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UPDATED WEEKLYCODING + AGENTS1M CONTEXTSEED 2.1 PRO PRICECNY LIST PRICE

Doubao Seed Evolving API Pricing

Doubao Seed Evolving is one model id - doubao-seed-evolving - behind which ByteDance ships a new version of its coding and agent model at least once a week; upgrades apply automatically. Volcano Ark prices it on the same card as Seed 2.1 Pro: CNY 6/M input, CNY 1.20/M cache-hit input and CNY 30/M output across a 1M-token window, about $0.893, $0.178 and $4.46 at our dated CNY rate. Checked by hand against Volcano Ark.

Input - per 1M tokens
$0.893/M
Original CNY 6.00/M CNY source
Output - per 1M tokens
$4.46/M
Original CNY 30.00/M CNY source
Cached input - per 1M tokens
$0.178/M
Original CNY 1.20/M -80%
Effective - agentic blend
$0.64/M
92/8 split - 82% cache
§ 01 / TERMINAL

Run the numbers.

Live calculator pre-loaded with Seed Evolving's rate, converted from CNY at the catalogue's single dated rate. The price is fixed; the model behind it is not - ByteDance updates it weekly, so the token count for the same task can drift between versions.

$ /mo
Workload split
Prompt cache hit rate
Tokens you can process
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Words equivalent (English)
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Effective rate
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Open full calculator (all models · share URL · CSV) →
§ 02 / SCENARIOS

Real-world presets.

CODING AGENT

Repo-wide bug fix

$0.090/task
120,000 in - 12,000 out~1,106 tasks/$100
DEEP RESEARCH

Multi-source brief

$0.106/brief
200,000 in - 10,000 out~942 briefs/$100
GUI AGENT

Office workflow run

$0.045/run
60,000 in - 6,000 out~2,212 runs/$100
ASSISTANT

Planning turn

$0.014/turn
18,000 in - 2,000 out~6,918 turns/$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 741
Words 131
Tokens (estimated) 143 tokens
Cost as input · uncached $0.00013 USD
Cost as output · uncached $0.00064 USD
Cost as cached input $0.00003 USD
§ 04 / SHELF

Up against the shelf.

All models →
Model Input /M Output /M Effective blended Context Best for
Doubao Seed Evolving Current $0.893 cache $0.178 $4.46 $0.64 agentic 92/8 1M Always-latest Seed coding and agent model
Doubao Seed 2.1 Pro $0.893 cache $0.178 $4.46 $0.64 same 1M Pinned Seed 2.1 flagship, same price
Doubao Seed 2.1 Turbo $0.446 cache $0.0893 $2.23 $0.32 −50% 256K Half-price Seed 2.1 agents
Doubao Seed 2.1 Lite $0.119 cache $0.0238 $0.402 $0.0698 −9.2× 1M Low-cost omni-modal Seed 2.1 work
Doubao Seed 2.0 Code $0.476 cache $0.0952 $2.38 $0.341 −47% 256K The earlier Seed coding model
Kimi K3 $3.00 cache $0.30 $15.00 $1.92 +3.0× 1M Chinese frontier coding alternative
GLM-5.3 $1.40 cache $0.26 $4.40 $0.78 +22% 1M Zhipu's coding flagship, cheaper per token

Frequently asked.

Doubao Seed Evolving pricing questions - what the fixed price buys when the model behind it changes every week.

Q · 01 What is Doubao Seed Evolving priced at? +
Volcano Ark lists doubao-seed-evolving at CNY 6.00/M input, CNY 1.20/M cache-hit input and CNY 30.00/M output for any input up to 1,024K tokens - about $0.893, $0.178 and $4.46 per million at the catalogue's dated CNY rate. Cache storage is CNY 0.017 per million tokens per hour.
Q · 02 What does 'evolving' mean for my bill? +
The id always resolves to the newest version, and ByteDance says it ships at least one update a week, applied automatically. The rate card has stayed the same across those updates, but the number of tokens a task consumes can change - ByteDance's July note says that version used fewer tokens and made tool calls more concise. Re-measure a representative task after updates instead of assuming last month's per-task cost.
Q · 03 How is it different from Seed 2.1 Pro? +
Same price, different contract. Seed 2.1 Pro is a pinned snapshot (doubao-seed-2-1-pro-260915) that behaves the same until ByteDance retires it; Seed Evolving changes under you. ByteDance's model list presents Evolving as its latest coding and agent model. Pin 2.1 Pro when reproducibility matters, use Evolving when you want each week's improvements without a migration.
Q · 04 When was it released? +
Volcano Ark's model release announcements list doubao-seed-evolving as new in June 2026, without a day, then record updates in July (1M context), twice in August and in September. This page's history starts at our first verification, September 29, 2026.
Q · 05 Are the USD prices what ByteDance charges? +
No. Volcano Ark bills in yuan and publishes no USD list for this model. AI//COST converts the CNY rate card at one dated reference rate for every CNY-priced model; your invoice will be in CNY.
Q · 06 What are the limits? +
The model list gives a 1,024K context window and max input, up to 256K output tokens (4K by default) and a 256K maximum chain of thought, with deep thinking on by default, tool calling, structured output, GUI tasks and multimodal understanding. Rate limits are listed as 500 RPM and 1,000,000 TPM - far below Seed 2.1 Lite's 30,000 RPM.
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Reviewed by Yaroslav Vikhariev Founder · AI//COST · Prices checked by hand against volcengine.com · Last verified Sep 29, 2026
Methodology Report a correction More by Y.V.