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Is Seedance Open Source?

The definitive answer on Seedance's open source status. Which versions are available, where to find model weights, license restrictions, and the best open-source alternatives for local AI video generation.

Seedance 2.0 Is Not Open Source

As of February 2026, Seedance 2.0 (ByteDance's flagship AI video generation model) is proprietary. The model weights, training code, and inference code are not publicly available.

What this means in practice:

  • Cannot download Seedance 2.0 weights
  • Cannot run Seedance 2.0 locally or self-host
  • Cannot fine-tune or modify the model
  • Not available on HuggingFace, GitHub, or model hubs
  • Accessible via Dreamina web platform
  • Accessible via BytePlus / fal.ai / Replicate API
  • Accessible via Little Skylark mobile app

Open Source Status by Seedance Version

A complete breakdown of every known Seedance model version and its availability.

Model Open Source? Weights Available? License Access Method
Seedance 2.0 No No Proprietary Dreamina, API
Seedance 1.5 Pro No No Proprietary Dreamina, API
Seedance 1.0 Pro No No Proprietary Dreamina, API
Seedance Lite No No Proprietary Dreamina, API
Wan 2.1 (Related) Yes HuggingFace Apache 2.0 Local, HuggingFace
Wan 2.6 (Related) Yes HuggingFace Apache 2.0 Local, HuggingFace
About Wan 2.1/2.6: While Wan is a separate model from Seedance, it originates from related ByteDance research and shares architectural similarities. Wan 2.1 (14B parameters, Apache 2.0 license) is widely considered the best open-source AI video generation model as of early 2026, making it the closest open-source "alternative" to Seedance.

HuggingFace Availability

What you can and cannot find on HuggingFace regarding Seedance models.

Not on HuggingFace

  • Official Seedance 2.0 weights
  • Official Seedance 1.5 Pro weights
  • Official Seedance 1.0 Pro weights
  • Any official Seedance model files

Available on HuggingFace

  • Wan 2.1 T2V (1.3B and 14B variants)
  • Wan 2.1 I2V models
  • Wan 2.6 updated models
  • Community model cards referencing Seedance
  • HuggingFace Spaces with Seedance API demos

License Types & Restrictions

Understanding the licensing landscape for Seedance and related models.

Seedance (Proprietary)

All Seedance models are governed by Dreamina's Terms of Service. Key restrictions:

  • Free tier: personal use only, watermarked
  • Standard plan: commercial license included
  • Enterprise: full commercial + team rights
  • Cannot redistribute model weights
  • Cannot reverse-engineer the model
  • Cannot create derivative models

Wan 2.1 (Apache 2.0)

Wan 2.1 uses the permissive Apache 2.0 license. This means:

  • Free for personal and commercial use
  • Can modify and distribute
  • Can create derivative models
  • Can use in closed-source products
  • Must include license notice and attribution
  • No warranty provided

Open Source Alternatives to Seedance

If you need an open-source AI video generation model that you can run locally, fine-tune, and use without API costs, these are your best options in February 2026.

Model Parameters License Quality Min VRAM Best For
Wan 2.1 (14B) 14B Apache 2.0 Excellent 24GB Closest to Seedance quality
Wan 2.1 (1.3B) 1.3B Apache 2.0 Good 8GB Low VRAM / rapid prototyping
Wan 2.6 14B+ Apache 2.0 Excellent 24GB Latest improvements over 2.1
CogVideoX 5B Apache 2.0 Good 16GB Balanced quality/resource usage
Mochi 1 10B Apache 2.0 Good 24GB Motion quality focus
LTX-Video 2B LTXV License Moderate 8GB Fast generation, low resources

Our Recommendation

For the closest experience to Seedance 2.0 with an open-source model, use Wan 2.1 (14B) or Wan 2.6. These models share research lineage with Seedance and produce the highest quality open-source video output as of February 2026. See our Run Locally guide for setup instructions.

Open Source vs API vs Dreamina

Choosing between running an open-source model locally, using the Seedance API, or the Dreamina web platform.

Factor Open Source (Wan 2.1) Seedance API Dreamina Web
Quality High (close to Seedance) Highest (Seedance 2.0) Highest (Seedance 2.0)
Cost Free (hardware only) $0.01-0.75/video $0-9.60/month
Privacy Full (local only) Data sent to server Data sent to server
Customization Full (fine-tune, modify) Prompt-only Prompt-only
Setup Effort High (GPU, Python, etc.) Medium (API key) None (browser)
Offline Use Yes No No
Scaling Limited by hardware Unlimited (pay per use) Credit-based

Community & Contributing

Even though Seedance itself is proprietary, there is an active community building tools, integrations, and resources around it.

👁

ComfyUI Nodes

Community-maintained ComfyUI nodes that connect to the Seedance API. Open source on GitHub. Contributions welcome for new features and provider support. See our ComfyUI guide.

📝

Prompt Libraries

Open-source prompt collections optimized for Seedance, including this site. Most Seedance prompts also work well with Wan 2.1 and other video models due to shared prompt conventions.

🚀

Wan 2.1 Ecosystem

Since Wan 2.1 is fully open source, contributing to its ecosystem benefits the entire AI video community. Fine-tuning datasets, LoRA adapters, and workflow tools are actively developed on GitHub and HuggingFace.

Open Source & Licensing Questions

No. Seedance 2.0 is a proprietary model developed by ByteDance. The model weights, training code, and inference code are not publicly available. It can only be accessed through Dreamina (ByteDance's creative platform), the Little Skylark mobile app, or via API through BytePlus and third-party wrappers like fal.ai and Replicate.

No official Seedance model weights are on HuggingFace as of February 2026. However, the related Wan 2.1 and Wan 2.6 models (from ByteDance-affiliated research) are available on HuggingFace under the Apache 2.0 license. These are the closest open-source equivalents and share architectural similarities with Seedance.

Wan 2.1 (14B) is widely regarded as the best open-source AI video generation model as of early 2026. It produces high-quality output approaching Seedance 2.0's level, runs on consumer GPUs (24GB VRAM), and uses the permissive Apache 2.0 license. Wan 2.6 offers further improvements. For lower resource requirements, Wan 2.1 (1.3B) runs on as little as 8GB VRAM with reduced quality.

Depends on your plan. Dreamina's Free tier does not include commercial licensing — outputs are watermarked and for personal use only. The Standard plan (~$9.60/month) and Enterprise plans include full commercial licensing for all generated content. See our pricing page for details.

There is no official announcement from ByteDance about open-sourcing Seedance 2.0. ByteDance has historically released older model versions after newer ones launch (a common pattern in AI labs), so it is conceivable that earlier Seedance versions could eventually be open-sourced. However, this is speculation. We will update this page if any announcements are made.

No, Seedance models cannot be fine-tuned since the weights are not available. For custom fine-tuning, use open-source alternatives like Wan 2.1, which supports LoRA and full fine-tuning. If you need Seedance-quality output for a specific domain, the best approach is detailed prompt engineering using our prompt formula and prompt generator.

Choose Your Path

Use Seedance via API for top quality, or go open source with Wan 2.1 for full control.