Last verified
OFF THE PRICE LIST256K CONTEXTTEXT + VISIONTHINKING MODESCONTEXT CACHINGCNY SOURCE

Doubao Seed 1.6 API Pricing

Off the price list: as of September 24, 2026, Volcano Ark no longer lists doubao-seed-1-6 on its pricing page or model list, and we found no retirement notice - so do not plan new work on it. The closest current model is Doubao Seed 2.0 Lite. Doubao Seed 1.6 is the general Seed 1.6 multimodal model with configurable thinking modes for text, vision, and agent tasks. Volcano Ark last listed the baseline at CNY0.8/M input, CNY8/M output, and CNY0.16/M cache-hit input; AI//COST converts that to $0.119/M and $1.1903/M using CNY6.7209/USD. Checked by hand against volcengine.com.

Input - per 1M tokens
$0.119/M
Original CNY0.8/M CNY source
Output - per 1M tokens
$1.19/M
Original CNY8/M CNY source
Cached input - per 1M tokens
$0.0238/M
Original CNY0.16/M -80%
Effective - agentic blend
$0.133/M
92/8 split - 82% cache
§ 01 / TERMINAL

Run the numbers.

Live calculator pre-loaded with Doubao Seed 1.6 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
—
Open full calculator (all models · share URL · CSV) →
§ 02 / SCENARIOS

Real-world presets.

AGENT

Reasoning plan

$0.00482/task
16,000 in - 3,500 out~20,742 units/$100
VISION

Screenshot analysis

$0.00255/screen
10,000 in - 1,800 out~39,186 units/$100
RAG

Document answer

$0.00201/query
8,500 in - 1,400 out~49,643 units/$100
CHATBOT

Support turn

$0.00098/turn
3,500 in - 700 out~102,408 units/$100
§ 03 / TOKENIZER

Paste text. See tokens. See cost.

What's a token →
Calibrated · measured on the vendor's tokenizer · 2026-06-10 Auto-counts as you type

Counts use a chars-per-token calibration measured on the vendor's own published tokenizer (ByteDance-Seed/Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct, 2026-06-10). English prose is typically within a few percent; code and non-Latin scripts tokenize heavier. For billing-exact counts use the vendor's count-tokens API.

Characters 481
Words 74
Tokens (estimated) 93 tokens
Cost as input · uncached $0.00001 USD
Cost as output · uncached $0.00011 USD
Cost as cached input $0.000002 USD
§ 04 / SHELF

Up against the shelf.

All models →
Model Input /M Output /M Effective blended Context Best for
Doubao Seed 2.0 Pro $0.476 cache $0.0952 $2.38 $0.341 +2.6× 256K Complex agent workflows
Doubao Seed 2.0 Code $0.476 cache $0.0952 $2.38 $0.341 +2.6× 256K Coding agents and IDE workflows
Doubao Seed 2.0 Lite $0.0893 cache $0.0179 $0.536 $0.0711 −46% 256K Balanced multimodal routing
Doubao Seed 2.0 Mini $0.0298 cache $0.006 $0.298 $0.0333 −4.0× 256K Fast low-latency routing
Doubao Seed 1.8 $0.119 cache $0.0238 $1.19 $0.133 deprecated · same 256K Thinking plus vision workloads
Doubao Seed 1.6 Current $0.119 cache $0.0238 $1.19 $0.133 agentic 92/8 256K General thinking and multimodal chat
Doubao Seed 1.6 Lite $0.0446 cache $0.009 $0.357 $0.0427 deprecated · −3.1× 256K Budget multimodal support
Doubao Seed 1.6 Flash $0.0223 cache $0.0045 $0.223 $0.0249 deprecated · −5.3× 256K High-volume low-cost chat
Doubao 1.5 Pro 32K $0.119 cache $0.0238 $0.298 $0.0615 legacy · −2.2× 32K Legacy 32K deployments

Frequently asked.

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

Q · 01 Is Doubao Seed 1.6 still sold? +
Not as a listed model. On September 24, 2026 doubao-seed-1-6 was missing from both Volcano Ark's model pricing page and its model list, and ByteDance published no retirement notice we could find, so whether existing integrations still get answers is unconfirmed. For new work, start from Doubao Seed 2.0 Lite; the rates on this page are the last ones Volcano Ark listed.
Q · 02 What is Doubao Seed 1.6 priced at? +
Doubao Seed 1.6's baseline tier is listed at CNY0.8/M input, CNY8/M output, and CNY0.16/M cache-hit input. AI//COST stores that as $0.119/M, $1.1903/M, and $0.0238/M using CNY6.7209/USD.
Q · 03 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 CNY2/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 · 04 How does context caching work? +
The pricing table lists a cache-hit input rate of CNY0.16/M, converted here to $0.0238/M. The calculator defaults to an 82% cache-hit workload for agentic reuse patterns.
Q · 05 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 · 06 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's effective blended cost is $0.13/M.
Y
Reviewed by Yaroslav Vikhariev Founder · AI//COST · Prices checked by hand against volcengine.com · Last verified Jul 11, 2026
Methodology Report a correction More by Y.V.