ByteDance Releases Seedream 5.5 with Native Transparent Background Output

ByteDance's Seed team has released Seedream 5.5, an image editing model that natively outputs transparent or semi-transparent images with an alpha channel, eliminating the need for manual background removal. The model also ensures pixel-level consistency in non-edited regions, with official demos showing a character remaining aligned after 100 rounds of edits, significantly reducing multi-turn editing drift.

Technically, Seedream 5.5 cuts the severe text error rate from 2.8% to 0.4% and reduces the cost per 2K square image edit to about 0.28 yuan, less than half that of Seedream 5.0 Pro. The model is now available on Jimeng, Doubao, and Doubao Work, and developers can access it via Volcano Ark as Doubao-Seedream-5.5.

The release signals a shift from generating images to generating reusable design assets, as transparent backgrounds allow elements to flow directly into design workflows. The combination of lower cost and improved editing stability is poised to accelerate the adoption of AI image editing in commercial design, e-commerce, and advertising.