ByteDance Seed put Seedance 2.5 out on July 31, 2026. That is the Seedance 2.5 release date on the official Seed blog, which said the video model was "officially launching" on Jimeng AI, Doubao Pro and other platforms. The July 31 launch post said API access via BytePlus ModelArk was coming soon; ModelArk pricing pages checked October 29, 2026 already list dreamina-seedance-2-5-260628 with published rates.
The other question that keeps coming up is seedance 2.0 free. You won't find a forever-free API for Seedance 2.0 or 2.5. Dreamina's FAQ does offer free daily credits for trying Seedance 2.0, and BytePlus's free video trial covers Seedance 1.0 Pro, not 2.5.
Longer Clips and More References
Seed's July 31 announcement lists these as the new capabilities:
| Area | Claim in the launch post |
|---|---|
| Single-pass length | Up to 30 seconds per generation |
| Longer stories | Multi-round extensions while keeping characters, scenes and pacing more consistent |
| Multimodal references | Up to 30 images, 10 video clips and 10 audio clips in one pass |
| Editing | Timestamp-level targeted edits; green-screen, camera-perspective and reference-based editing called out |
| Audio | Continues the Seedance 2.x joint audio-video generation line |
The same post admits two weak spots: physical plausibility in complex motion, and stability when many subjects interact. The launch post covers the product and its API, and it says nothing about releasing public weights.
Launch Timeline
| Milestone | Date | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Official launch post | July 31, 2026 | ByteDance Seed blog: Introducing Seedance 2.5 |
| App rollout named in that post | Same day (Jimeng AI, Doubao Pro, “and other platforms”) | Same Seed blog post |
| API on BytePlus ModelArk | Model id dreamina-seedance-2-5-260628 live on ModelArk pricing (checked Oct 29, 2026); July 31 post still said “coming soon” |
BytePlus ModelArk model pricing |
To find it in the apps, Seed gives two paths: Jimeng Web → Video Generation → Seedance 2.5, and Doubao Pro → Video Generation → Seedance 2.5. The launch post links to a project page at seed.bytedance.com/seedance2_5.
BytePlus ModelArk API and pricing (checked October 29, 2026)
BytePlus ModelArk’s public pricing table now includes Dreamina Seedance 2.5 as model id dreamina-seedance-2-5-260628. Online inference token rates shown for input without video: $10.70 per million tokens at 480p/720p and $11.7 at 1080p (4K not supported on that row). With video input, the same page lists $6.40 (480p/720p) and $7.0 (1080p). Offline inference is listed as not supported for 2.5 on that table.
Estimated example prices on the same docs page for a 5-second 16:9 clip without video input:
| Resolution | Price per video | Approx. per second |
|---|---|---|
| 480p | $0.514 | $0.103 |
| 720p | $1.156 | $0.231 |
| 1080p | $2.843 | $0.569 |
Billing uses token consumption roughly as (input duration + output duration) × width × height × frame rate / 1024, then multiplied by the token rate. Failed generations are not charged. Draft mode for 2.5 is described as fixed 480p with the same 480p token math. Minimum token floors can apply when the input includes video—use the ModelArk Seedance 2.5 calculator tables for edge cases.
Capability claims from the Seed launch post are unchanged: up to 30 seconds per generation, multimodal references (up to 30 images / 10 videos / 10 audio), and timestamp-level edits. The project page remains seed.bytedance.com/en/seedance2_5.
Seedance 2.0 Free Credits and Access
Most people asking about free access want trial credits in a consumer app. First-party pages, as of October 16, 2026:
| Path | What official pages say |
|---|---|
| Seed launch blog | Product rollout for 2.5; does not advertise a free API tier for 2.5 |
| Dreamina (CapCut) | Product FAQ: you can try Seedance 2.0 with free daily credits; after they run out, subscribe for more. A Dreamina beginner guide (June 16, 2026) states 225 free tokens per day for its free tier powered by Seedance 2.0. That is a recurring allotment, not unlimited generation, and how many clips it buys depends on the resolution and settings shown in-app. |
| Jimeng AI (即梦) | China-facing consumer app named in the Seed 2.5 launch post. The public landing page does not publish a free-credit number, so "daily gift credits" claims hold only if your logged-in account shows them. |
| BytePlus ModelArk free trial / paid API | Free-trial materials still emphasize Seedance 1.0 Pro quota, not 2.5. Paid path: ModelArk id dreamina-seedance-2-5-260628 with the rates above; resource packs may also appear at checkout. |
Credits drain at different rates depending on settings, so the number that counts is the one in your own account.
OpenRouter Request Ranking
2.0 and 2.5 show up as separate rows on AI Rank's OpenRouter video ranking (by requests, Oct 8–14, 2026 window):
| Rank | Model id (OpenRouter) |
|---|---|
| 3 | bytedance/seedance-2.5-20260807 |
| 4 | bytedance/seedance-2.0-20260414 |
| 5 | bytedance/seedance-2.0-fast-20260414 |
The older 2.0 and its fast variant still sit right behind 2.5. These counts are API requests through OpenRouter. Dreamina and Jimeng consumer traffic is not included, and request volume is not a quality score.
→ Live usage: see this week's AI video model usage ranking on AI Rank (requests, Oct 8–14, 2026 window).
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Prepared with automated editorial assistance and checked against ByteDance Seed, BytePlus ModelArk pricing, Dreamina pages and dated AI Rank data; API pricing rechecked October 29, 2026. We did not run Seedance ourselves for this article.