On Krea, Seedance 2.5 is billed per second of video, and the per-second rate depends on resolution. A 5-second clip costs 856 compute units (CU) at 720p, about 380 CU at 480p and about 2,106 CU at 1080p. A full 30-second take ranges from about 2,282 CU at 480p to about 12,636 CU at 1080p. Video references bill at a lower per-second rate, but they count the reference footage’s length as well as the output’s. Draft mode is billed at the 480p rate.
Below are the full cost tables, the rules behind them, and how to keep the cost per finished clip down.
Key takeaways
- Cost = seconds × resolution rate. Resolution and duration are the only two things that set the price of a clip without video references.
- 720p costs about 171 CU per second. That makes a 5-second clip 856 CU and a 30-second clip about 5,136 CU.
- 1080p costs about 2.5× as much as 720p, and 480p costs well under half of 720p.
- Video references use a cheaper per-second rate, but the seconds of reference footage count alongside the seconds of output.
- Draft mode bills at the 480p rate, so checking a shot costs far less than a full-quality take.
- Seedance 2.5 costs less than Seedance 2.0 at matching 480p and 720p settings on Krea.
See the exact cost before you generate
The generate button in Krea shows the compute-unit cost for your settings before you commit.
Open Seedance 2.5How Seedance 2.5 is billed
Seedance 2.5 is available on Krea’s Pro plan and above, and every generation spends compute units from your plan. Monthly allowances and plan prices are on the Krea pricing page. There’s a bit more on plan access in Is Seedance 2.5 Free?
Two settings set the cost of a standard clip (text-to-video, image-to-video, or image and audio references):
- Resolution: 480p, 720p or 1080p
- Duration: any whole number of seconds from 4 to 30
Aspect ratio (16:9, 4:3, 1:1, 3:4, 9:16 or 21:9), image references, audio references, and start and end frames don’t change the per-second rate. Native audio is always generated and costs nothing extra.
Seedance 2.5 cost per clip
The figures below are approximate and rounded to whole CU. They assume no video references. The generate button in Krea always shows the exact figure for your settings.
| Duration | 480p (~76 CU/s) | 720p (~171 CU/s) | 1080p (~421 CU/s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 seconds | ~380 CU | 856 CU | ~2,106 CU |
| 10 seconds | ~761 CU | ~1,712 CU | ~4,212 CU |
| 15 seconds | ~1,141 CU | ~2,568 CU | ~6,318 CU |
| 30 seconds | ~2,282 CU | ~5,136 CU | ~12,636 CU |
The cost scales linearly. A 30-second take costs six times as much as a 5-second take at the same resolution, so it only pays off when you actually need one continuous shot of that length. For longer pieces built from several shots, it’s often cheaper to generate each beat at its own length.
What we actually spent: one prompt at three settings
To see what the tables look like in practice, we ran one 5-second product prompt through Seedance 2.5 on Krea three times in October 2026: as a 480p draft, at 720p and at 1080p, all with the same seed and no references.
Macro product shot, 100mm. A faceted glass perfume bottle filled with amber liquid stands on a wet black stone plinth, water droplets running down the glass. A thin ring of white light sweeps across the bottle from left to right as the camera orbits 90 degrees around it at a steady, controlled pace. Crisp studio lighting, deep black background. Audio: low ambient hum, a single water drip, a clean chime as the light ring passes.| Setting | Output | Cost | Render time (job submitted to finished) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Draft (480p) | 854×480, 5s | ~380 CU | 1m10s |
| 720p | 1280×720, 5s | 856 CU | 2m24s |
| 1080p | 1920×1080, 5s | ~2,106 CU | 4m30s |
Three things stood out:
- The draft caught the real problem. All three takes framed the shot the same way: a tight macro on the lower half of the bottle, with its top out of frame. That crop came from the “macro, 100mm” wording, not the resolution. The draft showed it for about 44% of the 720p cost and 18% of the 1080p cost, in under half the time.
- 1080p costs about 2.5× as much as 720p and took nearly twice as long. It’s sharper, but in this run it didn’t fix anything the prompt got wrong. Pay for it on the take you’re delivering.
- The same seed doesn’t produce the same shot at another resolution. Droplets, facets and the tone of the liquid all changed between runs. To keep a draft you like, promote that draft in Krea Video rather than re-running the prompt at a higher resolution.
These are single runs, not a benchmark. Render times depend on load, and every generation varies.
Budget examples from real runs
Here’s what some other clips from our October 2026 tests cost at 720p with no video references:
| Clip | Length | Approx. cost |
|---|---|---|
| Speaking shot (a market vendor delivering one line) | 8s | ~1,370 CU |
| Skateboard trick shot | 8s | ~1,370 CU |
| Three-beat cycling one-take with no cuts | 20s | ~3,424 CU |
The 20-second one-take is the more interesting number. Building the same piece from three separate 8-second clips would cost about 4,110 CU and add two cuts you’d need to hide. When a sequence really does need to be continuous, one long take is the cheaper route. When it doesn’t, short clips at exactly the length you need are cheaper.
How video references are billed
When you add one or more reference videos, for example to extend, reframe or edit an existing clip or to copy its motion, Seedance 2.5 switches to a different billing rule. The reference footage’s seconds count alongside the output’s, at a lower per-second rate:
| Resolution | Approx. cost per second (input + output) |
|---|---|
| 480p | ~45.5 CU |
| 720p | ~102.4 CU |
| 1080p | ~252 CU |
Example: a 10-second output at 720p that uses a 5-second reference clip bills about 15 seconds × 102.4 ≈ 1,536 CU. The same 10-second clip without a video reference costs about 1,712 CU.
For jobs with video references, the price Krea shows before you generate is an estimate. The final charge is reconciled against the provider’s reported usage after the job finishes. Image and audio references never change the rate.
Draft mode: the cheapest way to test a shot
Draft mode generates a fast 480p preview of your prompt and bills at the 480p rate, whatever resolution you have selected. When a draft looks right, Krea regenerates that same task at full quality, so you pay the higher rate only for a shot you’ve already checked.
For a 10-second shot, that works out as follows:
| Step | Approx. cost |
|---|---|
| 480p draft | ~761 CU |
| 1080p final | ~4,212 CU |
| Total | ~4,973 CU |
A rejected 1080p take costs about 4,212 CU, so even one bad prompt caught at the draft stage pays for the draft several times over. The full workflow is in Seedance 2.5 Draft Mode, Extend and Reframe.
Seedance 2.5 vs Seedance 2.0 pricing
At matching 480p and 720p settings, Seedance 2.5 costs less on Krea than Seedance 2.0, in both standard and video-reference jobs. 1080p is billed on its own, higher tier, so compare costs there in the Krea generate panel. Seedance 2.5 also allows longer takes (up to 30 seconds), more references (up to 50) and draft mode. For a deeper look at quality differences, see Seedance 2.5 vs Seedance 2.0.
If you’re comparing Seedance 2.5 against other models, Seedance 2.5 vs MiniMax H3 and Seedance 2.5 vs Wan 3.0 cover their limits and costs side by side.
Seedance 2.5 API pricing
Seedance 2.5 is also available through the Krea API at the video/bytedance/seedance-2-5 endpoint. API usage is billed per second of output, with the rate set by resolution, following the same structure as the tables above. Current API rates are on the Krea pricing page. The Seedance 2.5 API guide covers request parameters and code examples, including the draft flag, which bills at the 480p rate.
How to spend less per finished clip
- Draft first. It’s billed at 480p and catches bad prompts cheaply.
- Generate only the seconds you need. Cost scales linearly with duration.
- Iterate at 480p or 720p. Render 1080p only for the delivery take.
- Write specific prompts. Name the subject, the action, the camera move, the lighting and the sound. Our Seedance 2.5 prompt guide shows the structure.
- Block rough ideas on a cheaper model, then finish in Seedance 2.5.
Related reading
- Is Seedance 2.5 Free? Trials, Unlimited & Cheapest Way
- How to Use Seedance 2.5
- Seedance 2.5 Prompt Guide
- Can You Run Seedance 2.5 Locally?
- What Is Seedance 2.5 and What Can It Do
Frequently asked questions
How much does a Seedance 2.5 video cost?
Does audio cost extra in Seedance 2.5?
Do references make Seedance 2.5 more expensive?
How much does draft mode cost?
Is Seedance 2.5 cheaper than Seedance 2.0?
How is the Seedance 2.5 API priced?
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