Seedream 5.5. Edit in rounds. Ship in layers.
ByteDance's new image model: edits that leave the rest alone, real transparent PNGs, small multilingual text, and Layer Decomposition into named layers. From $0.021 per image.
Seedream 5.5 is ByteDance's image generation and editing model, released on 9 November 2026. It keeps unedited pixels stable across rounds of edits, returns PNGs with a real alpha channel, renders small multilingual text and takes up to 10 reference images. On Segmind it costs $0.021 per image at 1K or 1.5K and $0.037 at 2K, and Seedream 5.5 Layer Decomposition splits any image into named transparent layers (as of 11 Nov 2026).
Multi-round editing
Edit in rounds. The rest stays put.
ByteDance built Seedream 5.5 to keep unedited areas intact at the pixel level, and showed it making 100 edits in a row on one image. We ran six rounds on one café scene, each result sent back as the next reference. Turn on the overlay to see exactly which pixels each round changed.
Round 5 of 6
Prompt and settings$0.037 · 20 s
A small Copenhagen corner café in soft afternoon light. A young South Asian man with short black hair and a trimmed beard, wearing a mustard corduroy jacket over a white t-shirt, sits at a round marble window table writing in an open notebook, a paper takeaway cup beside it. On the white tiled wall behind him a black chalkboard menu reads 'TODAY' and below it 'CARDAMOM BUN 3.50'. Through the large window a parked green bicycle and a cobbled street. The chair across the table is empty. Editorial photograph, 35mm, natural skin texture, calm composition. No logos or other text.
- Seedream 5.5
- 2K
- 3:2
- opaque
This run: $0.037, rendered in 20 s
The model returned this round at 2512x1680 against 2496x1664 for round 1, so the comparison resamples round 1. The highlight is mostly the jacket, plus thin edges such as the hair and the chalk lettering that come from the resampling.
Prompt and settings$0.046 · 27 s
Change only his jacket from mustard corduroy to a deep forest-green wool overshirt. Keep his face, hair, beard, pose, hands, pen and notebook, the paper cup, the marble table, the chairs, the chalkboard and its writing, the tiled wall, the bicycle, the street outside and the afternoon light exactly as they are in the reference.
- Seedream 5.5
- 2K
- auto
- opaque
- 1 reference: the previous round
This run: $0.046, rendered in 27 s
Prompt and settings$0.046 · 30 s
Replace only the paper takeaway cup with a white ceramic cup and saucer holding a latte with a leaf of latte art. Keep the man, his green overshirt, his face, pose and hands, the notebook and pen, the marble table, the chairs, the chalkboard and its writing, the tiled wall, the bicycle, the street outside and the afternoon light exactly as they are in the reference.
- Seedream 5.5
- 2K
- auto
- opaque
- 1 reference: the previous round
This run: $0.046, rendered in 30 s
Prompt and settings$0.046 · 28 s
Rewrite only the chalkboard: wipe it clean and write, in the same white chalk handwriting, 'TODAY' on the first line and 'RHUBARB TART 4.20' on the second line, with nothing written above 'TODAY'. Keep the man, his green overshirt, his face, pose and hands, the notebook, the latte cup and saucer, the marble table, the chairs, the tiled wall, the bicycle, the street outside and the afternoon light exactly as they are in the reference.
- Seedream 5.5
- 2K
- auto
- opaque
- 1 reference: the previous round
This run: $0.046, rendered in 28 s
Prompt and settings$0.046 · 27 s
Add one small ginger tabby cat curled up asleep on the seat of the empty wooden chair in the foreground. Change nothing else: keep the man, his green overshirt, his face, pose and hands, the notebook, the latte cup and saucer, the marble table, the other chairs, the chalkboard and its writing, the tiled wall, the bicycle, the street outside and the afternoon light exactly as they are in the reference.
- Seedream 5.5
- 2K
- auto
- opaque
- 1 reference: the previous round
This run: $0.046, rendered in 27 s
A change of weather is not a local edit: the street and window changed, and the duller light dimmed parts of the wall. The man, the cat and the table stayed put.
Prompt and settings$0.046 · 28 s
Make it a rainy afternoon outside the window only: rain falling on the street, wet cobbles with reflections, and raindrops on the outside of the window glass. Keep everything inside the café exactly as it is in the reference: the man, his green overshirt, his face, pose and hands, the notebook, the latte cup and saucer, the marble table, the chairs, the sleeping ginger cat, the chalkboard and its writing, the tiled wall and the warm interior light. Keep the green bicycle where it is.
- Seedream 5.5
- 2K
- auto
- opaque
- 1 reference: the previous round
This run: $0.046, rendered in 28 s
How to edit in rounds
- 1
Send the current image back
Seedream 5.5 keeps no session. Put the latest result first in reference_images; the /v2 API returns a hosted URL you can pass straight in.
- 2
Change one thing, list the rest
Name the single change, then everything that must stay: the face, the pose, the table, the light. The model only sees this prompt.
- 3
Keep aspect ratio on auto
auto keeps the reference image’s shape. Sizes can still shift by a few pixels: our round 2 came back at 2512x1680 against 2496x1664.
Changed pixels are those that moved by more than 32 of 255 levels in any colour channel since the round before. The six rounds cost $0.265 in all: $0.037 for the first 2K image and $0.046 for each edit, which is a 2K image plus one reference.
Native RGBA
Transparent from the start. No cut-out step.
Set background to transparent and Seedream 5.5 returns a PNG with a real alpha channel: stickers, product cut-outs and soft effects that drop onto any layout. Switch the backdrop to see what shows through.
Prompt and settings$0.021 · 22 s
A die-cut vinyl sticker of a cheerful cartoon red chili pepper riding a teal skateboard, one arm raised, motion lines behind it, bold black outlines and a thick white sticker border all the way around. Isolated on a fully transparent background with clean cut-out edges. No text.
- Seedream 5.5
- 1K
- 1:1
- transparent
- png
This run: $0.021, rendered in 22 s
Prompt and settings$0.021 · 25 s
A clear glass bottle of cold-pressed green juice with a brushed steel cap, condensation droplets on the glass and a small paper tag tied at the neck reading 'KALE · APPLE · GINGER'; three-quarter studio view, soft studio light, the glass edges see-through. Isolated on a fully transparent background, the empty glass shoulder above the juice semi-transparent, with a clean cut-out edge and no shadow.
- Seedream 5.5
- 1K
- 3:4
- transparent
- png
This run: $0.021, rendered in 25 s
Prompt and settings$0.021 · 20 s
A pair of round tortoiseshell acetate sunglasses with gold metal bridge and temples, lenses in a semi-transparent amber gradient, seen from the front at a slight angle with the arms open. Product photograph, soft studio light. Isolated on a fully transparent background, the tinted lenses semi-transparent so whatever sits behind them shows through, clean cut-out edges, no shadow, no text or logos.
- Seedream 5.5
- 1K
- 3:2
- transparent
- png
This run: $0.021, rendered in 20 s
Prompt and settings$0.021 · 14 s
A swirling plume of soft lilac and peach coloured smoke rising and curling, wispy and semi-transparent, thinning into faint trails at the edges. Isolated on a fully transparent background: the smoke itself is partly transparent so any background shows through it. No text.
- Seedream 5.5
- 1K
- 3:4
- transparent
- png
This run: $0.021, rendered in 14 s
What came back. All four are PNGs with an alpha channel, with soft partial alpha along the edges. The smoke plume is 27% partly transparent pixels, so a backdrop shows through it.
What to check. We asked for see-through glass and tinted lenses, and both came back opaque. Use transparency for outlines and soft effects, and check any glass or liquid before you rely on it.
Up to 10 references
Bring your own pieces. Matched to the light.
Seedream 5.5 takes up to 10 reference images for identity, layout, palette or texture. We gave it the bottle and sunglasses cut-outs from above and an empty pool ledge, and it set both products into the scene at the right scale, under the same palm shadows.
Prompt and settings$0.062 · 24 s
Place the green juice bottle from the first reference standing upright on the terrazzo pool ledge in the third reference, and lay the tortoiseshell sunglasses from the second reference folded beside it. Match the third reference's late-morning sun: the palm-leaf shadows fall across both products, the bottle casts a soft green-tinted shadow and the condensation catches the light. Keep the bottle's shape, steel cap and the paper tag reading 'KALE · APPLE · GINGER', and the sunglasses' tortoiseshell frame, gold bridge and amber lenses, exactly as in their references. Keep the pool, ledge and striped towel from the third reference.
- Seedream 5.5
- 2K
- 3:2
- opaque
- 3 references
This run: $0.062, rendered in 24 s
Seedream 5.5 Layer Decomposition
Take any image apart. Every layer named and placed.
Seedream 5.5 Layer Decomposition takes one finished image and returns a clean base plus each element as a transparent PNG, with a name, a description and a bounding box. With text recognition on, it also reads each line of text with its font and colour.
8 layers plus the base, as returned
Untick a layer to lift it out of the stack.
- Base (z-index 0)The base layer: the empty night sky with stars and the harbour water, with every other element removed and the gaps filled in.
One run on this poster: prompt empty, max_images 10, text_recognition on, size auto. It returned a base and 8 layers at 1328x1776 in 43 s for $0.199. Placed at their bounding boxes, the layers rebuild the poster. One catch: the boat came back one level below the water layer, which hides it, so this view draws the boat above the water. Check the order when you rebuild a scene.
| Text | Closest font | Colour |
|---|---|---|
| HARBOUR / JAZZ / NIGHTS | D-DIN Condensed, bold | #F8ECD7 |
| 14 TO 16 AUGUST · PIER 9 | Raleway, bold | #F4978A |
| Free entry · Doors 7 pm | TikTok Sans, bold | #FDF3D3 |
Lift products out of a photo
Name the pieces you want and the rest stays in the base. From the poolside blend above, it lifted out the bottle, the sunglasses and the towel, and filled the ledge behind them. Drag to compare the photo with the base layer.
Prompt: “Separate the green juice bottle with its paper tag, the tortoiseshell sunglasses, and the striped towel.” with max_images 4, text_recognition off, size auto. A 2K base and 3 layers in 26 s for $0.109: each layer is billed by its own size, so the smaller cut-outs cost the 1.5K rate.
Glass bottle of green juice with a paper tag 
Tortoiseshell round-frame sunglasses 
Blue and white striped towel
The poster came from Seedream 5.5 too
Its first draft printed the footer line twice and added a second, smaller moon. One edit round removed both and left the rest as it was, for $0.030.
Prompt and settings$0.021 · 24 s
A flat graphic event poster with clearly separated elements. Deep navy night-sky background with a few small stars. A large pale-yellow full moon in the upper right. A stylised brass saxophone illustration on the left, angled upward, with three small musical notes floating from its bell. A row of dark teal harbour cranes and a moored boat silhouette along the bottom edge. Headline in bold cream condensed sans-serif across the middle: 'HARBOUR JAZZ NIGHTS'. Below it in smaller coral letters: '14 TO 16 AUGUST · PIER 9'. Footer in small cream letters: 'Free entry · Doors 7 pm'. Clean vector style, generous spacing between elements.
- Seedream 5.5
- 1.5K
- 3:4
- opaque
This run: $0.021, rendered in 24 s
Prompt and settings$0.030 · 22 s
Remove only the lower duplicate line of 'Free entry · Doors 7 pm' near the bottom edge, filling that area with the same dark water, and remove the small crescent moon in the top left, filling it with the same night sky. Keep the upper 'Free entry · Doors 7 pm' line, the headline, the date line, the saxophone and notes, the full moon, the skyline, the cranes, the boat, the piers and every colour exactly as they are in the reference.
- Seedream 5.5
- 1.5K
- auto
- opaque
- 1 reference: the draft
This run: $0.030, rendered in 22 s
Try it on your own image: Seedream 5.5 Layer Decomposition playground and API.
Text in any script
Small type, spelled right. Cyrillic, Thai, Hangul.
ByteDance measured Seedream 5.5 at 0.4% severe and 1.7% minor text corruption across Chinese and English, including dense small type. We tried three other scripts, and every quoted line came back as written.
Prompt and settings$0.021 · 18 s
A photograph of a small Moscow bakery counter with a large black chalkboard menu on the wall, written in neat white and yellow chalk in Russian. Title at the top: 'ПЕКАРНЯ «КОЛОСОК»'. Below it five lines, each with a price on the right: 'Хлеб ржаной 120 ₽', 'Пирожок с капустой 90 ₽', 'Сырники 180 ₽', 'Кардамонная булочка 150 ₽', 'Чай с чабрецом 70 ₽'. A small line at the bottom: 'Свежий хлеб с 7:00'. On the wooden counter below, baskets of dark rye loaves and golden pastries, warm morning light. Photograph, 35mm. No other text or logos.
- Seedream 5.5
- 1.5K
- 3:4
- opaque
This run: $0.021, rendered in 18 s
Prompt and settings$0.021 · 34 s
- Seedream 5.5
- 1.5K
- 3:4
- opaque
This run: $0.021, rendered in 34 s
Prompt and settings$0.021 · 23 s
Close-up product photograph of the back of a frosted white skincare bottle lying on pale grey stone, the printed label in dense small type, perfectly legible. Top: '단비 리페어 세럼' and below it 'DANBI REPAIR SERUM · 30 ml'. A section headed '사용법 / HOW TO USE' reads: 'Apply 2 to 3 drops to clean skin, morning and night. Avoid the eye area.' A section headed '전성분 / INGREDIENTS' reads: 'Water, Glycerin, Niacinamide, Panthenol, Centella Asiatica Extract, Sodium Hyaluronate, Allantoin, Ceramide NP, Tocopherol, 1,2-Hexanediol.' A footer reads 'Made in Seoul · Use within 12 months of opening'. Soft diffused daylight, macro lens, shallow depth of field at the edges. No logos.
- Seedream 5.5
- 1.5K
- 3:4
- opaque
This run: $0.021, rendered in 23 s
Quote every line
Write each string in quotes, exactly as it should read, in its own script: 'ПЕКАРНЯ «КОЛОСОК»', 'พิเศษ 70 บาท'.
Say where it goes
Title at the top, prices on the right, a footer at the bottom. A simple layout keeps dense type legible.
Proofread before you print
Small type is where errors hide. Zoom in on prices, ingredients and dates before anything ships.
The corruption rates are ByteDance's own evaluation, published with the launch on 9 Nov 2026. In our comparison test further down, Seedream 5.5 drew one ampersand as a stylised mark, so the advice to proofread stands.
Realism at 2K
Light, skin and fabric. Up close.
ByteDance tuned Seedream 5.5 for more natural light, materials and skin, with less excessive gloss and overexposure in some images. A 2K image at 16:9 is 2560x1440; each crop is cut at full size from the original.
Prompt and settings$0.037 · 22 s
A glassblower in a dark Murano furnace workshop lifts a glowing orange gather of molten glass on a long steel blowpipe, cheeks puffed as she blows; she is a woman in her fifties with cropped grey hair, freckled forearms and a leather apron, sweat beading on her temple. The furnace mouth behind her throws hot rim light along her profile, the pipe and the soft curl of heat haze; shelves of finished cobalt and amber vases glint in the shadows. Cinematic documentary photograph, 35mm, natural skin texture. No logos or text anywhere.
- Seedream 5.5
- 2K
- 16:9
- opaque
This run: $0.037, rendered in 22 s
100% cropPrompt and settings$0.037 · 21 s
A young Nigerian textile artist in a sunlit indigo dye workshop in Abeokuta lifts a length of freshly dyed adire cloth out of a clay vat, the deep blue fabric streaming with water; she has short natural hair, a white linen shirt with rolled sleeves, and blue-stained fingertips. Hanging lengths of patterned indigo cloth dry on lines behind her, sunlight slicing through the gaps and catching the water drops. Documentary photograph, 35mm, natural skin texture, rich fabric detail. No logos or text anywhere.
- Seedream 5.5
- 2K
- 16:9
- opaque
This run: $0.037, rendered in 21 s
100% cropSeedream 5.5 specifications
| Specification | Value |
|---|---|
| Model | Seedream 5.5 (seedream-5.5 on Segmind), by ByteDance Seed |
| Inputs | A text prompt and up to 10 reference images in reference_images |
| Sizes | 1K, 1.5K or 2K (the default); 2K is 2560x1440 at 16:9 and about 2496x1664 at 3:2 |
| Aspect ratio | auto (the default), 1:1, 4:3, 3:4, 16:9, 9:16, 3:2, 2:3 or 21:9 |
| Background | auto (the default), transparent or opaque; transparent needs PNG |
| Output | One image per request, PNG (the default) or JPEG |
| Watermark | Off by default; set watermark to true to add a visible one |
| Response | The image file itself from /v1, or a request id from /v2 whose result is a hosted image URL |
| Layer Decomposition input | Exactly one image, plus an optional prompt naming the elements |
| Layer Decomposition output | A base image (z-index 0) and transparent PNG layers, each with a name, description and bounding box in pixels and on a 0 to 1000 scale |
| Layer Decomposition options | max_images 2 to 100, base included (default 30); text_recognition for font, size and colour; size auto, 1K, 1.5K or 2K |
Seedream 5.5 at a glance
- Developer
- ByteDance (the Seed team)
- Released
- 9 Nov 2026, announced by ByteDance Seed; a Pro version is planned with no date
- Modes
- Text to image, and editing or blending with up to 10 reference images
- Output
- 1K, 1.5K or 2K; auto or 8 aspect ratios from 1:1 to 21:9; PNG or JPEG
- Transparent output
- background set to transparent returns a PNG with an alpha channel, no cut-out step
- Multi-round editing
- ByteDance showed 100 edits in a row on one image; our cup, menu and cat edits each moved 0.3% to 1.4% of pixels
- Text accuracy
- 0.4% severe and 1.7% minor text corruption on Chinese and English text, per ByteDance
- Price on Segmind
- $0.021 per image at 1K or 1.5K, $0.037 at 2K, plus $0.0085 per reference image (as of 11 Nov 2026)
- Typical wait
- About 22 s (30-day average on Segmind, as of 11 Nov 2026); 14 s to 34 s in our runs
- Layer Decomposition
- Seedream 5.5 Layer Decomposition returns a base plus named transparent PNG layers, up to 100 images in all
- API endpoint
- POST https://api.segmind.com/v1/seedream-5.5 with an x-api-key header
Seedream 5.5 vs Seedream 5.0 Pro, Nano Banana 2.1 and GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst
Seedream 5.5 has the shortest average wait of the four on Segmind, the lowest price of the three with a fixed price per image, and is one of two with transparent output. On text and realism, ByteDance's own tests favour it; our single test was closer.
| Feature | Seedream 5.5 | Seedream 5.0 Pro | Nano Banana 2.1 | GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price per image | $0.021 at 1K or 1.5K, $0.037 at 2K | $0.053 at 1K, $0.107 at 2K | $0.045 to $0.155 by size and thinking | Billed by tokens; $0.044 for our 1536x1024 high-quality image |
| Reference images | Up to 10, $0.0085 each | Up to 10, $0.0036 per additional one | Up to 14, no extra charge | Accepted; billed as image input tokens |
| Largest output | 2K | 2K | 4K | 3840x2160 |
| Transparent PNG | Yes | Not offered | Not offered | Yes |
| Layer split | Seedream 5.5 Layer Decomposition | Seedream 5.0 Pro Layer Decomposition | No | No |
| Average wait, 30 days | About 22 s | About 87 s | About 41 s | About 39 s |
What ByteDance reports. In its launch evaluation on MagicArena, Seedream 5.5 improved on Seedream 5.0 Pro's quality scores and usability rates in all six use cases tested (e-commerce, marketing, film, gaming, office and fashion). A separate expert preference (GSB) test against the previous version scored +55.62% for image-to-image realism. ByteDance also puts it ahead of GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst and Nano Banana 2.1 on text structure and text-to-image realism, without publishing those scores.
Where to read it. ByteDance Seed's Seedream 5.5 announcement, 9 Nov 2026. These are the maker's own results, not an independent leaderboard. Compare the other models on their pages: Nano Banana 2.1 and GPT Image 2.5.
One prompt on all four models
The same prompt on 11 Nov 2026, at 2K on the three models with a 2K setting and at its default 1536x1024 on GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst: a portrait through glass with a hand-lettered card. All four spelled the films and times right. Seedream 5.5 cost the least and returned first; it was also the only one to add unreadable text.
Seedream 5.5$0.037, 20 s, 2K, 2496x1664Every film and time is right. The ampersand in Salt & Sky came out as a stylised mark, and a line of unreadable fine print appeared under the price sticker. 
Seedream 5.0 Pro$0.107, 57 s, 2K, 2496x1664Every line is right; the late show time wraps onto its own line. 
Nano Banana 2.1$0.075, 29 s, 2K, medium thinking, 2528x1696Every film and time is right, in the largest lettering of the four; the price sticker prints its separator dot twice and writes 9·50 with a raised dot. 
GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst$0.044, 33 s, 1536x1024, quality highEvery line is right; it added a customer reaching in from the foreground.
Prompt: A photograph through the glass of a small seaside cinema ticket booth at dusk. Behind the glass, the ticket seller, a woman in her seventies with silver curls and red reading glasses, smiles as she slides a paper ticket under the window. A hand-lettered programme card taped inside the glass reads 'TONIGHT AT THE ORION' and lists four lines: 'The Long Tide 18:30', 'Paper Moons 19:45', 'Salt & Sky 21:00', 'Late Show: Harbour Lights 22:40'. A smaller sticker in the corner reads 'Cash or card · Tickets 9.50'. Warm booth light on her face and hands, cool blue dusk outside reflected in the glass with faint fingerprints. 50mm, natural skin texture. No logos.
What teams build with Seedream 5.5
E-commerce and product
Cut products out at generation time, blend them into new scenes from references, and lift them back out of finished shots with Layer Decomposition.
See the poolside blendCampaigns and localisation
Edit one hero image round by round, rewrite its text in another script, and split a poster into text and art layers to rebuild it for a new format.
See the poster layersGames and motion
Generate stickers, props and soft effects with an alpha channel, or break an illustration into named layers for parallax and 2.5D motion.
See the transparent assetsMenus, packaging and signage
Write prices, ingredients and directions in small type, in Cyrillic, Thai, Hangul or Latin script, then proofread before print.
See the text samples
Use Seedream 5.5 from the API
One Segmind API key runs both models. Use /v1 for a direct response, or /v2 to queue the job and get a hosted image URL to pass into the next edit round.
Edit an image with Seedream 5.5
Send the current image as the first reference and name the one change. The response is the edited image.
curl -X POST "https://api.segmind.com/v1/seedream-5.5" \
-H "x-api-key: $SEGMIND_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"prompt": "Change only his jacket to a forest-green wool overshirt. Keep everything else exactly as it is.",
"reference_images": ["https://example.com/round-1.png"],
"size": "2K",
"aspect_ratio": "auto"
}' --output round-2.pngSplit an image into layers
Queue it on /v2. The result lists the base and each layer with its image URL, name, description and bounding box.
# Queue the job; the reply carries a request_id
curl -X POST "https://api.segmind.com/v2/seedream-5.5-layer-decomposition" \
-H "x-api-key: $SEGMIND_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"image": "https://example.com/poster.png",
"max_images": 10,
"text_recognition": true
}'
# Once its status is COMPLETED, fetch the base and the layers
curl "https://api.segmind.com/v2/requests/$REQUEST_ID" \
-H "x-api-key: $SEGMIND_API_KEY"Seedream 5.5 pricing
Pay per image, with no subscription. Seedream 5.5 and its Layer Decomposition share one price list: the size of each image you get back, plus each image you send.
| Charge | Seedream 5.5 | Layer Decomposition |
|---|---|---|
| Each output image, 1K or 1.5K (up to 2.61 MP) | $0.021164 | $0.021164 |
| Each output image, 2K (over 2.61 MP) | $0.037037 | $0.037037 |
| Each input or reference image | $0.0084656 | $0.0084656 |
| Job | Cost |
|---|---|
| A 1K transparent sticker | $0.021 |
| A 2K image from a prompt | $0.037 |
| A 2K edit with one reference | $0.046 |
| A 2K blend of three references | $0.062 |
| The six-round café edit chain at 2K | $0.265 |
| A 1.5K poster split into a base and 8 layers | $0.199 |
| A 2K photo split into a base and 3 layers | $0.109 |
- 1K and 1.5K cost the same, so 1.5K is the better default when 2K is more than you need.
- Transparent output costs nothing extra. Every reference image you send is billed.
- Layer Decomposition bills the base and each layer by its own size, plus the input image; max_images caps the total.
Seedream 5.5 FAQ
What is Seedream 5.5?
Seedream 5.5 is ByteDance's image generation and editing model, released on 9 November 2026. It keeps unedited areas stable across many rounds of edits, outputs transparent PNGs, renders small and multilingual text, and accepts up to 10 reference images. It returns one image per request at 1K, 1.5K or 2K.
How much does Seedream 5.5 cost on Segmind?
Seedream 5.5 costs $0.021164 per image at 1K or 1.5K and $0.037037 at 2K on Segmind, plus $0.0084656 for each reference image you send. A 2K edit with one reference is $0.046. Transparent output costs nothing extra, and there is no subscription (as of 11 Nov 2026).
How do I edit an image in rounds with Seedream 5.5?
Seedream 5.5 has no session or edit id. Send the current image as the first entry in reference_images with a prompt that names one change and lists what must stay the same, then send that result back for the next change. In our six-round test, the cup, menu and cat edits each changed 0.3% to 1.4% of the pixels.
Can Seedream 5.5 make transparent PNGs?
Yes. Set background to transparent and output_format to png, and Seedream 5.5 returns the image with a real alpha channel, so no background removal is needed. In our runs soft smoke kept partial transparency, while glass and tinted lenses came back opaque, so check see-through materials before you rely on them.
What is Seedream 5.5 Layer Decomposition?
Seedream 5.5 Layer Decomposition takes one finished image and returns a clean base plus each element as a named transparent PNG with a bounding box. Text recognition can also return each text line with its font, size and colour. On Segmind our poster split into a base and 8 layers in 43 s for $0.199.
How much does Seedream 5.5 Layer Decomposition cost?
Seedream 5.5 Layer Decomposition bills the base and every layer as separate images, at $0.021164 each at 1K or 1.5K and $0.037037 at 2K, plus $0.0084656 for the input image. Set max_images to cap the count. A 2K photo split into a base and 3 layers cost $0.109 on Segmind.
How many reference images does Seedream 5.5 accept?
Seedream 5.5 accepts up to 10 reference images in reference_images, for edits, style or identity. Name each one by position in the prompt, such as the bottle from the first reference, and say what to keep. Each reference adds $0.0084656 on Segmind, so a 2K blend of three references costs $0.062.
Which languages can Seedream 5.5 render as text?
ByteDance reports Seedream 5.5's text gains in Chinese and English, including dense small type. On this page Seedream 5.5 also spelled Russian, Thai, Korean and Spanish correctly. Put every line you want in quotes, keep layouts simple, and proofread: in one test it drew an ampersand as a stylised mark.
How does Seedream 5.5 compare with Seedream 5.0 Pro?
Seedream 5.5 costs about a third as much as Seedream 5.0 Pro on Segmind, $0.037 against $0.107 for a 2K image, and averages 22 s against 87 s. It adds transparent PNG output and a 1.5K tier. ByteDance reports higher quality scores than Seedream 5.0 Pro in all six use cases it tested.
Is Seedream 5.5 better than Nano Banana 2.1 or GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst?
ByteDance's own evaluation puts Seedream 5.5 ahead of GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst and Nano Banana 2.1 on text structure and text-to-image realism. In our one same-prompt test, Seedream 5.5 was the cheapest at $0.037 and the fastest at 20 s, but it stylised one ampersand and added unreadable fine print that the other two avoided.
How do I use the Seedream 5.5 API?
Create a Segmind API key, then POST a prompt to https://api.segmind.com/v1/seedream-5.5 with the key in the x-api-key header; add reference_images to edit. Seedream 5.5 returns the image file. The /v2 endpoint queues the job and returns a hosted URL you can pass straight into the next edit round.
Make it, cut it out, take it apart.
One API key for Seedream 5.5 and its Layer Decomposition, from $0.021 an image.
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