Real-time web search
Its headline feature is web-connected retrieval, so it can ground generations in current events, trending topics, recently released products, and live information like today's weather.
Image by ByteDance
Seedream 5 Lite API
The accessible Lite variant of ByteDance's Seedream 5.0 family (early 2026), a unified multimodal model that adds deep reasoning and real-time web search to ground images in current, real-world information.
Integrate Seedream 5 Lite with a single API call — one key, one unified endpoint, and shared billing across every model on Apiframe.
model: "seedream-5-lite" 
What's special about Seedream 5 Lite
Deep visual reasoning
It uses multi-step, chain-of-thought thinking to understand the intent behind an instruction like a designer would, producing more physically plausible results with fewer hallucinations.
Rich world knowledge
It draws on broad knowledge across technology and humanities, which makes it strong for information-dense content like infographics, educational diagrams, and technical illustrations.
Strong instruction following and consistency
It follows complex, multi-part prompts reliably and improves subject consistency and image-text alignment over the previous generation.
Multi-image input and batch sets
It accepts up to 14 reference images for fusion and composition, and generates coherent image sets for campaigns and series.
Fast and commercially tuned
It generates in roughly 2 to 3 seconds at high resolution and is optimized for e-commerce, marketing, and cinematic looks, at a low per-image cost.
Made with Seedream 5 Lite
A few outputs generated through the Seedream 5 Lite API on Apiframe.
An infographic about today's weather patterns, with accurate current conditions and clean labels.
A minimalist editorial poster titled 'AI TRENDS 2026' with three labeled sections and crisp typography.
A premium e-commerce product page for an aromatherapy line, dark and light green palette, key selling points.
A cinematic portrait with Kodak Portra 400 film grain, a Dutch angle, and shallow depth of field, golden-hour light.
The new iPhone design in a clean minimalist product shot, referencing its current real-world look.
A campaign mind map for small kitchen appliances, three categories with hand-drawn icons and three features each.
Overview
- Endpoint
- POST /v2/images/generate
- Model ID
- seedream-5-lite
- Params key
- seedreamParams
- Modality
- Image
- Provider
- ByteDance
- Avg. completion
- ~12s
Capabilities
Aspect ratios1:1, 3:4, 4:3, 9:16, 16:9
Image inputSupported
Avg. time~12s
Quick start
Send a single POST /v2/images/generate request with your API key to
generate with Seedream 5 Lite. The call returns a jobId you can poll or
receive via webhook.
curl -X POST https://api.apiframe.ai/v2/images/generate \
-H "X-API-Key: afk_your_api_key_here" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"prompt": "a sleek silver sports car on a coastal highway at sunset, hyper-realistic",
"model": "seedream-5-lite",
"seedreamParams": {
"image_input": "https://example.com/input.jpg",
"output_format": "jpg",
"guidance_scale": 3,
"use_pre_llm": false
}
}'import requests
response = requests.post(
"https://api.apiframe.ai/v2/images/generate",
headers={
"X-API-Key": "afk_your_api_key_here",
"Content-Type": "application/json",
},
json={
"prompt": "a sleek silver sports car on a coastal highway at sunset, hyper-realistic",
"model": "seedream-5-lite",
"seedreamParams": {
"image_input": "https://example.com/input.jpg",
"output_format": "jpg",
"guidance_scale": 3,
"use_pre_llm": False
}
},
)
print(response.json()) # { "jobId": "...", "status": "QUEUED" }const response = await fetch("https://api.apiframe.ai/v2/images/generate", {
method: "POST",
headers: {
"X-API-Key": "afk_your_api_key_here",
"Content-Type": "application/json",
},
body: JSON.stringify({
"prompt": "a sleek silver sports car on a coastal highway at sunset, hyper-realistic",
"model": "seedream-5-lite",
"seedreamParams": {
"image_input": "https://example.com/input.jpg",
"output_format": "jpg",
"guidance_scale": 3,
"use_pre_llm": false
}
}),
});
const { jobId } = await response.json();
console.log(jobId);Response & job lifecycle
Generation is asynchronous. A successful submission returns 202 Accepted with a jobId. Poll GET /v2/jobs/{id} (or supply a webhook_url) until the status is COMPLETED; the result field then holds the output URL(s).
1. Submission response (202)
{
"jobId": "b2c3d4e5-f6a7-8901-bcde-f23456789012",
"status": "QUEUED"
}2. Poll for the result
curl https://api.apiframe.ai/v2/jobs/JOB_ID \
-H "X-API-Key: afk_your_api_key_here"import requests, time
while True:
job = requests.get(
"https://api.apiframe.ai/v2/jobs/JOB_ID",
headers={"X-API-Key": "afk_your_api_key_here"},
).json()
if job["status"] in ("COMPLETED", "FAILED"):
break
time.sleep(2)
print(job["result"])let job;
do {
await new Promise((r) => setTimeout(r, 2000));
job = await fetch("https://api.apiframe.ai/v2/jobs/JOB_ID", {
headers: { "X-API-Key": "afk_your_api_key_here" },
}).then((r) => r.json());
} while (job.status !== "COMPLETED" && job.status !== "FAILED");
console.log(job.result);Input schema
Request parameters accepted by the Seedream 5 Lite endpoint. Model-specific options are nested under the params object shown below.
| Parameter | Type | Required | Default | Allowed / range | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| prompt | string | required | — | — | Text description of what to generate. |
| model | string | required | "seedream-5-lite" | "seedream-5-lite" | The model identifier for this endpoint. |
| seedreamParams.image_input | string (URL) | optional | — | — | Reference image (URL) |
| seedreamParams.output_format | string | optional | "jpg" | "jpg", "png" | Output format |
| seedreamParams.guidance_scale | number | optional | 3 | min 1, max 10, step 0.5 | Guidance |
| seedreamParams.use_pre_llm | boolean | optional | false | — | Pre-process the prompt with an LLM. |
| seedreamParams.enhance_prompt | boolean | optional | false | — | Enhance prompt |
| seedreamParams.seed | number | optional | — | step 1 | Reuse a number to reproduce the same result. |
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about the Seedream 5 Lite API.
What is Seedream 5 Lite?
The public-facing Lite variant of ByteDance's Seedream 5.0 family, a unified multimodal image model with deep thinking and built-in web search.
What is web search in it?
It pulls real-time information from the web at generation time, so images can reflect current trends, events, products, and data rather than only training knowledge.
How is it different from Seedream 4.5?
It adds real-time search and deep reasoning, with stronger instruction following, consistency, and world knowledge, and a higher overall Elo score.
What does "Lite" mean here?
It is tuned for speed and throughput over maximum compute, making it the lighter, faster member of the 5.0 family rather than a less capable one.
How many reference images can it use?
Up to 14 in a single generation, for fusion and composition.
Where can you access it?
Through Apiframe, as well as ByteDance's Dreamina and CapCut apps and major hosting partners.
Still have questions?
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