Seedream 5.0 Pro vs Nano Banana Pro

Specs side by side

Price per unit and per clip

Prices exclude taxes and are charged from your prepaid USD balance. Failed generations cost nothing.

At 1K the two cost almost the same, but above that Nano Banana Pro wins on price and resolution: Nano Banana Pro at 4K is cheaper than Seedream 5.0 Pro at 2K. In my ranking Nano Banana Pro also had the higher average and was more than twice as fast. Pick Seedream 5.0 Pro for its light in portraits and reportage and for its handsome lettering, keeping in mind that it can add stray diacritics in languages such as Polish.

Key differences

• Resolution. Seedream 5.0 Pro: 1K, 1.5K, 2K. Nano Banana Pro: 1K, 2K, 4K.
• References. Seedream up to 10 images, Nano Banana Pro up to 14.
• Aspect ratios. Seedream has 8 (from 21:9 to 9:16). Nano Banana Pro has the same plus 4:5 and 5:4 (the Instagram post format).
• Focus. ByteDance positions Seedream 5.0 Pro for posters and covers with text in the frame. Nano Banana Pro is Google's Gemini 3 Pro Image, built for generating and editing from many images.
• Shared. Text-to-image and image-to-image, one image per request, prompts up to 32,000 characters.

When to pick Seedream 5.0 Pro

• A portrait or reportage scene with natural side light.
• A poster or cover with an English title where the lettering style matters.
• A key visual combined from several product photos (up to 10 references).
• A 1.5K image at the 1K price, when 1K is too small and 2K too expensive.

When to pick Nano Banana Pro

• 2K and 4K images, where Nano Banana Pro is clearly cheaper.
• Graphics with text in a language that uses diacritics.
• Edits that combine more than 10 photos.
• A 4:5 Instagram post.

Cost in practice

At 1K Seedream 5.0 Pro costs about 5% more. At 2K it costs about 2.1 times as much as Nano Banana Pro at 2K, and about 1.9 times as much as Nano Banana Pro at 4K. In Nano Banana Pro 1K and 2K cost the same, so 2K is a sensible default. In Seedream the price follows the pixel count of the output: the 1.5K tier at 1:1, 16:9, 9:16, 3:2 and 2:3 costs the same as 1K, while at 4:3, 3:4 and 21:9 it costs the same as 2K. Every reference image after the first adds a small amount in Seedream. Rates: from $0.0783 per image and from $0.0747 per image (both 1K); every tier on /pricing.

Results from my image generator ranking (Polish blog, on another provider, the same 5 prompts, 1K): Nano Banana Pro 9.0/10, Seedream 5.0 Pro 8.5/10. Both scored 9/10 on the portrait with a coffee mug, and Seedream produced the most reportage-like market scene. Time: Nano Banana Pro averaged 18.6 s, Seedream 45.6 s (24 to 87 s). Both wrote a Polish shop sign correctly, but in a separate typography test Seedream made at least 4 errors by adding diacritics where none belong, even though its lettering looked the best. More: text in AI images and Midjourney alternatives with an API.

FAQ

Seedream 5.0 Pro or Nano Banana Pro: which is better?

In my ranking Nano Banana Pro (9.0 vs 8.5), and it is also faster and cheaper above 1K. Seedream is worth keeping for portraits and reportage.

Does Seedream 5.0 Pro do 4K?

No, its top tier is 2K. 4K is on Nano Banana Pro.

Which handles text in images better?

For Polish text, Nano Banana Pro. Seedream 5.0 Pro got a Polish sign right once and added stray diacritics another time, so I check every letter. For short English titles both are worth a try.

What does a failed generation cost?

Nothing. If the task fails or the image is rejected, the hold goes back to your balance in full.

Vendor examples

Official examples from the model vendors, not our generations.