ByteDance's Seedream 5.5 Says Hundreds of Edits Leave the Rest of the Image Untouched. The 0.28-Yuan Edit Price Is Not on Volcengine's Price Page Yet.
ByteDance Seed released Seedream 5.5 on November 9 with multi-turn editing that keeps unedited regions pixel-identical, native transparent and semi-transparent output, and more photographic realism. It is live in Doubao, Doubao Work, and Dreamina, with the Volcengine Ark API due this week. Chinese press relays of ByteDance's numbers say billing is input image plus output image with text tokens free, a 2K square edit costs about 0.28 yuan, 60% less than Seedream 5.0 Pro, and generation is nearly 40% faster. As of this morning Ark's pricing page lists Seedream 5.0 lite and pro and a separate 5.5 OCR entry, not the 5.5 image model, and there is no international price or independent score. We read the Seed page, the Ark pricing page, and the press.
By T.W. Ghost
ByteDance Seed released Seedream 5.5 today, November 9, 2026. The model page's headline features: multi-turn editing that keeps every region you did not edit pixel-identical across rounds, native RGBA output for transparent and semi-transparent backgrounds, and more photographic realism. It is live in the Doubao and Doubao Work apps and in Dreamina, and the Volcengine Ark API is due "this week." A ByteDance claim relayed by Chinese press is that hundreds of consecutive edits leave the untouched area unchanged.
The price is the part to hold. Press relays of ByteDance's numbers say the billing shape changes to input image plus output image, with text tokens free; that a 2K square edit costs about 0.28 yuan, roughly 60% less than Seedream 5.0 Pro; and that generation is nearly 40% faster. As of this morning, Volcengine Ark's model-pricing page lists Seedream 5.0 lite and 5.0 pro and a separate entry called Seedream 5.5 OCR. It does not list the 5.5 image model, so the edit price is a press-relayed vendor figure until Ark publishes a row. There is no international BytePlus price, no US dollar figure, and no entry on Artificial Analysis's image boards or any arena. We read the Seed model page, the Ark pricing page, and the Sina, Yicai, and AIbase relays. Here is what held up.
What ByteDance Says, and Where
| Seedream 5.5 (November 9, 2026) | |
|---|---|
| Features | Multi-turn editing with pixel-level preservation of unedited regions; native transparent and semi-transparent output; more realism (vendor page) |
| Where | Doubao, Doubao Work, Dreamina now; Volcengine Ark API "this week" (press relay) |
| Billing shape | Input image plus output image; text tokens free (press relay of vendor) |
| Edit price | About 0.28 yuan per 2K square edit; 60% below Seedream 5.0 Pro (press relay of vendor) |
| Speed | Nearly 40% faster (press relay of vendor) |
| Consistency claim | Hundreds of consecutive edits without drift outside the edit area (vendor, via relay) |
| Ark pricing page, Nov 9 morning | Seedream 5.0 lite and pro; Seedream 5.5 OCR; no 5.5 image row |
| International price | Not found |
| Independent score | Not found |
The price is not live, so it is not a price. A number relayed from a launch briefing and absent from the vendor's own rate card is a plan. We have seen ByteDance's spec claims outrun its shipped API before, with Seedance 2.5's 4K.
Pixel-identical is a vendor claim with no benchmark behind it. No independent edit-consistency board exists for the claim to land on. OpenAI's Images 2.6 holds the top two rows of AA's editing board this week; Seedream 5.5 is not on it yet.
China first, as usual. Doubao and Dreamina today, Ark this week, BytePlus and a dollar price at some point nobody has named.
Verified vs Unconfirmed: The Scorecard
| Claim | Verdict |
|---|---|
| Model page live with multi-turn pixel-preserving edits, transparency, realism | Vendor (Seed page) |
| Released Nov 9; in Doubao, Doubao Work, Dreamina; Ark API this week | Press relay of ByteDance |
| Billing shape; about 0.28 yuan per 2K edit; 60% cheaper; about 40% faster | Press relay of vendor numbers |
| Hundreds of edits without drift | Vendor claim |
| No Seedream 5.5 image row on Ark pricing as of Nov 9 | Verified (Ark page) |
| International availability and USD price | Unverified (not found) |
| Independent leaderboard score | Unverified (none) |
Who Should Use It
Try it in Dreamina if you edit in ByteDance's apps already; the pixel-preserving edit loop is the feature worth testing on your own images.
Skip the price in any budget until Ark lists it, and skip the consistency claim until a board nobody at ByteDance runs scores it.
The frontier is elsewhere: on the independent editing board this week, the frontier is OpenAI's Sunburst and Flare, token-priced and measured. Our model comparison has the current standings on the language models side by side.
Sources
- ByteDance Seed: Seedream 5.5
- Volcengine Ark: model pricing
- Sina Finance: Seedream 5.5 launch (Chinese)
- Yicai: Seedream 5.5 (Chinese)
- AIbase: Seedream 5.5 (Chinese)
*Not sure whether a cheaper edit price that is not posted yet should change your image pipeline? Take the free 2-minute quiz and get matched. Then read about the last ByteDance launch where the spec sheet got ahead of the API: Seedance 2.5.*