Veo 3.1 (Quality) vs Seedance 2.5

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.

Google's Veo 3.1 (Quality) makes one 8-second shot at top quality, up to 4K, for a flat price. ByteDance's Seedance 2.5 makes 4-30 s clips, works with dozens of references and edits existing video, but you pay for every second. For an 8-second shot at 720p or 1080p Veo comes out cheaper, and it also scored higher in my test. Pick Seedance 2.5 when the shot needs to run longer or is built from many inputs.

Key differences

• Length. Veo 3.1 (Quality) is fixed at 8 s on Jantaris. Seedance 2.5 does 4-30 s, including duration: -1.
• Billing. Veo: a price per clip, the same for 720p and 1080p, higher for 4K. Seedance: a price per second that rises with resolution.
• Resolution. Veo: 720p, 1080p, 4K. Seedance 2.5: 480p, 720p, 1080p.
• Input. Veo: text and up to 3 images as frames. Seedance: up to 30 images, 10 clips and 10 audio tracks, first and last frame, video editing and extension.
• Aspect ratios. Veo: 16:9 and 9:16. Seedance: 7, including 21:9, 4:3 and 1:1.
• Audio. Seedance generates speech, effects and music (mono), with a generate_audio switch. The Veo form has no audio switch and no audio surcharge.

When to pick Veo 3.1

• A single ad shot where light and texture matter.
• A 4K clip.
• Animating a photo as the first frame.
• A shot of up to 8 s when you want the cost fixed up front, no per-second math.

When to pick Seedance 2.5

• A scene longer than 8 s, up to 30 s in one pass.
• A music video or ad with the same person across shots, from a dozen photos.
• Extending or changing part of an existing recording.
• 21:9, 4:3 or square framing.

Cost in practice

I compare an 8-second shot, since that is what Veo always delivers. Seedance 2.5 at 720p costs about 1.9 times as much for that shot, and at 1080p about 3.2 times as much. Even 5 s of Seedance at 720p costs about 16% more than a full 8 s Veo clip. Seedance is cheaper only at 480p, where 8 s cost about 18% less than a Veo clip. Veo 4K costs about 1.5x its 1080p price; Seedance has no 4K. For longer scenes the comparison gets harder, because in Veo you build them from several clips. Note that in Seedance reference clips add their seconds to the bill. Rates: from $2.53 per video per clip and from $0.261 per second at 720p; the rest on /pricing.

In my video ranking (Polish blog, on another provider, Veo in 4 and 6 s clips) Veo 3.1 scored 8.0/10 and Seedance 2.5 6.5. Both scored 8.0 on the coffee shot. Spoken Polish made the difference: Veo said a hard sentence with no errors by one speech recognition model and one error by the other (8.0/10), while Seedance 2.5 got 7 of 12 words wrong (5.0/10). Veo returned a clip in 59-68 s, Seedance 2.5 in 165-166 s. More: Veo 3.1 API pricing and Seedance 2.5 API guide.

FAQ

Veo 3.1 or Seedance 2.5: which is better?

For a single shot of up to 8 s, Veo 3.1: it scored higher in my test and is cheaper for that shot at 720p and 1080p. For longer scenes and heavy reference work, Seedance 2.5.

Can Veo 3.1 make a 30-second clip?

Not in one generation; every Veo clip on Jantaris is 8 s. Seedance 2.5 does 30 s in one pass.

Which one has 4K?

Veo 3.1. Seedance 2.5 tops out at 1080p.

Which handles spoken lines better?

In my Polish test, Veo 3.1, with at most one error. Seedance 2.5 was the weakest of ten models on that task.

Vendor examples

Official examples from the model vendors, not our generations.