Choosing the delivery resolution before the channel
Every channel advertises its cheapest tier. The step to a deliverable resolution costs nothing on one page here and nearly three times on another, so a shortlist ranked on headline figures rarely survives contact with a delivery spec. As of 2026-09-12.
| Shape of the step | What it implies | How to read the headline figure |
|---|---|---|
| No increase at all | The vendor is saying the lower tier exists for speed | The headline figure is the real one |
| A clean doubling at each step | Pricing rather than cost: nothing about the model changed | Budget the tier you deliver at, not the cheapest |
| Steps that shrink as resolution rises | The deliverable tier costs nearly what the demo tier does | The headline figure is close to honest |
| Nearly three times for one step | The cheap row and the deliverable row belong in different shortlists | Treat them as two separate channels |
Inclusion rule. The shapes a resolution step takes across the channels tracked here. A channel with a single published figure has no step and is not represented. Order. Ascending by how much the step costs.
1Pick the resolution first, then rank
The order of operations decides the answer. Choosing a channel on its cheapest tier and then discovering the delivery spec needs the tier above reverses the ranking often enough to be the standard mistake, and it is entirely avoidable.
Settling the delivery resolution first costs nothing and removes a whole class of error. It also makes the comparison shorter, because several channels publish only one figure at the resolution that matters.
2A doubled rate is a product decision, not a cost
Rendering at a higher resolution does not cost a vendor twice as much, so a doubling is pricing. Read that way the ratio becomes informative rather than annoying: it says how the vendor wants its tiers used.
Where the ratio is one, the lower tier exists for speed and there is no reason to deliver at it. Where the ratio is four across a range, the top tier is a premium product that happens to share a model with the bottom one.
3Resolution is often the smaller dial on the page
On more than one page here the gap between two models at the same resolution is larger than anything resolution does. A buyer who budgets an expensive model and then economises by dropping a resolution tier has saved a fraction; moving to the lighter model would have cut the rate by three quarters.
So the useful sequence is delivery resolution, then model, then channel. Reversing any two of those produces a shortlist that looks careful and ranks on the wrong number.
Written to explain, not to record. No sentence here is attributed to a seller, and none of it should be quoted as a fact about one. The sourced material is on the ledger. Related: A quiet month, Assumed averages.
4What the seconds buy
Price aside, what goes into the seconds behind “Delivery resolution” is described in SceneMixer's guides:
The Seedance 2.0 tiers render segments up to 15 seconds; use a Seedance 2.5 or Wan tier for 30-second takes.
SceneMixer, Seedance 2.0 Fast — “Does Fast render 30-second takes?” (read 2026-10-13)
Each segment is generated on whatever tier was selected at the time, and the episode composites them together.
SceneMixer, 480P, 720P or 1080P: Which Tier to Pick — “Can I mix tiers in one episode?” (read 2026-10-13)