Seedance Credits and Quotas: Why the Balance Runs Out

"How many clips does my plan get me" is a question with no stable answer, and that is the actual problem. Credits convert to clips at a rate that changes with resolution, duration, and settings you may not be watching, so the number of videos left in a subscription is never a number you were told.

Per-second billing answers the same question with arithmetic instead.

TL;DR

• Credits hide the exchange rate. The same balance buys a different number of clips depending on resolution, length, and input mode.
• Per-second billing makes it multiplication: rate × seconds, and nothing else moves.
• A 5-second 720p clip is $1.03 from a prompt, or $0.63 driven by an uploaded video^[1].
• Resolution is the steepest lever, roughly 11x from 480p to 4K.
• Duration is clamped to 4–15 seconds, so short requests bill as 4.
• There is no "unlimited" on any per-second model. What there is, is a rate you can multiply.

Why credit balances never answer the question

A credit is a unit the platform defines, and a clip consumes a variable number of them. Three things move the conversion, usually at once:

Resolution. A 1080p clip does not cost twice a 480p one; on the underlying per-second rates it is closer to five times.

Duration. Billing is per second of output, so a 12-second clip is three times a 4-second one.

Input mode. On Seedance, supplying an uploaded source video moves the request onto a cheaper rate. Supplying an image does not.

Multiply those together and "how many videos do I have left" has no single answer, which is why the question keeps getting asked and never gets a satisfying reply.

What per-second billing looks like

Rates per second of output^[1]:

The fast tier runs lower still at 480p and 720p: $0.078 and $0.165 from a prompt, $0.045 and $0.100 with an uploaded video.

Now the same question, answered:

No balance to track, no conversion rate, no wall that arrives mid-project.

The formula

cost = per-second rate × output seconds

For a mixed workload, sum the seconds per configuration and multiply each by its own rate. That is the whole model.

Two constraints attached to it^[1]:

Duration is clamped between 4 and 15 seconds. A 3-second request bills as 4. Longer pieces are assembled from multiple generations, each billed separately.

The cheaper rate needs an uploaded video specifically. Image inputs and first/last-frame references stay on the base rate, which is the single most common budgeting mistake on this model. Details in Seedance 2.0 cost per second.

About "unlimited"

There is no unlimited tier on a per-second model, and it is worth being direct about why rather than pretending otherwise.

Generating video costs compute that scales with output length and resolution. Any plan advertising unlimited generation is either rate-limiting you somewhere you cannot see, degrading quality or queue priority under load, or reserving the right to change the terms. The cost does not disappear; it moves somewhere less visible than a line item.

Per-second pricing is the opposite trade. You give up the comfort of a flat monthly number and get an invoice you can predict to the cent before you run anything.

Controlling spend without a quota

Draft cheap, render once. 480p on the fast tier is $0.078 per second, so a 5-second iteration costs 39 cents. Iterate there, then render the approved shot at delivery resolution. The 480p-to-4K spread is roughly 11x.

Feed video when the pipeline already has it. The uploaded-video rate is about 39% lower at 720p. If a source clip exists, passing it in rather than describing it saves real money.

Cap duration deliberately. Every second bills. A 15-second clip where 8 would do is nearly double the cost for the same shot.

Forecast before you build. Multiply expected seconds by rate for each configuration and you have a monthly number before writing the integration.

curl https://reapi.ai/api/v1/videos/generations \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "model": "doubao-seedance-2.0",
    "prompt": "product hero on a stone counter, soft window light, slow orbit",
    "resolution": "480p",
    "duration": 5
  }'

That request costs $0.475. The same prompt at 1080p costs $2.55. Live rates are on reapi.ai/models/seedance-2-0.

Image generation works the same way

Per-image rather than per-second, same principle of a knowable unit^[2]:

Twenty drafts on Lite plus one final on Pro is about $0.44 for the set. There is no plan underneath that number either.

FAQ

How many videos can I generate before credits run out?

On a per-second model the question does not apply: you pay per second of output, so a $100 budget is 100 divided by your rate times your clip length. At 720p from a prompt that is roughly 97 five-second clips^[1].

How much does one Seedance 2.0 video cost?

A 5-second 720p clip is about $1.03 from a text prompt, or $0.63 when driven by an uploaded video^[1].

Is there an unlimited Seedance plan?

Not on per-second billing. Any unlimited offer is limiting somewhere less visible, because output length and resolution consume compute that scales.

Why did my costs jump when I switched to 1080p?

Because resolution is the steepest lever. 1080p is roughly five times 480p per second, and 4K is roughly eleven times^[1].

Does a failed or short generation still cost?

Duration is clamped to a 4-second minimum, so a 3-second request bills as 4 seconds.

How do I cut cost without cutting quality?

Draft at 480p on the fast tier and render only the approved shot at delivery resolution. Feed an uploaded video where your pipeline already produces one.

Do image models bill the same way?

Per image rather than per second, but with the same property: one knowable unit, no conversion rate^[2].

How do I forecast a monthly bill?

Sum expected output seconds per configuration and multiply each by its rate. That number is the bill.

Trading a comfortable number for a knowable one

Credit systems feel simpler because they produce one figure a month. They are harder to plan with, because the figure that matters, cost per finished clip, is derived from a conversion rate that moves with three variables at once.

Per-second billing inverts that. There is no monthly comfort number, and there is no wall arriving in week three either. What there is, is a rate table and multiplication, which is enough to answer "what will this campaign cost" before anyone approves it. For anyone who arrived here because a credit balance ran out mid-project, that is the actual difference.

References

1. reAPI. Seedance 2.0 model page — live per-second rates by resolution, tier, and input mode. reapi.ai/models/seedance-2-0
2. reAPI. Model catalog — per-image rates for the image models. reapi.ai/models

Further reading

• reAPI. Seedance 2.0 cost per second. reapi.ai/blog/seedance-2-0-cost-per-second
• reAPI. Where to use Seedance 2.0. reapi.ai/blog/where-to-use-seedance-2-0
• reAPI. Nano Banana Pro vs Nano Banana 2. reapi.ai/blog/nano-banana-pro-vs-nano-banana-2