Use Wan 3.0 for volume and Seedance 2.5 for people talking to camera. The cheapest Wan 3.0 API costs about a third as much per second as the cheapest Seedance 2.5 API, and Wan ranks first for text to video on Artificial Analysis, a leaderboard built from blind votes. Seedance 2.5 ranks first there for lip sync and for retail and e-commerce videos, which covers most UGC ads.
Both make clips of up to 30 seconds with sound, at up to 1080p, in vertical 9:16. Neither has open weights. Facts and prices checked October 23, 2026.
How do Wan 3.0 and Seedance 2.5 compare?
| Wan 3.0 | Seedance 2.5 | |
|---|---|---|
| Made by | Alibaba | ByteDance Seed |
| Released | August 2026 | July 31, 2026 |
| Clip length | 2 to 30 seconds | 4 to 30 seconds |
| Resolution | 480p, 720p, 1080p | 480p, 720p, 1080p (1080p on fewer providers) |
| Sound | Yes, in the same pass | Yes, in the same pass, speech in 11 languages |
| References | Up to 10 images, 5 videos, 5 audio clips, plus a document or web page | Up to 30 images, 10 videos, 10 audio clips |
| Edit and extend | Yes, on some providers | Yes |
| Vertical 9:16 | Yes | Yes |
| Open weights | No | No |
| Cheapest 720p API | $0.083 per second (Alibaba Cloud) | $0.2312 per second (Replicate) |
| 10 s clip at 720p | $0.83 | $2.31 |
From Alibaba Cloud, DeepInfra, BytePlus, and each provider's pricing page.
Which one looks better?
It depends on the shot. Artificial Analysis shows people two videos from the same prompt and asks which is better, then ranks models by the votes. On its leaderboards on October 23, 2026:
- In text to video with sound, Wan 3.0 is first with an Elo score of 1175. Seedance 2.5 is fifth with 1158 (leaderboard).
- In image to video with sound, Seedance 2.5 is third with 1138 and Wan 3.0 is fifth with 1127. Artificial Analysis counts that as a statistical tie (leaderboard).
The category boards show where each one wins:
| Category, with sound | Wan 3.0 | Seedance 2.5 |
|---|---|---|
| Dialogue and lip sync | #4 (1165) | #1 (1206) |
| Retail and e-commerce | #4 (1133) | #1 (1164) |
| Marketing and advertising | #5 (1166) | #4 (1172) |
| Social media and creator | #4 (1180) | #5 (1178) |
| Text rendering | #4 (1336) | #9 (1286) |
Rank and Elo score. Each board has about 600 votes and a margin of about 44 points, so small gaps are close to a tie.
When it launched the new benchmark, Artificial Analysis called Seedance 2.5 "the human performance specialist", first for human anatomy and for dialogue and lip sync. It said audio sync is Wan 3.0's weakest area, that Wan leads on camera control, and that Wan "stands out for detailed, polished non-photorealistic styles" (Artificial Analysis on X).
Which one is cheaper?
| Model and provider | 720p per second | 10 s clip |
|---|---|---|
| Wan 3.0 on Alibaba Cloud (US, Europe, Japan) | $0.083 | $0.83 |
| Wan 3.0 on fal.ai | $0.1 | $1.00 |
| Wan 3.0 on DeepInfra | $0.2 | $2.00 |
| Seedance 2.5 on Replicate | $0.2312 | $2.31 |
| Seedance 2.5 on Kie.ai | $0.315 | $3.15 |
| Seedance 2.5 on WaveSpeed | $0.36 | $3.60 |
| Seedance 2.5 on fal.ai | $0.473 | $4.73 |
Wan 3.0 prices checked October 23, 2026, Seedance 2.5 prices checked October 15, 2026, from each provider's pricing page.
Wan 3.0, by a lot. The cheapest Wan clip costs about a third of the cheapest Seedance clip at 720p. Set your own volume in the Seedance and Wan cost calculator, or see every provider and its price under where you can use each one.
Which one is better for UGC ads?
- For a person talking to camera, use Seedance 2.5. It leads for lip sync and for product videos. One catch: BytePlus's API does not accept reference images or videos with real human faces, so you cannot feed it a real creator's photo there.
- For hook tests and volume, use Wan 3.0. At about a third of the price, you can test more than twice as many openings for the same budget.
- For text on screen, b-roll, and animated styles, Wan 3.0 again. It ranks higher for text rendering and leads on camera control.
- When you are not sure, test both. Draft five hooks in Wan, render the best one in both models, and keep the better take.
That is how we work at ugcMaxx. We make every video with AI, on whichever model fits the shot, and our team writes, directs, and edits each one. Many cheap tests come first, then more budget for what wins. Read more in what is UGC maxxing.
Where can you use each one?
Wan 3.0 is on Alibaba Cloud, including its US region, and on fal.ai, DeepInfra, OpenRouter, and Higgsfield. Seedance 2.5 is on Replicate, fal.ai, Kie.ai, WaveSpeed, OpenRouter, Higgsfield, and ByteDance's own Dreamina and BytePlus. Two limits for US teams: Dreamina announced Seedance 2.5 for Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and South America, without the US (CapCut newsroom), and the US is not on BytePlus's list of countries (BytePlus). Replicate, fal.ai, and OpenRouter list it with no US limit. For the two subscription apps, see Higgsfield vs Sume.
