Wan 3.0 vs Seedance 2.5: one photo, one prompt, side by side
We run a meme-video app on these models. On November 9, 2026 we moved one of its templates from Seedance 2.5 to Wan 3.0. This is the test behind that: the same reference photo and the same prompt on both models, with what each run took and cost.
Our take: Wan 3.0 costs about a third as much per second at 480p and finished in about half the time. Its drift, smoke and caption followed the prompt more closely; Seedance 2.5 put the candles out sooner and moved the hair more. For short clips from one photo, we switched to Wan 3.0.
Models: wan-3.0-video, seedance-2.5. Tested 2026-11-09, 480p, 8 seconds, 9:16, one reference photo, no sound, same prompts and inputs on both.
Results
| Model | Succeeded | Average time | Average cost per run |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wan 3.0 Video | 1 / 1 | 104 s | $0.34 |
| Seedance 2.5 | 1 / 1 | 201 s | $0.96 |
Price on KeelRouter
| Option | Wan 3.0 Video | Seedance 2.5 |
|---|---|---|
| 480p | $0.042 | $0.12 |
| 720p | $0.085 | $0.28 |
| 1080p | $0.17 | — |
| 480p-prime | $0.066 | — |
| 720p-prime | $0.13 | — |
| 1080p-prime | $0.26 | — |
per second. Prices follow our catalog and update when providers change theirs.
Birthday drift: the person in the photo drives in and blows out the candles
Image 1 is the birthday girl. She is the only person in the car and she drives it herself: she sits in the driver's seat behind the steering wheel, both hands on the wheel, and she is the one who drives in and pulls the drift. There is no passenger and nobody else in the car. In every frame she keeps exactly the face, hair, skin, age and body from Image 1 and wears exactly the clothes and accessories in Image 1. Her mood: effortlessly cool and nonchalant, like a music-video star arriving at her own birthday. Calm, relaxed face, half-lidded confident eyes, eyebrows relaxed, unhurried movements. Never surprised, never wide-eyed, never raised eyebrows, never an open round mouth, never a big grin or laughing. An 8-second vertical phone video, one continuous handheld shot. A friend stands at the edge of an empty asphalt parking lot at dusk and holds a tall birthday cake low in the foreground at the bottom of the frame with both hands: glossy red frosting, black satin bows, tall thin twisted gold candles, all lit. The cake stays at the bottom of the frame the whole time; the friend's face is never seen. - 0–2 s: far away across the lot, under a soft blue-and-peach dusk sky, a glossy black luxury car speeds straight toward the camera, headlights on; through the windscreen she is at the wheel, alone. - 2–3.5 s: right in front of the cake she turns the wheel hard and the car whips into a sharp sideways drift, tyres squealing, white tyre smoke. The car slides broadside so that the driver's side, with its window fully open, faces the cake. With the sharp turn her long hair flies out of the open driver's window in a long sweep. - 3.5–6 s: slow motion, the car still gliding sideways past the cake. Keeping her left hand on the wheel, she leans her head and shoulders just a little out of the driver's window, eyes on the camera, and blows out the candles once: lips lightly pursed, a single short soft breath, like blowing out a match. The flames go out together, thin wisps of smoke drift, her hair still floating in slow motion. The car comes to rest. - 6–8 s: hard cut to fully black and white: pure grayscale, no colour anywhere, the cake grey too, the candles already out. The camera a little closer: she sits back in the driver's seat with one forearm resting on the open window frame, head slightly tilted, looking into the camera with calm, cool, almost bored confidence. Her mouth is closed and relaxed; she does not blow again, no air kiss. A small, elegant, thin white handwritten caption "Happy birthday to me" sits over the cake. Photorealistic, real smartphone footage, cinematic dusk light, slow-motion hair and smoke. Silent video, no music. No other text, no logos, no watermark.
104 s · $0.34 · prompt says "Image 1"
201 s · $0.96 · prompt says "@image1"
When to use which
Wan 3.0 Video
- A fast, hard drift with a thick burst of tyre smoke, as the prompt asked.
- The cake matches the description: red frosting, black satin bows, tall gold candles.
- The "Happy birthday to me" caption is clean and easy to read.
- Kept the face, hair and cream jacket from the photo.
- The breath comes late: the flames shrink and go out right at the cut to black and white, not in one puff.
- It drew a real car brand badge, although the prompt asked for no logos.
Seedance 2.5
- Strong slow-motion hair streaming out of the window.
- All the candles are out by about 5.4 seconds, before the cut.
- No visible brand badge on the car.
- Little tyre smoke: the car glides in more than it drifts.
- The caption is small, written on the cake and partly hidden by the candles.
- The eyebrows lift while blowing, against the calm look the prompt asked for.
- About twice as long to finish and about three times the price per second.
FAQ
- Is Wan 3.0 cheaper than Seedance 2.5?
- Yes, per second at both tiers they share on KeelRouter: $0.042 against $0.12 at 480p and $0.085 against $0.28 at 720p (November 9, 2026). Wan 3.0 also has 1080p. The price table above is read from our live catalog.
- How do I refer to my photo in a Wan 3.0 prompt?
- Send the photos as reference_image_urls and call them "Image 1", "Image 2" in the prompt. Wan 3.0 does not read the "@image1" style that Seedance uses; we rewrote only that part of the prompt.
- Which one is faster?
- In this test Wan 3.0 finished in about 104 seconds and Seedance 2.5 in about 201. That is one run each, and queue times change during the day.
- Is one test enough to choose a model?
- No. This is one prompt with one run per model. Read it as an example of a short clip made from one photo, and try your own prompt on both before you switch.
- Can I call both models with one API key?
- Yes. On KeelRouter both are behind POST /v1/video/generations with one key: set model to wan-3.0-video or seedance-2.5. Wan 3.0 names its fields ratio and audio; Seedance uses aspect_ratio and generate_audio.
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KeelRouter is an independent service and is not affiliated with the makers of these models. Model names are trademarks of their owners, used here only to name the model a request runs on. Results are from our own runs on the date above and may differ for other prompts.