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RETIRED SEP 21 2026AGENTIC CODING256K CONTEXTTEXT + VISIONCONTEXT CACHINGCNY SOURCE

Doubao Seed Code API Pricing

Retired September 21, 2026: Volcano Ark's model-deprecation notice stopped new purchases of doubao-seed-code-preview-251028 on July 10, 2026 and shut the service down on September 21, 2026, naming Doubao Seed Evolving as the migration target. Doubao Seed Code is ByteDance's code-specialised model for agentic programming, UI-to-code work, and bug-fixing loops. The official Volcano Ark model page last listed the <=32K tier at Y1.20/M input, Y8.00/M output, and Y0.24/M cache-hit input; AI//COST stores that as $0.1785/M, $1.1903/M, and $0.0357/M at Y6.7209/USD. Checked by hand against volcengine.com.

Input - per 1M tokens
$0.178/M
Original Y1.20/M CNY source
Output - per 1M tokens
$1.19/M
Original Y8.00/M CNY source
Cached input - per 1M tokens
$0.0357/M
Original Y0.24/M -80%
Effective - agentic blend
$0.152/M
92/8 split - 82% cache
§ 01 / TERMINAL

Doubao Seed Code API cost calculator.

Live calculator pre-loaded with Doubao Seed Code's baseline tier from the official Volcano Ark model page. Adjust for larger codebase prompts if you expect the 32K-128K or 128K-256K pricing bands instead of the default row.

$ /mo
Workload split
Prompt cache hit rate
Tokens you can process
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Words equivalent (English)
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Effective rate
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Open full calculator (all models · share URL · CSV) →
§ 02 / SCENARIOS

Doubao Seed Code cost on real workloads.

BUGFIX

Focused bugfix

$0.00192/task
8k in - 1.2k out~52,094 tasks/$100
UI TO CODE

Screenshot to frontend

$0.0055/screen
12k in - 4k out~18,188 screens/$100
AGENT

Repo iteration

$0.010/run
20k in - 7.5k out~9,847 runs/$100
REVIEW

PR review

$0.00395/review
10k in - 2.8k out~25,336 reviews/$100
§ 03 / TOKENIZER

Doubao Seed Code token counter and cost.

What's a token →
Calibrated · measured on the vendor's tokenizer · 2026-06-10 Auto-counts as you type

Counts use a chars-per-token calibration measured on the vendor's own published tokenizer (ByteDance-Seed/Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct, 2026-06-10). English prose is typically within a few percent; code and non-Latin scripts tokenize heavier. For billing-exact counts use the vendor's count-tokens API.

Characters 665
Words 98
Tokens (estimated) 128 tokens
Cost as input · uncached $0.00002 USD
Cost as output · uncached $0.00015 USD
Cost as cached input $0.000005 USD
§ 04 / SHELF

Doubao Seed Code vs similar models.

All models →
Model Input /M Output /M Effective blended Context Best for
Doubao Seed Code Current $0.178 cache $0.0357 $1.19 $0.152 agentic 92/8 128K Agentic coding and UI-to-code
Doubao Seed 2.0 Code $0.476 cache $0.0952 $2.38 $0.341 deprecated · +2.2× 256K Current flagship coding tier
Doubao Seed 2.0 Pro $0.476 cache $0.0952 $2.38 $0.341 deprecated · +2.2× 256K Complex agent workflows
GPT-5.3-Codex $1.75 cache $0.175 $14.00 $1.54 deprecated · +10× 400K OpenAI coding workflows
Claude Sonnet 5.5 $2.00 cache $0.10 $10.00 $1.29 +8.5× 1M Anthropic's current Sonnet

Doubao Seed Code API pricing FAQ.

Practical coding-model pricing questions, with the official CNY ladder separated from workload assumptions.

Q · 01 Is Doubao Seed Code still sold? +
No. Volcano Ark's model-deprecation notice stopped new purchases of doubao-seed-code-preview-251028 on July 10, 2026 and shut it down on September 21, 2026; remaining endpoints were switched to the migration target, Doubao Seed Evolving, or closed. This page keeps the last price Volcano Ark published for reference.
Q · 02 What is Doubao Seed Code priced at? +
The official Volcano Ark model page lists the <=32K tier at Y1.20/M input, Y8.00/M output, and Y0.24/M cache-hit input. AI//COST stores that as $0.1785/M, $1.1903/M, and $0.0357/M using Y6.7209/USD.
Q · 03 Does the price change for larger codebase prompts? +
Yes. The official model page shows 32K-128K at Y1.40/M input and Y12.00/M output, then 128K-256K at Y2.80/M input and Y16.00/M output. This page uses the <=32K baseline so the public comparison stays consistent.
Q · 04 How large is the cache-hit discount? +
Cache-hit input is listed at Y0.24/M on every published tier, versus Y1.20/M on the baseline input row. That is roughly an 80% reduction for repeated prompt segments.
Q · 05 How does it compare with Doubao Seed 2.0 Code? +
Doubao Seed 2.0 Code is the newer flagship coding row and is much pricier at $0.4761/M input and $2.3806/M output on its baseline tier. Seed Code is cheaper, but it is no longer the top of ByteDance's coding lineup.
Q · 06 Is this page using the Coding Plan subscription price? +
No. This page uses the official API token price from Volcano Ark's public model page, not the separate Coding Plan subscription packaging. That keeps the comparison aligned with other per-token model pages.
Q · 07 Why is the effective figure lower than the output price suggests? +
Because AI//COST applies a 92/8 workload with an 82% cache-hit assumption when showing the blended planning figure. The public list prices remain the CNY rows shown above.
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Reviewed by Yaroslav Vikhariev Founder · AI//COST · Prices checked by hand against volcengine.com · Last verified Oct 29, 2026
Methodology Report a correction More by Y.V.