Seedance 2.0 vs Runway Gen-4: Complete API Comparison
Compare Seedance 2.0 API (via Seedance2API) with Runway Gen-4 API. Pricing, features, multimodal capabilities, and developer experience compared.
Seedance 2.0 vs Runway Gen-4
A detailed comparison of Seedance 2.0 (via Seedance2API) and Runway Gen-4 AI video generation for developers.
Billing Comparison
Seedance 2.0 bills per second (billing_rule: "per_second") with Fast variants offering lower rates. Runway Gen-4 typically charges per generation.
Final pricing will be announced when Seedance 2.0 fully launches. Check the pricing page for current rates.
| Dimension | Seedance 2.0 | Runway Gen-4 |
|---|---|---|
| Billing model | Per-second | Per-generation / per-second |
| Quality tiers | 480p, 720p | 720p, 1080p |
| Fast lower-cost variants | ✅ 3 Fast models | ❌ |
| Pre-launch starting price | Lower (cents-level) | Higher |
Feature Comparison
| Feature | Seedance 2.0 | Runway Gen-4 |
|---|---|---|
| Text-to-video | ✅ seedance-2.0-text-to-video | ✅ |
| Image-to-video (1-image first frame) | ✅ seedance-2.0-image-to-video | ✅ |
| First-last-frame transition (2 images) | ✅ | Limited |
| Multimodal composition (9 images + 3 videos + 3 audio) | ✅ seedance-2.0-reference-to-video | ❌ |
web_search internet augmentation | ✅ text-to-video exclusive | ❌ |
| Max resolution | 720p | 1080p |
| Duration range | 4–15s | 4–10s |
| Webhook callbacks | ✅ | ✅ |
| Async task API | ✅ | ✅ |
Video Quality
Both models produce high-quality cinematic output. Runway Gen-4 has stronger in-video text rendering and supports higher resolutions. Seedance 2.0's exclusive advantage is multimodal reference composition — it can use up to 9 images + 3 videos + 3 audio clips as references in a single request, ideal for camera replication, style transfer, and audio-driven pacing.
Developer Experience
Seedance 2.0 via Seedance2API uses a clean REST API (Bearer token, standard JSON request body, per-second billing, webhook callbacks), backed by complete developer docs, code examples for all three modes, and 6 model IDs covering the full text / image / reference × standard / fast matrix.
Bottom Line
- Pick Seedance 2.0 if you need: multimodal reference composition, per-second billing, Fast iteration, webhook callbacks.
- Pick Runway Gen-4 if you specifically need 1080p output or heavy in-video text rendering.
Related
- Quick Start
- Reference-to-Video API — Seedance 2.0's core differentiator
- Fast Models
- Pricing