ZMIME
Comparison · 2 models · Updated Nov 2, 2026

Claude Haiku 4.5 vs Seed 1.6 Flash

Seed 1.6 Flash comes out ahead, 81 to 47 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Anthropic

    Claude Haiku 4.5

    Released Oct 15, 2025

    47/100
    • ECI142.2
    • Price$1.00 / $5.00
    • Context200K
    Full specs Remove Claude Haiku 4.5
  2. Our pick

    ByteDance Seed

    Seed 1.6 Flash

    Released Aug 28, 2025Deprecated

    81/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.022 / $0.223
    • Context256K
    Full specs Remove Seed 1.6 Flash

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Seed 1.6 Flash is our pick

Seed 1.6 Flash is the better all-round choice, scoring 81/100 against Claude Haiku 4.5 (47). It leads on price and context window. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.

  • CapabilityNot enough dataNo independent benchmark covers every model here yet
  • Lowest priceSeed 1.6 FlashSeed 1.6 Flash $0.072 · Claude Haiku 4.5 $2.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextSeed 1.6 FlashSeed 1.6 Flash 256,000 · Claude Haiku 4.5 200,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsSame inputsClaude Haiku 4.5: Text, Images, PDFs · Seed 1.6 Flash: Text, Images, Video
  • Self-hostingNo open weightsBoth are available only through APIs
How the score is built
MeasureWeightClaude Haiku 4.5Seed 1.6 Flash
Price50%34100
Inputs & features30%8080
Context window20%3236
Overall100%47/10081/100

Left out because at least one model lacks the data: capability. The remaining weights were rescaled.

02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.

Claude Haiku 4.5 vs Seed 1.6 Flash specifications side by side
SpecificationClaude Haiku 4.5AnthropicSeed 1.6 FlashByteDance Seed
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)142.2—
ECI rank#102 of 165—
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions71.2%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics66.7%—
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions13.2%—
Price per million tokens
Input$1.00$0.022 (best)
Output$5.00$0.223 (best)
Cached input$0.10$0.0044 (best)
Blended (3:1)$2.00$0.072 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateOver 32K: $0.045 / $0.445
Price sourceOfficial Anthropic APIOfficial Volcengine Ark API
Limits
Context window200,000 tokens256,000 tokens (best)
Max output64,000 tokens (best)32,000 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesYes
PDFsYesNo
AudioNoNo
VideoNoYes
ReasoningYesYes
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputYesYes
Availability
WeightsProprietaryProprietary
API model IDclaude-haiku-4-5doubao-seed-1-6-flash-250828
API providers48 (best)5
ReleasedOct 15, 2025Aug 28, 2025
Knowledge cutoffFeb 28, 2025—
03 — Cost

What would a month cost?

Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.

  • Claude Haiku 4.5$20.00
  • Seed 1.6 Flash$0.668
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Claude Haiku 4.5 or Seed 1.6 Flash?

Seed 1.6 Flash is the better all-round choice, scoring 81/100 against Claude Haiku 4.5 (47). It leads on price and context window. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.

Which is cheaper, Claude Haiku 4.5 or Seed 1.6 Flash?

Seed 1.6 Flash is cheaper at $0.022 input / $0.223 output per million tokens (official Volcengine Ark API price). Claude Haiku 4.5 costs $1.00 input / $5.00 output per million tokens (official Anthropic API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.072 per million tokens for Seed 1.6 Flash versus $2.00 for Claude Haiku 4.5 (28× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

There is no independent benchmark that covers both models yet. Claude Haiku 4.5 has an ECI of 142.2 and Seed 1.6 Flash has not been scored yet.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Claude Haiku 4.5 and Seed 1.6 Flash yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. Both support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

Seed 1.6 Flash has the largest context window at 256,000 tokens, against 200,000 for Claude Haiku 4.5. Maximum output per response: Claude Haiku 4.5 up to 64,000, Seed 1.6 Flash up to 32,000 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Claude Haiku 4.5 accepts text, images and PDFs; Seed 1.6 Flash accepts text, images and video. They handle the same number of input types.

Are any of these open source?

No. Claude Haiku 4.5 and Seed 1.6 Flash are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.

Which is newer?

Claude Haiku 4.5 is the newest, released Oct 15, 2025. Seed 1.6 Flash came out Aug 28, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Claude Haiku 4.5 Feb 28, 2025.

How do you decide the winner?

Each model gets a 0–100 score on capability (50%, independent benchmark results); price (25%, blended price per million tokens (3 input : 1 output), log scale); inputs & features (15%, image, PDF, audio and video input, tool calling, structured output and reasoning); context window (10%, maximum tokens per request, log scale). Dimensions missing for any model are dropped and the remaining weights rescaled, so every model is judged on the same evidence. Specs and prices come from public model listings and the labs’ own API pages; capability scores come from independent benchmark runs. Data updated Nov 2, 2026.

05 — Keep comparing

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