Seedream image generation

Seedream is ByteDance's image-generation family. Single engine, multiple versions, native high-resolution support up to 4096×4096, and image editing via images[]:

version	Notes
v3	Earliest version. Compatibility only — prefer v4.5 or newer.
v4	Balanced quality and speed; lower cost than v4.5.
v4.5	Default — refined v4, better detail. Returned when version is omitted.
v5.0-lite	Latest fast tier — lighter than v4.5 with similar output characteristics for most workloads.

Default choice for new integrations: version: "v4.5" (also the API default when the field is omitted). Use v4 when you want lower cost with slightly less detail; try v5.0-lite for faster / cheaper output on the newest release.

Unlike most image engines exposed here, Seedream uses plain width / height (not an enum) and accepts very large outputs — up to 4096 px per side.

Prerequisites

• A Civitai orchestration token (Quick start → Prerequisites)
• For image editing: one or more source image URLs, data URLs, or Base64 strings

Text-to-image

POST https://orchestration.civitai.com/v2/consumer/workflows?wait=60
Authorization: Bearer <your-token>
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "steps": [{
    "$type": "imageGen",
    "input": {
      "engine": "seedream",
      "version": "v4",
      "prompt": "A photorealistic portrait of a woman with flowers in her hair, golden hour lighting",
      "width": 1024,
      "height": 1024,
      "guidanceScale": 2.5,
      "quantity": 1
    }
  }]
}

POST/v2/consumer/workflows

Set your Civitai API token via the Token button in the navbar to enable Try It.

Request body — edit to customize (e.g. swap the image URL or prompt)

{ "steps": [ { "$type": "imageGen", "input": { "engine": "seedream", "version": "v4", "prompt": "A photorealistic portrait of a woman with flowers in her hair, golden hour lighting", "width": 1024, "height": 1024, "guidanceScale": 2.5, "quantity": 1 } } ] }

Valid JSON

Parameters

Field	Default	Range	Notes
version	v4.5	v3 / v4 / v4.5 / v5.0-lite	Optional; defaults to v4.5.
prompt	— ✅	≥ 1 char	Natural-language works best.
width / height	1024	256–4096	Plain pixel dimensions. Stay near ~1 MP for native output; push higher only when you need print-size output.
quantity	1	1–12
guidanceScale	2.5	1–10	Lower than SD1/SDXL's 7 — similar range to Flux.
seed	random	int32
enableSafetyChecker	false	boolean
images[]	(none)	max 10	Passing images[] switches to edit mode. URLs, data URLs, or Base64.

Newer version (v5.0-lite)

{
  "steps": [{
    "$type": "imageGen",
    "input": {
      "engine": "seedream",
      "version": "v5.0-lite",
      "prompt": "A serene mountain landscape with a crystal clear lake at dawn",
      "width": 1536,
      "height": 864,
      "guidanceScale": 2.5
    }
  }]
}

POST/v2/consumer/workflows

Set your Civitai API token via the Token button in the navbar to enable Try It.

Request body — edit to customize (e.g. swap the image URL or prompt)

{ "steps": [ { "$type": "imageGen", "input": { "engine": "seedream", "version": "v5.0-lite", "prompt": "A serene mountain landscape with a crystal clear lake at dawn", "width": 1536, "height": 864, "guidanceScale": 2.5 } } ] }

Valid JSON

High-resolution output

Seedream can render up to 4096×4096 natively — useful when you need print-size output without a separate upscaling pass. Expect higher runtime:

{
  "steps": [{
    "$type": "imageGen",
    "input": {
      "engine": "seedream",
      "version": "v4.5",
      "prompt": "An epic fantasy dragon perched on a mountain peak, highly detailed",
      "width": 2048,
      "height": 2048,
      "guidanceScale": 2.5
    }
  }]
}

POST/v2/consumer/workflows

Set your Civitai API token via the Token button in the navbar to enable Try It.

Request body — edit to customize (e.g. swap the image URL or prompt)

{ "steps": [ { "$type": "imageGen", "input": { "engine": "seedream", "version": "v4.5", "prompt": "An epic fantasy dragon perched on a mountain peak, highly detailed", "width": 2048, "height": 2048, "guidanceScale": 2.5 } } ] }

Valid JSON

Watch for request-timeout behaviour at large dimensions — see Runtime below.

Image editing

Drop one or more source images into images[] and the same call switches to edit mode — same shape, prompt is treated as the edit instruction:

{
  "steps": [{
    "$type": "imageGen",
    "input": {
      "engine": "seedream",
      "version": "v4",
      "prompt": "Make it a winter scene with snow falling",
      "width": 1024,
      "height": 1024,
      "images": [
        "https://image.civitai.com/.../source.jpeg"
      ]
    }
  }]
}

POST/v2/consumer/workflows

Set your Civitai API token via the Token button in the navbar to enable Try It.

Request body — edit to customize (e.g. swap the image URL or prompt)

{ "steps": [ { "$type": "imageGen", "input": { "engine": "seedream", "version": "v4", "prompt": "Make it a winter scene with snow falling", "width": 1024, "height": 1024, "images": [ "https://image.civitai.com/xG1nkqKTMzGDvpLrqFT7WA/dd4b4ad5-040f-4f0e-baa3-6e1ff00add65/original=true,quality=90,optimized=true/26781018.jpeg" ] } } ] }

Valid JSON

Up to 10 reference images per call.

Reading the result

Standard imageGen output — an images[] array, one per quantity:

{
  "status": "succeeded",
  "steps": [{
    "name": "0",
    "$type": "imageGen",
    "status": "succeeded",
    "output": {
      "images": [
        { "id": "blob_...", "url": "https://.../signed.png" }
      ]
    }
  }]
}

Blob URLs are signed and expire — refetch the workflow or call GetBlob for a fresh URL.

Runtime

Size	Typical wall time	wait recommendation
≤ 1024×1024	10–25 s	wait=60 fine
1536×1536	20–45 s	wait=60 often fine; fall back to wait=0 on busy periods
2048–4096 per side	40–90+ s	Use wait=0 + polling — you'll usually exceed the 100-second request timeout otherwise

Combined with quantity > 2, high-res outputs cross the timeout quickly. Always poll for anything above ~1.5 megapixels unless you're running a known-fast version.

Cost

Billed in Buzz on the workflow's transactions. Use whatif=true for an exact preview; see Payments (Buzz) for currency selection.

Flat per-image pricing by version:

total = base × quantity

Version	Base (per image)
v4.5	60
v5.0-lite	52
v4 / v3	40

Examples:

• v4.5, 1024², quantity: 1 → 60 Buzz
• v4, 1024², quantity: 1 → 40 Buzz
• v5.0-lite, 1024², quantity: 1 → 52 Buzz
• v4.5 at 2048², quantity: 1 → 60 Buzz (dimensions don't affect the fixed base)
• v4 with 3 reference images, quantity: 1 → 40 Buzz (editing uses the same base)

Dimensions and images[] count don't change Seedream's Buzz price — the provider charges per-image-generated, not per-megapixel. If you need 4K output, you pay the same as 1K.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Likely cause	Fix
400 with "version must be one of"	Typo or unsupported version slug	Use v3, v4, v4.5, or v5.0-lite (note the v prefix).
400 with "width/height out of range"	Below 256 or above 4096	Clamp to 256–4096.
400 with "images maxItems"	More than 10 source images on edit	Trim to 10.
Output too saturated / painterly	guidanceScale too high	Seedream prefers 2–3 — values above 5 typically degrade output.
Request timed out (wait expired)	High-res output, large quantity, or busy queue	Resubmit with wait=0 and poll.
Step failed, reason = "blocked"	Seedream content filter	Don't retry the same input — see Errors & retries → Step-level failures.

Related

• SubmitWorkflow — operation used by every example here
• GetWorkflow — for polling
• Google image generation — commercial alternative with Nano Banana + Imagen 4
• OpenAI image generation — commercial alternative with GPT-Image + DALL·E
• Flux 2 / Qwen / SDXL — open-weights / sdcpp alternatives on Civitai-hosted workers
• Image upscaling — chain after imageGen (Seedream's native 4096 may already cover your upscale needs)
• Prompt enhancement — LLM-rewrite a prompt before feeding it in via $ref
• Full parameter catalog: the SeedreamImageGenInput schema in the API reference
• imageGen endpoint OpenAPI spec — standalone OpenAPI 3.1 YAML covering the full imageGen surface