Seedream 4.0 AI Image Generator

What Seedream 4.0 does well

Generate, then edit the same image

Because generation and editing share one model, you can make an image and keep working on it in the same place.

The sneaker sample shows the edit half: a plain white canvas sneaker becomes a hand-painted one covered in red poppies, blue cornflowers and green leaves, while the laces, sole and silhouette stay as they were.

Upload the original, describe the new surface, and say which parts must not change. The same approach works for recolouring a character, adding an object or replacing a background.

To widen the frame of an illustration instead, use the AI image extender.

A before-and-after diptych on a soft beige background with identical camera angle. Left: a plain unbranded white canvas low-top sneaker. Right: the same sneaker edited so the canvas is hand-painted with a folk-art pattern of red poppies, blue cornflowers and green leaves, while the laces, sole and shape stay exactly the same. Clean product photography, soft even light.

Several references, one illustration

Seedream 4.0 reads each reference for a different job. In the sample, a pencil sketch fixes the robot's shape, a watercolour swatch fixes the texture and a strip of colour chips fixes the palette.

The finished illustration of the robot watering a flower uses all three. Tell the model which image supplies the subject, which the medium and which the colours, and it keeps those roles apart.

It is a fast route from a rough sketch to a finished piece in a look you have already chosen.

A creative desk layout on white paper. On the left, three small reference pieces: a pencil sketch of a round friendly robot, a square watercolor texture sample in teal and ochre, and a strip of five color chips. On the right, a large finished illustration of the same round friendly robot watering a flower, painted in the watercolor texture and exactly the five-color palette. Clear visual link between references and result, no text.

Illustration styles from risograph to linocut

Seedream 4.0 covers a wide range of illustration techniques and keeps their marks instead of smoothing everything into generic digital art.

The risograph sample shows a commuter cycling over an arched bridge at sunrise in fluorescent pink, teal and yellow, with visible grain, slight misregistration and overlapping ink. The gallery adds flat vector, watercolour, paper-cut and linocut.

Name the technique and its tell-tale details, such as grain, carved lines or stacked paper, and keep the palette to a few named colours.

A risograph-style illustration of a commuter cycling across an arched bridge over a river at sunrise, a thermos in the bicycle basket, birds flying, city rooftops behind. Printed look in fluorescent pink, teal and yellow with visible grain, slight misregistration and overlapping ink tones, playful editorial illustration, no text.

How to write prompts for Seedream 4.0

1. Seedream 4.0 prompts work best when they start with the medium (flat vector, watercolour, paper-cut, linocut, risograph), then name the subject and the scene.

2. Keep the palette to a few named colours, such as "deep navy and coral on cream paper".

3. For a sequence, number the panels and describe each in one line, with the character description word for word the same in all of them.

4. When you combine references, give each one a role: subject, texture or palette.

5. For an edit, describe the new element and list what must stay: the shape, the outline, the background.

Sample prompts to try with Seedream 4.0

• 

  Fox in a winter forest

  A flat vector illustration of a red fox sitting in a snowy birch forest at night, a pale round moon above, tall white birch trunks with dark marks, gentle falling snow, subtle grain texture. Limited palette of rust orange, midnight blue and off-white, clean geometric shapes, square composition, modern editorial illustration.

• 

  Watercolor greenhouse cat

  A loose watercolor illustration of a tabby cat curled up asleep on a wooden potting bench inside a small greenhouse, surrounded by terracotta pots of geraniums, succulents and a trailing ivy. Soft washes of green and rose, white paper showing through as light, delicate ink linework, dreamy morning light through the glass panes.

• 

  Paper-cut kelp forest

  A layered paper-cut illustration of an underwater kelp forest, built from many sheets of colored paper stacked with real depth and soft shadows between layers. Swaying kelp in olive and teal, a school of small silver fish, a curious sea otter near the surface, shafts of pale light from above. Handcrafted diorama look, soft studio lighting.

• 

  Linocut lighthouse

  A two-color linocut print of a striped lighthouse on a rocky cliff with stylized crashing waves and swirling clouds, carved line texture visible throughout, printed in deep navy and coral on cream paper, slight ink unevenness. Vertical composition, printmaking aesthetic, bold graphic shapes.

Sample images are illustrative; results vary by model.

Seedream 4.0 specs and pricing

Every price below comes from the live price list, so it changes here as soon as rates change. Credits are charged per image, or per second of video.

Seedream 4.0 limitations

• Faces hold less firmly than on Seedream 4.5. ByteDance made preserving facial features from a reference a focus of 4.5, so when one person must look identical in every image, use that version.

• Lettering beyond a word or two can come out garbled. Typography and dense text were among the improvements ByteDance made after 4.0, so keep text short here, or add it afterwards in a design tool.

• A long sequence can drift. Characters and style stay coherent across a set, but later panels may change small things such as clothing patterns or props.

  Repeat the character description in every prompt and regenerate the frames that stray.