Veo 3.1 (Quality) vs Seedance 2.5

What each one accepts

Rates and clip costs

Charged from a prepaid USD balance, no taxes added. A failed generation is $0.

Google's Veo 3.1 (Quality) produces a single 8-second shot at high quality, up to 4K, for one fixed price. ByteDance's Seedance 2.5 runs 4 to 30 seconds, handles dozens of references and can edit existing footage, but every second is billed. For an 8-second shot at 720p or 1080p, Veo is both cheaper and, in my test, better. Seedance 2.5 is the tool when the shot is longer or assembled from many inputs.

When to pick Veo 3.1

• An ad shot where light and surface texture sell the product.
• Delivery in 4K.
• A photo animated as the opening frame.
• A shot of up to 8 s with the cost known in advance, no per-second arithmetic.
• Spoken lines in Polish or other non-English languages.

When to pick Seedance 2.5

• A scene that has to run past 8 s, up to 30 s in one go.
• A music video or ad keeping the same person across shots, built from a dozen photos.
• Lengthening a recording or replacing part of it.
• Framing in 21:9, 4:3 or 1:1.

Differences you will notice

• Price. Veo 3.1 (Quality) costs from $2.53 per video (same at 720p and 1080p, about 1.5x for 4K). Seedance 2.5 costs from $0.261 per second at 720p. For 8 s, Seedance is about 1.9x a Veo clip at 720p and 3.2x at 1080p; even 5 s at 720p comes to about 16% over a Veo clip. Only at 480p is Seedance cheaper, about 18% under.
• Length and resolution. Veo is always 8 s at 720p, 1080p or 4K. Seedance 2.5 runs 4-30 s (or duration: -1) at 480p, 720p or 1080p.
• Inputs. Veo takes a prompt and up to 3 images as frames. Seedance takes up to 30 images, 10 clips and 10 audio files, first and last frames, and edits or extends video; reference clip seconds are billed.
• Sound and format. Seedance makes mono speech, effects and music with a generate_audio switch. Veo's form has no switch and no surcharge. Ratios: 16:9 and 9:16 in Veo, 7 in Seedance.
• Test results. In my ranking Veo got 8.0/10 and Seedance 2.5 6.5; both hit 8.0 on the coffee shot. A hard Polish sentence split them: Veo made at most one error (8.0), Seedance 2.5 got 7 of 12 words wrong (5.0), the weakest of ten models. Veo took 59-68 s per clip, Seedance 165-166 s.

How to decide

• Up to 8 s, best look, 4K or dialogue: Veo 3.1.
• Longer than 8 s, many references or editing: Seedance 2.5.

For long scenes the maths changes, since Veo needs several clips stitched together. My tests ran through another API, with Veo in 4 and 6 s clips. Details in the Veo 3.1 pricing guide and the Seedance 2.5 guide; everything else on /pricing.

Questions

When is Seedance 2.5 cheaper than Veo for the same 8 seconds?

Only at 480p, where it comes in about 18% under one Veo clip. At 720p and 1080p Veo costs less.

How do I build a 24-second scene in Veo?

Generate three 8-second clips and cut them together. Seedance 2.5 can do it as one continuous shot instead.

Can I use 4K with Seedance 2.5?

No, it stops at 1080p. For 4K output use Veo 3.1.

Samples from the makers

These clips and images come from the vendors, not from my runs.