Overview
Seedream 5.5 is an image generation and editing model intended for professional visual-production workflows. ByteDance announced it on November 9, 2026. The domestic Volcano Ark model ID is doubao-seedream-5-5-261028. (seed.bytedance.com)
Capabilities
- Generates images from text, edits a single image, and combines up to 10 reference images. (docs.volcengine.com)
- Supports successive edits while preserving unedited regions and visual consistency. ByteDance demonstrates 100 consecutive edits; this is a demonstration, not a documented maximum or a guarantee for every image. (seed.bytedance.com)
- Generates native RGBA assets with fully or partially transparent regions from text or reference images. (seed.bytedance.com)
- Can decompose an image into one base image and up to 99 layers, with rich-text OCR information for suitable text layers. (docs.volcengine.com)
- Improves realism and the rendering of small Chinese and English text compared with the previous version, according to ByteDance’s evaluations. (seed.bytedance.com)
Uses and limitations
Potential uses include e-commerce imagery, advertising, film and game assets, presentations, design, and reusable transparent assets. Results should be reviewed for visual and text errors. The API supports 1K, 1.5K and 2K generation presets, PNG and JPEG output, and up to 10 reference images; transparent output requires PNG. For more consistent multi-round editing, the official guide recommends RGB input and an opaque background. (seed.bytedance.com)
Pricing
Checked November 15, 2026. The official Volcano Ark console search result showed a CNY 0.13 estimated cost for an image-generation configuration with zero input images and an output pixel tier of at most 2.61 million pixels. The accessible result did not establish the complete input and output rate schedule, so input-image charges, other output tiers and text-token charges could not be independently verified from the official pricing page. Treat the figure as a configuration estimate, not a complete price list. (console.volcengine.com)
The official international BytePlus plan page was also checked. It uses both “Seedream 5.5” and “Seedream 5.5 Pro” labels, while its accessible page did not reliably expose prices; a USD price for this exact model could not be verified. Do not assume international plans and domestic pricing are equivalent. (ai.byteplus.com)