Seed 1.6 Flash is $2.92 cheaper per 1M input tokens (97.5% lower; 40x difference).
API cost decision in 10 seconds
Anthropic Claude Sonnet Latest vs Seed 1.6 Flash
Pick Seed 1.6 Flash for lower cost; pick Anthropic Claude Sonnet Latest only if the larger context window matters more.
Pricing data updated:
Prices normalized to USD per 1M tokens
Sample workload: 1M input + 500K output
Budget verdict
Pick Seed 1.6 Flash for lower cost; pick Anthropic Claude Sonnet Latest only if the larger context window matters more.
On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Seed 1.6 Flash is estimated at $0.22 vs $10.5 for Anthropic Claude Sonnet Latest, saving $10.28 (97.9% lower).
Cost-first pickSeed 1.6 Flash
Context-first pickAnthropic Claude Sonnet Latest
Sample savings$10.2897.9%
10x traffic gap$102.75
Anthropic Claude Sonnet Latest has more context, but Seed 1.6 Flash saves $10.28 on the standard workload. At 10x that traffic, the same price gap is about $102.75. Use the calculator below to replace the sample workload with your own token volume.
Cost sensitivity
Workload Sensitivity
Seed 1.6 Flash stays cheaper across input-heavy, balanced, and output-heavy sample workloads.
| Workload shape | Token mix | Better pick | Anthropic Claude Sonnet Latest | Seed 1.6 Flash |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Input-heavy / RAG | 5M input + 500K output | Seed 1.6 Flash | $22.5 | $0.53 |
| Balanced workload | 1M input + 1M output | Seed 1.6 Flash | $18 | $0.38 |
| Output-heavy chatbot | 1M input + 5M output | Seed 1.6 Flash | $78 | $1.57 |
Seed 1.6 Flash is $14.7 cheaper per 1M output tokens (98% lower; 50x difference).
Anthropic Claude Sonnet Latest has 737.86K more context (3.81x larger).
Seed 1.6 Flash is $10.28 cheaper on the standard workload (97.9% lower).
Estimate your workload cost
Your Workload Cost
This estimate uses normalized public API pricing per 1M tokens. It is a planning aid, not a billing quote. Verify provider pricing, limits, and terms before production use.
Quick Decision
Seed 1.6 Flash has the lower input price; Seed 1.6 Flash has the lower output price; Anthropic Claude Sonnet Latest offers the larger context window. For the 1M input plus 500K output sample, Seed 1.6 Flash is cheaper for the standard workload.
For a 1M input token plus 500K output token workload, the estimated API cost is $10.5 for Anthropic Claude Sonnet Latest and $0.22 for Seed 1.6 Flash.
Choose Anthropic Claude Sonnet Latest when you care most about larger context window.
Choose Seed 1.6 Flash when you care most about lower input-token price, and lower output-token price.
- On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Seed 1.6 Flash is estimated at $0.22 vs $10.5 for Anthropic Claude Sonnet Latest, saving $10.28 (97.9% lower).
- Seed 1.6 Flash is $10.28 cheaper on the standard workload (97.9% lower).
- Seed 1.6 Flash is $2.92 cheaper per 1M input tokens (97.5% lower; 40x difference).
- Seed 1.6 Flash is $14.7 cheaper per 1M output tokens (98% lower; 50x difference).
- Anthropic Claude Sonnet Latest has 737.86K more context (3.81x larger).
| Feature | Anthropic Claude Sonnet Latest (Anthropic) | Seed 1.6 Flash (ByteDance Seed) |
|---|---|---|
| Input Price prompt tokens per 1M | $3 | $0.075 |
| Completion Price per 1M tokens | $15 | $0.3 |
| Sample Workload Cost 1M input + 500K output | $10.5 | $0.22 |
| Context Window | 1M | 262.14K |
| Release Date |
Use-Case Decision Matrix
| Use case | Better pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Budget-constrained production | Seed 1.6 Flash | On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Seed 1.6 Flash is estimated at $0.22 vs $10.5 for Anthropic Claude Sonnet Latest, saving $10.28 (97.9% lower). |
| High-volume input processing | Seed 1.6 Flash | Lower prompt-token price matters most when prompts, retrieved passages, or documents dominate the bill. |
| Long responses and chatbots | Seed 1.6 Flash | Lower output-token price matters most when assistants generate many completion tokens. |
| RAG or long-document work | Anthropic Claude Sonnet Latest | A larger context window leaves more room for retrieved passages, conversation history, or source files. |
Related Alternatives
- Claude 3 Haiku can replace Anthropic Claude Sonnet Latest when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.88.
- Claude 3.5 Haiku can replace Anthropic Claude Sonnet Latest when lower sample workload cost matters most: $2.8.
- Anthropic Claude Haiku Latest can replace Anthropic Claude Sonnet Latest when lower sample workload cost matters most: $3.5.
- Claude Haiku 4.5 can replace Anthropic Claude Sonnet Latest when lower sample workload cost matters most: $3.5.
- Llama 4 Scout offers 10M context with $0.23 sample workload cost.
- Grok 4.20 Multi-Agent offers 2M context with $5 sample workload cost.
- Grok 4.20 offers 2M context with $2.5 sample workload cost.
- GPT-5.4 offers 1.05M context with $10 sample workload cost.
- No popular competitor is currently available.
Cheaper alternatives
Review low-cost models sorted by a standard 1M input plus 500K output workload.
Open cheapest modelsLarger context alternatives
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Open largest context modelsProvider catalogs
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Open provider hubsAnthropic catalog
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Seed 1.6 Flash is an ultra-fast multimodal deep thinking model by ByteDance Seed, supporting both text and visual understanding. It features a 256k context window and can generate outputs of...