Seedance is ByteDance's AI video generation model. If you've been following the AI video space, you've probably seen clips from it circulating on X and Reddit—the fight scenes, the anime sequences, the eerily good lip-synced dialogue. We've been testing every version since 1.0 dropped in mid-2025, and this site collects everything we've learned: how each feature actually works, where the model shines, where it falls flat, and how it stacks up against Sora, Kling, and the rest.
Official Seedance channels and platforms:
Seedance 2.0 Is Here
Seedance 2.0 launched February 10, 2026. The headline numbers: 2K resolution, up to 15 seconds of video with synchronized audio, and a reference system that accepts up to 12 files—images, video clips, and audio tracks—mixed together in a single prompt. You tag each reference with an @ symbol and tell the model what to do with it. It's genuinely different from anything else available right now.
The practical difference we've noticed is the success rate. With earlier models (including Seedance 1.5), we'd throw away 4 out of 5 generations. With 2.0, most outputs are usable on the first try. That alone changes the economics of working with AI video—less wasted credits, less time re-rolling.
The Seedance Timeline
| Version | Released | Key Breakthrough |
|---|---|---|
| Seedance 1.0 (Lite + Pro) | Mid-2025 | First release. Text-to-video and image-to-video. Silent output, up to 10s at 1080p. |
| Seedance 1.5 Pro | Dec 16, 2025 | Industry-first native audio-visual generation. Lip-sync in 8+ languages. MMDiT architecture. |
| Seedance 2.0 | Feb 10, 2026 | 2K resolution, 15s duration, multimodal 12-file references, @ tag system, 90%+ success rate. |
See the complete version history →
Guides by Feature
We wrote separate guides for each of Seedance's main workflows. Each one includes the settings that actually matter, prompt templates you can copy, and notes on what tends to go wrong.
Text-to-Video
The most straightforward way to use Seedance: describe what you want, get video. But the gap between a lazy prompt and a good one is massive. Our guide covers how to structure multi-shot prompts, which camera terms the model actually understands, and why being specific about one thing at a time produces better results than cramming everything into one sentence.
Image-to-Video
Upload a still image and Seedance animates it—camera pans, character movement, environmental effects—without drifting from the original style. This works surprisingly well with illustrations and product renders, not just photos. The trick is giving the model a clear motion direction rather than leaving it to guess.
AI Avatar & Lip Sync
One photo, one script, and Seedance generates a talking video character with lip-synced dialogue in 8+ languages. The quality varies—English and Chinese dialogue sound the most natural, while other languages can feel slightly rushed. Still, for product pitches, course content, or localized marketing, it's remarkably useful.
Prompt Guide
Probably the most useful page on this site if you're actually using Seedance. We break down our 5-part prompt framework, list every camera term we've confirmed the model responds to, and include copy-paste templates for common scenarios. We also cover what to do when a generation doesn't work—which happens more than the marketing suggests.
Platform and Access
Dreamina by CapCut
Dreamina is ByteDance's AI creative platform and the main way most people access Seedance. It bundles video generation with image generation (Seedream 5.0), inpainting, background removal, and direct CapCut export. The interface takes some getting used to—especially the token system—but once you figure out the workflow, it's genuinely powerful.
Pricing & Free Access
You can generate about 15 seconds of video per day for free through Little Skylark. Paid plans on Dreamina start around $9.60/month. API access is also available through third-party providers. Our pricing guide breaks down the real costs, including the hidden gotchas like token sharing across tools.
How Seedance Compares
There are now four serious AI video generators. Each has a clear strength, and the "best" one depends entirely on what you're making:
| Model | Developer | Best For | Cost/10s |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seedance 2.0 | ByteDance | Creative control, multimodal remixing, action | ~$0.60 |
| Sora 2 | OpenAI | Physics simulation, narrative storytelling | ~$1.00 |
| Kling 3.0 | Kuaishou | Motion quality, budget-friendly production | ~$0.50 |
| Veo 3.1 | Cinematic polish, broadcast quality | ~$2.50 |
Read the full comparisons: Seedance vs Sora | Seedance vs Kling | Seedance vs Runway | Best AI Video Generators 2026
Who Builds Seedance
Seedance comes from ByteDance's Seed research team—about 1,500 people led by Wu Yonghui, who previously worked on Transformer research at Google Brain. It's a serious operation: the same infrastructure running TikTok and CapCut powers Seedance at scale. The team also builds Seedream (their image model) and Doubao (their LLM), so video generation is just one piece of a much larger AI push from ByteDance.
Common Questions
Is Seedance free? Partially. You get about 15 seconds of free video per day through Little Skylark. Dreamina gives you 225 shared tokens daily (shared across all its tools, not just video). Full access starts at ~$9.60/month. See our pricing breakdown.
Seedance vs Sora—which is better? Different tools for different jobs. Seedance gives you more control (12 reference inputs vs Sora's 1) and costs less. Sora produces more physically accurate motion and handles emotional scenes better. We wrote a detailed comparison.
Can I use it commercially? Yes—paid-tier outputs come with commercial licensing and no watermarks.