Leap API
Seedream 4.5 APIByteDance's model, through Leap
2K or 4K images with crisp typography, and edits of up to 14 reference images. One Leap key and one balance run it and every other model, priced per call in dollars.
First $5 top-up, no card fee.
- One key for every model
- Every call quoted first
- A failed call costs nothing
curl https://api.tryleap.ai/v1/generations \ -H "x-api-key: $LEAP_API_KEY" \ -H "content-type: application/json" \ -H "prefer: wait=60" \ -d '{ "model": "bytedance/seedream-4.5", "input": { "prompt": "A silk scarf in the wind on a ferry deck", "aspect_ratio": "1:1" } }' # Video often outlasts the wait and answers "queued" or "running".# Put its "id" in GENERATION_ID and read it again until it is done:# curl https://api.tryleap.ai/v1/generations/$GENERATION_ID -H "x-api-key: $LEAP_API_KEY"Set LEAP_API_KEY and send it. With prefer: wait=60 the answer holds the result when the call finishes within a minute; a longer one is read again by its ID.
- Model ID
- bytedance/seedream-4.5
- Price per call
- $0.054
- This call
- An image costs $0.054.
- First top-up
- A first top-up of $5, with no fee, covers 92 calls like it.
What it makes
Made with Seedream 4.5
Real Seedream 4.5 runs on Leap. Each one passed Leap's media quality check before it was shown.

“Wide shot, 35mm, 5 a.m. in an empty steep street in Alfama, Lisbon: wet cobbles, sodium streetlights, a yellow vintage tram passing close to camera in motion blur; beyond it, under a streetlight, the dancer from the reference image in the same red-and-cream windbreaker, wide black trousers and white sneakers stands mid-move with one arm up. No readable text, no logos. Shot on 35mm, handheld feel, grain. Palette: tram yellow, track-jacket red, azulejo blue, dawn pink. Lisbon at the end of the night.”

“Outdoor brand campaign poster for an invented Australian sunscreen brand called HALF SHADE. Photograph: a 72-year-old Greek Australian man, short and barrel-chested, deeply tanned and wrinkled skin, white chest hair, a battered straw hat, a white singlet, a thick stripe of white zinc cream across his nose, stands proudly in his backyard vegetable garden in suburban Melbourne holding up a huge bunch of homegrown tomatoes on the vine, tall tomato plants on stakes, a rotary washing line and a corrugated tin fence behind him, harsh midday sun, shot from slightly low. Typography: the HALF SHADE wordmark in a heavy rounded sans serif in white at the bottom left; under it, small: "Made for people who stay out too long."; at the bottom right a white sunscreen tube with an orange cap printed with the same wordmark. Hard sun, crisp shadows, real skin. No other text.”

“Vertical medium shot, 35mm: the dancer from the reference image, same red-and-cream windbreaker, mid-spin in front of a wall of blue-and-white azulejo tiles at night, jacket flaring open, eyes closed, sodium light from the side. No readable text, no logos. Shot on 35mm, handheld feel, grain. Palette: tram yellow, track-jacket red, azulejo blue, dawn pink. Lisbon at the end of the night.”

“Vertical candid selfie photo taken at arm's length, the photo itself filling the frame, slight wide-angle distortion, evening lamp light: a 19-year-old Filipino American nursing student, petite, a high ponytail, braces, navy scrubs, sits cross-legged on her dorm bed with fairy lights and stacked textbooks behind her, holding the terracotta espresso maker from the reference image up next to her face, an open cardboard shipping box in her lap, excited. No readable text, no logos. Real UGC look: this image is the photo itself, full frame, as a phone camera would capture it; never show a phone, a screen, a bezel or a status bar. Natural light, slight wide-angle distortion, unpolished.”

“Vertical candid selfie photo taken at arm's length, the photo itself filling the frame, misty dawn light: a 44-year-old Black dad with a big full beard flecked with grey, a knit beanie and a red flannel shirt sits in the open door of a tent beside a misty lake in north Georgia, kids' sleeping bags just visible behind him, holding the terracotta espresso maker from the reference image. No readable text, no logos. Real UGC look: this image is the photo itself, full frame, as a phone camera would capture it; never show a phone, a screen, a bezel or a status bar. Natural light, slight wide-angle distortion, unpolished.”

“Vertical candid photo, dawn: the terracotta espresso maker from the reference image standing on a mossy tree stump at the edge of a misty lake, a large hand with a silver ring reaching for its plunger, steam rising from the small clear cup in the cold air. No readable text, no logos. Real UGC look: this image is the photo itself, full frame, as a phone camera would capture it; never show a phone, a screen, a bezel or a status bar. Natural light, slight wide-angle distortion, unpolished.”
Inputs
What Seedream 4.5 takes
Only prompt is needed; everything else has a default. The same schema is public, with no key, at api.tryleap.ai/v1/public/models/bytedance/seedream-4.5.
MCP
Or let your agent call it.
Leap's MCP server lets Claude Code, Claude, VS Code and other MCP clients run Seedream 4.5, read its inputs and fetch the result, on your balance. Signing in happens in the browser, so there is no key to paste.
claude mcp add --transport http leap https://app.tryleap.ai/api/mcpClaude Code signs you in through the browser the first time it calls Leap.
curl -fsSL https://www.tryleap.ai/install.sh | shInstalls the Leap skill for every coding agent it finds: which endpoint to call, how to read a model's inputs, when to wait and when to poll.
Questions
Seedream 4.5 API questions
- How much does the Seedream 4.5 API cost?
- An image costs $0.054. That is the provider's list price plus our margin, the same as in the studio. POST /v1/quotes prices any input for free before you run it.
- Can I try the Seedream 4.5 API for free?
- No. API keys run on paid credit, so a key's first call needs a top-up, and quotes are free. An image costs $0.054. A first top-up of $5, with no fee, covers 92 default calls.
- Do I pay for calls that fail?
- No. The price is held when a call starts and charged only if it succeeds. A call that fails, or that the model's safety filter refuses, comes back with status "failed" and a failure_cause, and the hold is released.
- Is this ByteDance's own API?
- No. Leap is a separate service: it sends your call to ByteDance's model and gives you what it makes, so you need no ByteDance account. One Leap key runs Seedream 4.5 and every other model in the catalog, from one balance.
- What are the rate limits?
- 600 requests a minute per API key and 300 a minute per IP address. A batch starts up to 50 calls in one request. A 429 says how long to wait in its Retry-After header.
- Can an AI agent call it?
- Yes. Leap's MCP server lets Claude Code, Claude, VS Code and other MCP clients find Seedream 4.5, read its inputs, run it and fetch the result on your balance. The client signs you in through the browser, so there is no key to paste.
Build with Seedream 4.5.
Keys run on paid credit, and the first top-up has no fee. The same key runs every model on Leap.
Get an API key