ByteDance's Seedance 2.5 landed this week as the first mainstream video model that generates synchronized audio and video in a single pass — and pricing searches for it have exploded. The confusing part: the official upstream bills in tokens, while every developer thinks in seconds of video. This article does the conversion for you, with numbers taken from real generations, not marketing sheets.
| Resolution | NovAI price | 5s clip | 10s clip | 30s clip |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 480p | $0.14 / second | $0.70 | $1.40 | $4.20 |
| 720p | $0.32 / second | $1.60 | $3.20 | $9.60 |
That is the entire price table. No subscription, no per-request fee, no audio surcharge — the native soundtrack is included in the per-second rate. Billing is strictly per finished second; if a generation fails, you are refunded automatically.
On ByteDance's own Volcano Ark platform, Seedance 2.5 is billed by token: ¥70 per million tokens for text-only input, ¥42 per million when a reference video is supplied. That is accurate but useless for budgeting, because nobody can eyeball how many tokens a 10-second clip consumes.
So we ran a controlled generation — a 10-second, 720p, 16:9 clip with audio — and read the metered usage straight from the API response:
{
"status": "succeeded",
"resolution": "720p",
"duration": 10,
"generate_audio": true,
"usage": { "completion_tokens": 216900, "total_tokens": 216900 }
}
216,900 tokens × ¥70 per million = ¥15.18 ≈ $2.12 for 10 seconds of 720p video, or about $0.21 per second of wholesale cost. Our $0.32/s retail price carries roughly a 34% margin — thin by aggregator standards, but it is what keeps the service at provider list price.
| Use case | Spec | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Social teaser clip | 5s · 480p · with audio | $0.70 |
| Product hero shot | 10s · 720p · with audio | $3.20 |
| Short ad / story sequence | 30s · 720p · with audio | $9.60 |
| 100 social clips/month | 5s · 480p each | $70/month |
For context: hiring a freelancer for a single 10-second motion clip typically starts around $50–150. At $3.20 you can iterate on the prompt 20 times for the same budget and keep the best take.
| Route | Seedance 2.5 price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| NovAI (this site) | 480p $0.14/s · 720p $0.32/s | Day-one listing, official-direct Volcano Ark endpoint, failure refunds |
| Major aggregators | from ~$0.10/s (480p, batch tier) | Most have not listed 2.5 yet; early quotes vary widely |
| Volcano Ark direct | ¥70 per M tokens | Requires a Chinese business account and CNY billing |
If you are comparing video model costs more broadly, our media hub lists every model with per-second pricing, and the Seedance 2.0 page remains the budget option at $0.067/s.
Every new NovAI account gets $2.00 of trial credit (valid 14 days), which is enough for two 5-second 480p Seedance 2.5 clips — trial accounts are limited to one per day at 480p/5s. Your first top-up of $1 or more unlocks 720p, 15-second clips and unlimited generations, and charged credit never expires.
Rule of thumb: prototype at 480p ($0.14/s), then render final deliverables at 720p ($0.32/s). Two 480p iterations cost less than a single 720p take.
Seedance 2.5 is a premium model priced like a mid-tier one: $0.70 buys a finished, audio-synced video clip, and a full 30-second production stays under $10. The token-based upstream billing that scared off early evaluators translates to simple per-second math — and on NovAI you never pay for a failed render.
$2 free credit · no card required · 480p to 720p with native audio
Start Free →Related: How to call the Seedance 2.5 API (curl + Python) · Seedance 2.5 review: what actually changed