Seedance 2.0 is ByteDance's current-generation video model: multimodal input (text, image, video, audio), native audio generation, 4-to-15-second clips, and output from 480p up to 4K. It is the model behind much of the "Sora-class output at China pricing" discussion in 2026.
The catch: the official source is ByteDance's Volcano Engine platform, which is oriented at the Chinese market. That is where most access guides get stuck.
The official source. Expect a Chinese-language console, China-oriented billing, and account requirements built for Chinese businesses. Workable if you have that setup; a dead end for most developers elsewhere.
OpenRouter does list Seedance, which is convenient — but its per-second rates sit above the direct ones at 720p and above (see pricing table below), and media generation is a small add-on to a text-focused catalog.
NovAI serves doubao-seedance-2.0 through an official ByteDance channel — no shared quotas, no relayed keys — with USD pricing, email-only signup, and USDT (TRC20) top-ups. The full video & image lineup (Seedance, Seedream, Hunyuan, Cog) is on the media hub.
| Resolution | NovAI | OpenRouter | Delta |
|---|---|---|---|
| 480p | $0.067 | $0.067 | same |
| 720p | $0.163 | $0.199 | 18% cheaper |
| 1080p | $0.329 | $0.496 | 34% cheaper |
| 4K | $1.00 | $1.36 | 26% cheaper |
Need throughput over resolution? doubao-seedance-2.0-fast generates ~30% faster at $0.054/s (480p) to $0.802/s (4K). All rates are listed per model in the marketplace.
Rule of thumb: a 5-second 720p clip costs about $0.82. A $2 starter credit covers roughly a dozen of them.
Video generation is an async task: create it, then poll. One API key, one base URL.
# 1) create the task
curl https://aiapi-pro.com/v1/video/generations \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $NOVAI_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"model":"doubao-seedance-2.0","prompt":"A cat surfing a wave at sunset","duration":5}'
# 2) poll until status=succeeded, then read the video URL
curl https://aiapi-pro.com/v1/video/tasks/TASK_ID \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $NOVAI_KEY"China's AI content-labelling rules require providers to label generated media, but how each provider applies it differs. In our 4 August 2026 test through the NovAI API, Seedance 2.0 and Seedance 2.0 Fast returned video with no visible label — first, middle and last frames checked visually and with OCR. That makes them unusually practical among Chinese video models for deliverables where a corner label would be a problem. Two honest caveats: invisible metadata watermarks may still be present, and upstream behaviour can change, so re-check the watermark notice (which tracks per-model test results) if this matters to your product. Note that Chinese image models do carry visible labels.
Per second of generated video: $0.067 (480p), $0.163 (720p), $0.329 (1080p), $1.00 (4K) on NovAI. A 5-second 720p clip ≈ $0.82.
No — NovAI signup is email-only, and top-ups work with USDT (TRC20).
At 720p and above, yes: 18–34% cheaper per second at identical model quality.
Yes: CogVideoX-Flash is free forever (6-second clips), plus $2 credit on signup.