ByteDance · Images · standard
Seedream 5 Lite
The default image model: cheap, fast, takes seven references, and gives away its top resolution.
What it costs
| Size · 2K | 3 credits |
| Size · 3K | 3 credits |
What it takes
| Aspect ratios | 1:1 4:3 3:4 16:9 9:16 3:2 2:3 21:9 |
| Reference images | 7 |
When to reach for it
If you have no opinion about which image model to use, this is the one to start with. Three credits, seven reference images, and eight aspect ratios including the 21:9 that most of the catalog does not offer. It handles the ordinary run of work, from product shots and characters to scenes and style studies, without needing much persuasion.
The one thing worth knowing is that its size setting charges the same for 3K as it does for 2K. There is no reason to run it at 2K. Set it to 3K and take the resolution for nothing, which is a quirk of how the provider meters this model rather than anything we chose.
Where it gives way is instruction-following on complicated compositions: several objects in stated spatial relationships, or text that has to read as specific words. That is what GPT Image 2 is better at, and it costs roughly four times as much. Move up when a prompt has failed here twice for the same reason, not as a general precaution. Most prompts that fail on this model fail on the premium ones too, because the problem is the prompt or a missing reference.
Made with it
Clean up the shot you have
Your own photo, lit like a studio.
One photo, the whole listing
Every angle and background the store asks for.
Explain it end to end
Seven scenes, cut to the voice-over.
Draw it instead of shooting it
Ink on paper, cut to a voice.
In the arena
Ranked #5 with a rating of 1443. 0 of 4
Week 36, 2026 — Arena week 36: every model can spell nowCompared with
- Seedream 5 Lite vs Nano Banana 2
Take Seedream 5 Lite unless the deliverable has an unusual shape. Then it has to be Nano Banana 2.
Guides that cover it
- Two pictures, fifteen seconds: the first-and-last-frame method
Make the opening frame and the closing frame yourself, hand a video model both, and let it fill the middle. Nine models take a last frame. What it buys.
- Which image model to reach for, and when
Twelve image models, from half a credit to twenty-one. What each one is for, where the resolution setting changes the price, and when the cheap tier is right.
Seedream 5 Lite is one pick in the composer.
Every model in this catalog runs from the same prompt bar, priced in the same credits. New accounts start with some to spend.
Start picturing