Last verified
LIGHT VISION256K CONTEXTTEXT + VISIONLOW COSTCONTEXT CACHINGCNY SOURCE

Doubao Seed 1.6 Lite API Pricing

Doubao Seed 1.6 Lite is a lower-cost Seed 1.6 multimodal tier for support, extraction, and vision-assisted routing. Volcano Ark lists the baseline at CNY0.3/M input, CNY2.4/M output, and CNY0.06/M cache-hit input; AI//COST converts that to $0.042/M and $0.338/M using CNY7.1/USD. Pulled directly from volcengine.com daily.

Input - per 1M tokens
$0.04/M
Original CNY0.3/M CNY source
Output - per 1M tokens
$0.34/M
Original CNY2.4/M CNY source
Cached input - per 1M tokens
$0.01/M
Original CNY0.06/M -81%
Effective - agentic blend
$0.04/M
92/8 split - 82% cache
§ 01 / TERMINAL

Run the numbers.

Live calculator pre-loaded with Doubao Seed 1.6 Lite rates converted from Volcano Ark's CNY pricing. Adjust spend, split, or cache assumptions to model CN-region text + vision usage.

$ /mo
Workload split
Prompt cache hit rate
Tokens you can process
—
Words equivalent (English)
—
Effective rate
—
§ 02 / SCENARIOS

Real-world presets.

VISION

Image triage

$0.001/image
6,000 in - 900 out~166,666 units/$100
CHATBOT

Support turn

$0.000/turn
3,000 in - 600 out~333,333 units/$100
RAG

FAQ lookup

$0.001/query
5,500 in - 800 out~200,000 units/$100
EXTRACTION

Form cleanup

$0.000/record
1,600 in - 250 out~500,000 units/$100
§ 03 / TAPE

Price history.

Doubao Seed 1.6 Lite is verified from Volcano Ark at CNY0.3/M input and CNY2.4/M output.

Input · $0.04/M
Output · $0.34/M
Cached · $0.01/M
JUN 11 Baseline long-output tier at CNY0.3/M input and CNY2.4/M outputMAY 22 Verified live on Volcano Ark pricing; USD converted at CNY7.1/USD
§ 04 / TOKENIZER

Paste text. See tokens. See cost.

Estimate · doubao-tokenizer-estimate · ≈3.85 chars/token Auto-counts as you type

This is a chars-per-token approximation, not a real tokenizer. Actual tokens vary by language, code density, and tool-call overhead — counts are typically ±10–20% off for English prose, more for code or non-Latin scripts. For exact billing, use the vendor's official tokenizer.

Characters —
Words —
Tokens (estimated) —
Cost as input · uncached —
Cost as output · uncached —
Cost as cached input —
§ 05 / SHELF

Up against the shelf.

All models →
Model Input /M Output /M Effective blended Context Best for
Doubao Seed 2.0 Pro $0.45 cache $0.09 $2.25 $0.32 pricier 256K Complex agent workflows
Doubao Seed 2.0 Code $0.45 cache $0.09 $2.25 $0.32 pricier 256K Coding agents and IDE workflows
Doubao Seed 2.0 Lite $0.09 cache $0.02 $0.51 $0.07 pricier 256K Balanced multimodal routing
Doubao Seed 2.0 Mini $0.03 cache $0.01 $0.28 $0.03 cheaper 256K Fast low-latency routing
Doubao Seed 1.8 $0.11 cache $0.02 $1.13 $0.13 pricier 256K Thinking plus vision workloads
Doubao Seed 1.6 $0.11 cache $0.02 $1.13 $0.13 pricier 256K General thinking and multimodal chat
Doubao Seed 1.6 Lite Current $0.04 cache $0.01 $0.34 $0.04 agentic 92/8 256K Budget multimodal support
Doubao Seed 1.6 Flash $0.02 cache $0.00 $0.21 $0.02 cheaper 256K High-volume low-cost chat
Doubao 1.5 Pro $0.11 cache $0.02 $0.28 $0.06 pricier 32K Legacy 32K deployments

Frequently asked.

Practical Doubao pricing questions, including CNY conversion, context tiers, cache hits, and regional tax caveats.

Q · 01 What is Doubao Seed 1.6 Lite priced at? +
Doubao Seed 1.6 Lite's baseline tier is listed at CNY0.3/M input, CNY2.4/M output, and CNY0.06/M cache-hit input. AI//COST stores that as $0.042/M, $0.338/M, and $0.008/M using CNY7.1/USD.
Q · 02 Does the price change for longer prompts? +
Tiered by input length and short-vs-long output length; this page uses the <=32K input plus long-output baseline tier. Short-output tier is CNY0.6/M output; this page shows the long-output baseline. The calculator on this page uses the listed baseline so cross-model comparisons stay consistent.
Q · 03 How does context caching work? +
The pricing table lists a cache-hit input rate of CNY0.06/M, converted here to $0.008/M. The calculator defaults to an 82% cache-hit workload for agentic reuse patterns.
Q · 04 Are taxes or international region markups included? +
No. The source price is the Volcano Ark CNY token price before tax, enterprise contract terms, or deployment-region adjustments. USD conversion is stored only for AI//COST comparison pages.
Q · 05 How is the effective price calculated? +
AI//COST uses the same 92/8 agentic blend everywhere. With an 82% cache-hit rate, Doubao Seed 1.6 Lite's effective blended cost is $0.04/M.
Q · 06 Should new projects use this model? +
Yes, if you are already deploying through Volcano Ark and the model's 256K context and text + vision capability fit the workload. Compare it with Doubao Seed 2.0 Pro and Seed 1.6 Flash before standardizing.
Y
Reviewed by Yaroslav Vikhariev Founder - AI//COST - Pricing pulled daily from volcengine.com - Last verified May 22, 2026
Methodology Report a correction More by Y.V.