Seed 1.6 Flash
$0.075 per 1M input tokens and $0.30 per 1M output tokens · 262K context · vision, tools, reasoning, JSON.
Prices checked Oct 21, 2026 · tracked by LLM Cost Index since Oct 21, 2026
What Seed 1.6 Flash costs per month
Estimated monthly bill for typical workloads. Try your own numbers in the cost calculator.
| Workload | Per month |
|---|---|
| Customer chatbot 1,000 conversations a day, 8 turns each | $52.20 |
| Document Q&A (RAG) 500 questions a day over retrieved documents | $9.00 |
| Coding / tool-using agent 200 tasks a day, long tool-heavy contexts | $34.20 |
| Content generation 30 long articles a day | $0.877 |
| Classification / extraction 100,000 short items a day | $81.00 |
Prompts above 128K tokens are billed at $0.10 input / $0.80 output per 1M.
Price history
We started tracking Seed 1.6 Flash on Oct 21, 2026; the chart appears as soon as there is a second data point. See all recent price changes.
Cheaper alternatives to Seed 1.6 Flash
Models with the same tool calling, image input, structured output for at least 20% less (3:1 input/output mix), most capable first.
| Model | Input / 1M | Output / 1M | Context | Capabilities |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GLM 5.3 Flash Z.ai | $0.041 | $0.12 | 1.05M | visiontoolsreasoningJSONopen weights |
| Ling 3.0 Flash VL inclusionAI | $0.06 | $0.18 | 131K | visiontoolsreasoningJSONopen weights |
| Qwen3.5-9B Qwen | $0.08 | $0.13 | 262K | visiontoolsreasoningJSONopen weights |
| Ministral 3 3B 2512 Mistral AI | $0.10 | $0.10 | 131K | visiontoolsJSONopen weights |
| Gemma 3 12B | $0.05 | $0.15 | 131K | visiontoolsJSONopen weights |
What to switch to before Seed 1.6 Flash is retired
Replacements with the same must-have capabilities (tool calling, image input) and enough context, most capable first. See all models being retired.
| Replacement | Input / 1M | Output / 1M | Price vs today |
|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Opus 5.5 | $4.00 | $20.00 | 5995% more |
| Claude Sonnet 5.5 | $2.00 | $10.00 | 2948% more |
| Claude Fable 5.1 | $10.00 | $50.00 | 15138% more |
| GPT-6 Astra | $10.00 | $50.00 | 15138% more |
How to pay less for Seed 1.6 Flash
For a customer chatbot (1,000 conversations a day, 8 turns each) that costs $52.20 a month at list price without caching:
| Option | Per month | You save |
|---|---|---|
| Move to GLM 5.3 Flash (similar capabilities) | $16.82 | $35.38 (68%) |
Other workloads: cut-your-bill tool for Seed 1.6 Flash.
Specifications
| Model ID | bytedance-seed/seed-1.6-flash |
| Input | image, text, video |
| Output | text |
| Tool calling | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes |
| Reasoning mode | Yes |
| Open weights | No |
| Released | Dec 23, 2025 |
FAQ
- How much does Seed 1.6 Flash cost?
- $0.075 per million input tokens and $0.30 per million output tokens. Prompts over 128K tokens are billed at $0.10 / $0.80. Prices as of Oct 21, 2026.
- What is the context window of Seed 1.6 Flash?
- 262K tokens, with up to 33K output tokens per response.
- Does Seed 1.6 Flash support images, tools and structured output?
- Images as input: yes. Tool calling: yes. Structured (JSON) output: yes. Reasoning mode: yes.
- What are cheaper alternatives to Seed 1.6 Flash?
- Models with the same key capabilities for at least 20% less include GLM 5.3 Flash ($0.041 / $0.12), Ling 3.0 Flash VL ($0.06 / $0.18), Qwen3.5-9B ($0.08 / $0.13).
More from ByteDance Seed: all ByteDance Seed models · how we collect prices