ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Nov 2, 2026

Claude Haiku 4.5 vs Seed 1.6 Vision vs Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct

Claude Haiku 4.5 comes out ahead, 61 to 56 and 40 on our weighted score, though Seed 1.6 Vision is 5.2× cheaper per token.

  1. Our pick

    Anthropic

    Claude Haiku 4.5

    Released Oct 15, 2025

    61/100
    • ECI142.2
    • Price$1.00 / $5.00
    • Context200K
  2. ByteDance Seed

    Seed 1.6 Vision

    Released Aug 15, 2025Deprecated

    56/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.119 / $1.19
    • Context256K
  3. ByteDance Seed

    Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct

    Released Aug 20, 2025

    40/100
    • ECI—
    • Price—
    • Context524K
01 — Verdict

Claude Haiku 4.5 is our pick

Claude Haiku 4.5 is the better all-round choice, scoring 61/100 against Seed 1.6 Vision (56) and Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct (40). It leads on inputs & features. Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct wins on context window. The score weighs inputs & features 60%, context window 40%. 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 VisionSeed 1.6 Vision $0.386 · Claude Haiku 4.5 $2.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend) · Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct unpriced
  • Longest contextSeed-OSS-36B-InstructSeed-OSS-36B-Instruct 524,288 · Seed 1.6 Vision 256,000 · Claude Haiku 4.5 200,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsClaude Haiku 4.5Claude Haiku 4.5: Text, Images, PDFs · Seed 1.6 Vision: Text, Images · Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct: Text
  • Self-hostingSeed-OSS-36B-InstructPublishes downloadable weights (Apache 2.0)
How the score is built
MeasureWeightClaude Haiku 4.5Seed 1.6 VisionSeed-OSS-36B-Instruct
Inputs & features60%807035
Context window40%323649
Overall100%61/10056/10040/100

Left out because at least one model lacks the data: capability and price. 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 Vision vs Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct specifications side by side
SpecificationClaude Haiku 4.5AnthropicSeed 1.6 VisionByteDance SeedSeed-OSS-36B-InstructByteDance Seed
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)142.2——
ECI rank#102 of 165——
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions71.2%—71.5% (best)
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics66.7%—67.5% (best)
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions13.2%——
Price per million tokens
Input$1.00$0.119 (best)—
Output$5.00$1.19 (best)—
Cached input$0.10$0.024 (best)—
Blended (3:1)$2.00$0.386 (best)—
Long-context rateSame rateOver 32K: $0.178 / $2.37—
Price sourceOfficial Anthropic APIOfficial Volcengine Ark API—
Limits
Context window200,000 tokens256,000 tokens524,288 tokens (best)
Max output64,000 tokens32,000 tokens524,288 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesYesNo
PDFsYesNoNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningYesYesYes
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputYesYesNo
Availability
WeightsProprietaryProprietaryOpenApache 2.0
API model IDclaude-haiku-4-5doubao-seed-1-6-vision-250815—
API providers48 (best)2—
ReleasedOct 15, 2025Aug 15, 2025Aug 20, 2025
Knowledge cutoffFeb 28, 2025—Jul 2024
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 Vision$3.56
  • Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct—
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Claude Haiku 4.5, Seed 1.6 Vision or Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct?

Claude Haiku 4.5 is the better all-round choice, scoring 61/100 against Seed 1.6 Vision (56) and Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct (40). It leads on inputs & features. Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct wins on context window. The score weighs inputs & features 60%, context window 40%. 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, Seed 1.6 Vision or Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct?

Seed 1.6 Vision is cheaper at $0.119 input / $1.19 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 $0.386 per million tokens for Seed 1.6 Vision versus $2.00 for Claude Haiku 4.5 (5.2× as much). Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct has no published per-token price.

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. Claude Haiku 4.5 has an ECI of 142.2, Seed 1.6 Vision has not been scored yet and Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct has not been scored yet.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Claude Haiku 4.5, Seed 1.6 Vision and Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. All three support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct has the largest context window at 524,288 tokens, against 256,000 for Seed 1.6 Vision and 200,000 for Claude Haiku 4.5. Maximum output per response: Claude Haiku 4.5 up to 64,000, Seed 1.6 Vision up to 32,000, Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct up to 524,288 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Claude Haiku 4.5 accepts text, images and PDFs; Seed 1.6 Vision accepts text and images; Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct accepts text. Claude Haiku 4.5 handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct publishes its weights (Apache 2.0) and can be self-hosted; Claude Haiku 4.5 and Seed 1.6 Vision is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Claude Haiku 4.5 is the newest, released Oct 15, 2025. Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct came out Aug 20, 2025; Seed 1.6 Vision came out Aug 15, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Claude Haiku 4.5 Feb 28, 2025, Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct Jul 2024.

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.