API cost decision in 10 seconds

GPT-5.4 Mini vs Seed 1.6

Pick Seed 1.6 for lower cost; pick GPT-5.4 Mini only if the larger context window matters more.

Page updated: 2026-05-26T10:03:26Z Data confirmed: 2026-05-26T13:08:02Z Prices normalized to USD per 1M tokens Sample workload: 1M input + 500K output

Budget verdict

Pick Seed 1.6 for lower cost; pick GPT-5.4 Mini only if the larger context window matters more.

On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Seed 1.6 is estimated at $1.25 vs $3 for GPT-5.4 Mini, saving $1.75 (58.3% lower).

Cost-first pickSeed 1.6

Context-first pickGPT-5.4 Mini

Sample savings$1.7558.3%

10x traffic gap$17.5

GPT-5.4 Mini has more context, but Seed 1.6 saves $1.75 on the standard workload. At 10x that traffic, the same price gap is about $17.5. Use the calculator below to replace the sample workload with your own token volume.

Cost sensitivity

Workload Sensitivity

Same prices, different token mixes.

Seed 1.6 stays cheaper across input-heavy, balanced, and output-heavy sample workloads.

Workload shape	Token mix	Better pick	GPT-5.4 Mini	Seed 1.6
Input-heavy / RAG	5M input + 500K output	Seed 1.6	$6	$2.25
Balanced workload	1M input + 1M output	Seed 1.6	$5.25	$2.25
Output-heavy chatbot	1M input + 5M output	Seed 1.6	$23.25	$10.25

Cheaper input Seed 1.6 $0.75 vs $0.25 / 1M

Seed 1.6 is $0.5 cheaper per 1M input tokens (66.7% lower; 3x difference).

Cheaper output Seed 1.6 $4.5 vs $2 / 1M

Seed 1.6 is $2.5 cheaper per 1M output tokens (55.6% lower; 2.25x difference).

Larger context GPT-5.4 Mini 400K vs 262.14K

GPT-5.4 Mini has 137.86K more context (1.53x larger).

Sample workload Seed 1.6 $3 vs $1.25

Seed 1.6 is $1.75 cheaper on the standard workload (58.3% lower).

Estimate your workload cost

Your Workload Cost

Prices are normalized to USD per 1M tokens.

Monthly input tokens Monthly output tokens

GPT-5.4 Mini Calculating… Estimated API cost

Seed 1.6 Calculating… Estimated API cost

Cheaper for this workload Calculating… Difference: calculating…

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

Verdict

Seed 1.6 has the lower input price; Seed 1.6 has the lower output price; GPT-5.4 Mini offers the larger context window. For the 1M input plus 500K output sample, Seed 1.6 is cheaper for the standard workload.

For a 1M input token plus 500K output token workload, the estimated API cost is $3 for GPT-5.4 Mini and $1.25 for Seed 1.6.

Best Fit

Choose GPT-5.4 Mini when you care most about larger context window.

Choose Seed 1.6 when you care most about lower input-token price, and lower output-token price.

Decision Notes

On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Seed 1.6 is estimated at $1.25 vs $3 for GPT-5.4 Mini, saving $1.75 (58.3% lower).
Seed 1.6 is $1.75 cheaper on the standard workload (58.3% lower).
Seed 1.6 is $0.5 cheaper per 1M input tokens (66.7% lower; 3x difference).
Seed 1.6 is $2.5 cheaper per 1M output tokens (55.6% lower; 2.25x difference).
GPT-5.4 Mini has 137.86K more context (1.53x larger).

Head-to-Head Specs

Feature	GPT-5.4 Mini (OpenAI)	Seed 1.6 (ByteDance Seed)
Input Price prompt tokens per 1M	$0.75	$0.25
Completion Price per 1M tokens	$4.5	$2
Sample Workload Cost 1M input + 500K output	$3	$1.25
Context Window	400K	262.14K
Release Date	2026-03-17	2025-12-23

Use-Case Decision Matrix

Use case	Better pick	Why
Budget-constrained production	Seed 1.6	On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Seed 1.6 is estimated at $1.25 vs $3 for GPT-5.4 Mini, saving $1.75 (58.3% lower).
High-volume input processing	Seed 1.6	Lower prompt-token price matters most when prompts, retrieved passages, or documents dominate the bill.
Long responses and chatbots	Seed 1.6	Lower output-token price matters most when assistants generate many completion tokens.
RAG or long-document work	GPT-5.4 Mini	A larger context window leaves more room for retrieved passages, conversation history, or source files.

Related Alternatives

Same-provider lower-cost swaps

gpt-oss-120b (free) can replace GPT-5.4 Mini when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.
gpt-oss-20b (free) can replace GPT-5.4 Mini when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.
gpt-oss-20b can replace GPT-5.4 Mini when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.1.
gpt-oss-120b can replace GPT-5.4 Mini when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.13.

Larger context near this budget

Llama 4 Scout offers 10M context with $0.23 sample workload cost.
Grok 4.20 offers 2M context with $2.5 sample workload cost.
Owl Alpha offers 1.05M context with $0 sample workload cost.
DeepSeek V4 Flash offers 1.05M context with $0.2 sample workload cost.

Popular competitors

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Claude Sonnet 4.6 · Anthropic · #4

Cheaper alternatives

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Larger context alternatives

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Provider catalogs

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OpenAI catalog

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ByteDance Seed catalog

Check other ByteDance Seed models with comparable pricing, context, or release timing.

Open ByteDance Seed models

GPT-5.4 Mini

GPT-5.4 mini brings the core capabilities of GPT-5.4 to a faster, more efficient model optimized for high-throughput workloads. It supports text and image inputs with strong performance across reasoning, coding,...

Seed 1.6

Seed 1.6 is a general-purpose model released by the ByteDance Seed team. It incorporates multimodal capabilities and adaptive deep thinking with a 256K context window.