Seedream

Seedream is ByteDance's line of AI image models, built by its Seed research team, for both generating images from text and editing them with reference images; the newest is Seedream 5.0 Pro, which ByteDance pitches for text-heavy infographics, editing by sketch or annotation, and splitting an image into layers, and it costs $0.045 an image up to 1.5K resolution through ByteDance's BytePlus ModelArk API (as of Nov 6, 2026). Seedream is mostly used through other apps and APIs rather than a Seedream app of its own; ByteDance's Seed site links to its Dola app and a playground to try it.

Pick Seedream when you are building on an API and want a well-ranked model at a moderate price, or want it inside a multi-model app such as Recraft, whose paid plans include it (similar apps are Krea and Leonardo AI). On the Arena boards in Nov 2026 it ranked below OpenAI's GPT Image and Google's Nano Banana 2.1, both of which have free consumer apps, and Midjourney remains the pick for a distinctive art style. ByteDance's video model is Seedance; its chatbot is Doubao. More in Best AI Image Generator.

Quick facts

Versions and prices

Source: BytePlus ModelArk pricing, read Nov 6, 2026. The numbers at the end of each ID are version dates in year-month-day form (260628 is Jun 28, 2026); ByteDance does not state release dates on the Seedream page. With 5.0 Pro, the first input image is free and each further one costs $0.003, and layer decomposition is priced separately. Images blocked by moderation are not billed.

Features

Reasoning and infographics. ByteDance describes Seedream 5.0 Pro as a multimodal model with reasoning that can organize information into dense, text-rich images for education and professional use, the same territory as GPT Image and Nano Banana 2.

Interactive editing and layers. 5.0 Pro follows spatial annotations and rough sketches to place an edit, and can separate an image into layers, a step toward editable design files.

Photographic quality and languages. ByteDance claims more realistic lighting, shadows and skin, and native prompting and text in about a dozen widely used languages.

Speed tiers. 5.0 Flash is the cheapest and fastest, and 5.0 Lite sits between Flash and Pro on price.

Seedream vs the alternatives

On the Arena text-to-image leaderboard (updated Nov 2, 2026, read Nov 6), Seedream 5.0 Pro scored 1251, about 16th, from 109,680 votes; OpenAI's GPT-Image-2.5 Sunburst led with 1427 and Google's Nano Banana 2.1 had 1325. On the image edit board, Seedream 5.0 Pro scored 1391, about 14th, with 342,188 votes, one of the most voted models there.

• GPT Image: higher Arena scores and free in ChatGPT; the API costs more per high-quality image.
• Nano Banana: Google's rival, free in Gemini; Nano Banana 2.1 costs $0.0336 per 1K image in the API, below Seedream 5.0 Pro.
• Qwen: Alibaba's Qwen-Image-3.0-Pro scored about the same as Seedream 5.0 Pro on Arena text-to-image.
• Flux: Black Forest Labs' models, with open weights for self-hosting.
• Midjourney: for a consumer app with a signature style.

Frequently asked questions

What is Seedream? Seedream is ByteDance's family of AI image generation and editing models, made by its ByteDance Seed team; the latest is Seedream 5.0 Pro, alongside 5.0 Flash and 5.0 Lite.

How much does Seedream cost? Through BytePlus ModelArk, Seedream 5.0 Pro costs $0.045 an image up to 1.5K resolution and $0.09 above, Seedream 5.0 Flash $0.018 and Seedream 4.5 $0.04, as of Nov 6, 2026.

Is Seedream better than Nano Banana? On Arena's text-to-image board read on Nov 6, 2026, Google's Nano Banana 2.1 (1325) scored above Seedream 5.0 Pro (1251), and Nano Banana is also cheaper per 1K image in its API.

Where can I use Seedream? Seedream is available through ByteDance's BytePlus ModelArk API, ByteDance's own Dola app, and third-party creative apps such as Recraft that list it among their models.

Sources

• Seedream 5.0 Pro, ByteDance Seed, read Nov 6, 2026
• Model pricing, BytePlus ModelArk, read Nov 6, 2026
• Text-to-Image and Image Edit leaderboards, Arena, read Nov 6, 2026