AI Research
ByteDance Seed 2.1 Turbo Reaches OpenRouter After Its June Release
ByteDance released Seed 2.1 Turbo on 23 June 2026. Its OpenRouter route reached AZ Labs monitoring on 12 August with text, image and video input, a 262,144-token context, and pricing from $0.50 per million input tokens.
AI-narrated summary, not a word-for-word reading.
Key takeaways
- check_circleByteDance released the Seed 2.1 family on 23 June 2026, including Doubao-Seed-2.1-Turbo, and made the API available through Volcano Engine.
- check_circleThe OpenRouter route takes text, image and video input in a 262,144-token context, with a matching 262,144-token maximum output.
- check_circleAZ Labs first detected the route at 16:01:03 UTC on 12 August. That is a provider availability observation, not the model release date.
What the model does
OpenRouter describes Seed 2.1 Turbo as a multimodal model from ByteDance Seed for coding and long-horizon agent workflows. The listing calls out end-to-end software delivery, multi-step task execution, and understanding visual context, with input modalities of text, image and video.
Specs and pricing
The route openrouter/bytedance-seed/seed-2-1-turbo has a 262,144-token context and a 262,144-token maximum output. Pricing is $0.50 per million input tokens and $2.50 per million output tokens. The listing does not include a cached-input discount.
Release date and route date
ByteDance announced the Seed 2.1 family on 23 June 2026 and said its API was available through Volcano Engine that day. The official release included Doubao-Seed-2.1-Turbo. AZ Labs first detected the OpenRouter route on 12 August at 16:01:03 UTC, so the two dates describe different events.
The route also carries a provider-created timestamp of 12 August at 16:29:36 UTC, later than AIMI first saw it. Provider metadata can be backfilled or revised, which is why it is not treated as a maker release date.
Frequently asked questions
Does it really accept video input?
Yes. OpenRouter lists the input modalities as text, image and video, with text as the output modality.
When was it released?
ByteDance released the Seed 2.1 family on 23 June 2026. AZ Labs first detected this OpenRouter route on 12 August.
What does it cost?
$0.50 per million input tokens and $2.50 per million output tokens on OpenRouter.
Where is it available?
On OpenRouter as openrouter/bytedance-seed/seed-2-1-turbo. ByteDance also made the Seed 2.1 API available through Volcano Engine at launch.
Sources
Copyright & image credits
The article image is credited to © OpenRouter / ByteDance Seed. Source: OpenRouter: ByteDance Seed 2.1 Turbo.