start image, you can give it up to 9 reference images, up to 3 reference videos (15 seconds in total) and reference audio. This is how you keep a character, a product or a style consistent across shots.

There is also an option to return the clip's last frame, which is what lets one shot continue seamlessly into the next.

Seedream in detail

Seedream is an image model. Reelina runs two generations of it:

Variant	Coins	What it does
Seedream 4.5	11	Text-to-image, up to 6240×2656 or 4096×4096
Seedream 4.5 Edit	11	Edit one or more images with a prompt
Seedream 4.5 Sequential	11	A consistent set of images from one prompt
Seedream 5.0 Flash	6	Fastest and cheapest text-to-image and edit
Seedream 5.0 Lite	10	Text-to-image, edit and sequential sets
Seedream 5.0 Pro	11	Text-to-image with optional reasoning ("thinking") and prompt optimisation
Seedream 5.0 Pro Layer Decomposition	7	Splits an image into separate layers

Image prices are for the base size; larger sizes cost proportionally more.

The sequential modes are the reason Seedream pairs so well with Seedance: they produce several images of the same subject that actually look like the same subject.

Using them together

The most practical workflow on Reelina uses both:

1. Design the character or product in Seedream. Generate a few candidates for 6–11 coins each, then use Sequential to get the same subject from several angles.
2. Animate it in Seedance. Use the best still as the start frame for Seedance 2.0 image-to-video, or give the whole set to reference-to-video so the subject stays consistent across shots.
3. Draft cheap, finish once. Find the shot on Seedance 2.0 Mini (68 coins), then re-run the keeper on the full model (136 coins) at the resolution you need.

Because both run on the same coin balance, there is no second account or subscription involved — the image and the video are two steps in one project.

Which should you choose?

• You need a video: Seedance 2.0. Start on Mini or Fast, finish on the full model.
• You need an image, or a set of matching images: Seedream — 5.0 Flash for speed, 4.5 for the largest sizes, Sequential for sets.
• You need a character who moves: both — Seedream for the look, Seedance for the motion.

Compare every variant and its current price on the Seedance 2.0, Seedream 4.5 and Seedream 5 pages, or open Seedance 2.0 image-to-video and try it on your own still.

FAQ

Is Seedream the image version of Seedance? In practice, yes: both are ByteDance models, Seedream generates and edits images and Seedance generates video. They are separate models with separate settings.

Can Seedance turn a Seedream image into a video? Yes. Use the Seedream image as the start frame for Seedance 2.0 image-to-video, or pass several Seedream images to Seedance 2.0 reference-to-video.

Does Seedance 2.0 generate sound? Yes — it can generate synchronised voice, effects and music with the clip. On Reelina the option is on by default and can be switched off.

Do I need a ByteDance account or API key? No. Both run in the browser on your Reelina coin balance. There is no free tier; the cost of each run is shown before you start it.