Bytedance Seed lists 6 models and Scaledown 2. Scaledown is cheaper on a typical model ($0.03 per 1M tokens median). Below: line-up, price tiers, the cheapest model for each capability, and what each costs for five real workloads.
| Bytedance Seed | Scaledown | |
|---|---|---|
| Models listed | 6 | 2 |
| Models with published pricing | 6 | 2 |
| Typical price (median, 3:1 blend per 1M) | $0.69 | $0.03 |
| Cheapest paid model | ByteDance Seed: Seed 1.6 Flash ($0.13) | ScaleDown: Extract ($0.03) |
| Longest context | ByteDance Seed: Seed 1.6 (262K) | ScaleDown: Extract (1M) |
| Free models | 0 | 0 |
| Newest model | ByteDance Seed: Seed 2.1 Turbo (2026-08-12) | ScaleDown: Extract (2026-10-13) |
| Price changes in the last 90 days | 0 | 0 |
For each workload: the cheapest model from each provider that can actually do it (fits the context window; tool calling required for the agent), and its monthly cost at list price.
| Workload (per month) | Bytedance Seed | Scaledown |
|---|---|---|
| Customer-support chatbot 50,000 conversations — each a 6-turn conversation | $11.63 with ByteDance Seed: Seed 1.6 Flash | $3.00 with ScaleDown: Extract |
| RAG search over documents 20,000 questions — each a question answered from ~8 retrieved passages | $12.00 with ByteDance Seed: Seed 1.6 Flash | $4.80 with ScaleDown: Extract |
| Coding / tool-using agent 2,000 tasks — each a multi-step task with tool calls and file context | $12.60 with ByteDance Seed: Seed 1.6 Flash | no suitable model |
| Batch summarisation 10,000 documents — each a 6,000-word report summarised to a page | $7.80 with ByteDance Seed: Seed 1.6 Flash | $3.20 with ScaleDown: Extract |
| Long-document analysis 500 documents — each a 150-page contract or codebase read in one pass | $4.05 with ByteDance Seed: Seed 1.6 Flash | $2.00 with ScaleDown: Extract |
| You need | Bytedance Seed | Scaledown |
|---|---|---|
| Any model | ByteDance Seed: Seed 1.6 Flash ($0.13) | ScaleDown: Extract ($0.03) |
| With tool calling | ByteDance Seed: Seed 1.6 Flash ($0.13) | none listed |
| With image input | ByteDance Seed: Seed 1.6 Flash ($0.13) | ScaleDown: Extract ($0.03) |
| With reasoning mode | ByteDance Seed: Seed 1.6 Flash ($0.13) | none listed |
| 128K+ context | ByteDance Seed: Seed 1.6 Flash ($0.13) | ScaleDown: Extract ($0.03) |
| 1M+ context | none listed | ScaleDown: Extract ($0.03) |
| Model type | Bytedance Seed | Scaledown |
|---|---|---|
| text+image+file->text | 0 | 2 |
| text+image+video->text | 6 | 0 |
| Price per 1M (3:1 blend) | Bytedance Seed | Scaledown |
|---|---|---|
| Free | 0 | 0 |
| Under $0.50 | 2 | 2 |
| $0.50 – $3 | 4 | 0 |
| $3 – $10 | 0 | 0 |
| $10 and up | 0 | 0 |
Scaledown is cheaper on a typical model: a median of $0.03 per 1M tokens (3:1 input/output) against $0.69 for Bytedance Seed. The cheapest paid models are ByteDance Seed: Seed 1.6 Flash at $0.13 and ScaleDown: Extract at $0.03.
It depends on the job: Bytedance Seed offers the broader line-up (6 models vs 2), Scaledown the lower typical price, Scaledown the longest context (1M tokens). The workload table above shows which wins for chat, RAG, agents, batch jobs and long documents.
Bytedance Seed: Bytedance Seed lists 6 models and Scaledown lists 2.
Scaledown: Bytedance Seed's longest is ByteDance Seed: Seed 1.6 at 262K tokens; Scaledown's is ScaleDown: Extract at 1M.
Neither lists a free model; both are pay-per-token.
Bytedance Seed: 6 of 6 models accept images. Scaledown: 2 of 2.