Seed 1.6 Flash vs Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct vs Baichuan M2 32B
Seed 1.6 Flash comes out ahead, 62 to 40 and 16 on our weighted score.
- Our pick
ByteDance SeedSeed 1.6 Flash
62/100- ECI—
- Price$0.022 / $0.223
- Context256K
- ByteDance Seed
Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct
40/100- ECI—
- Price—
- Context524K
BaichuanBaichuan M2 32B
16/100- ECI—
- Price$0.07 / $0.07
- Context131K
Seed 1.6 Flash is our pick
Seed 1.6 Flash is the better all-round choice, scoring 62/100 against Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct (40) and Baichuan M2 32B (16). 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 priceBaichuan M2 32BBaichuan M2 32B $0.07 · Seed 1.6 Flash $0.072 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend) · Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct unpriced
- Longest contextSeed-OSS-36B-InstructSeed-OSS-36B-Instruct 524,288 · Seed 1.6 Flash 256,000 · Baichuan M2 32B 131,072 tokens
- Widest inputsSeed 1.6 FlashSeed 1.6 Flash: Text, Images, Video · Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct: Text · Baichuan M2 32B: Text
- Self-hostingSeed-OSS-36B-Instruct and Baichuan M2 32BPublishes downloadable weights (Apache 2.0 and Apache-2.0)
| Measure | Weight | Seed 1.6 Flash | Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct | Baichuan M2 32B |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inputs & features | 60% | 80 | 35 | 10 |
| Context window | 40% | 36 | 49 | 25 |
| Overall | 100% | 62/100 | 40/100 | 16/100 |
Left out because at least one model lacks the data: capability and price. The remaining weights were rescaled.
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Seed 1.6 FlashByteDance Seed | Seed-OSS-36B-InstructByteDance Seed | Baichuan M2 32BBaichuan |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | — | — |
| ECI rank | — | — | — |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | — | 71.5% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | — | 67.5% | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.022 (best) | — | $0.07 |
| Output | $0.223 | — | $0.07 (best) |
| Cached input | $0.0044 | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.072 | — | $0.07 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Over 32K: $0.045 / $0.445 | — | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Volcengine Ark API | — | Median of 1 providers |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 256,000 tokens | 524,288 tokens (best) | 131,072 tokens |
| Max output | 32,000 tokens | 524,288 tokens (best) | 131,072 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | No | No |
| PDFs | No | No | No |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | Yes | No | No |
| Reasoning | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | No |
| Structured output | Yes | No | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | OpenApache 2.0 | OpenApache-2.0 |
| API model ID | doubao-seed-1-6-flash-250828 | — | — |
| API providers | 5 (best) | — | 1 |
| Released | Aug 28, 2025 | Aug 20, 2025 | Aug 13, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | — | Jul 2024 | — |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- Seed 1.6 Flash$0.668
- Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct—
- Baichuan M2 32B$0.84
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Seed 1.6 Flash, Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct or Baichuan M2 32B?
Seed 1.6 Flash is the better all-round choice, scoring 62/100 against Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct (40) and Baichuan M2 32B (16). 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, Seed 1.6 Flash, Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct or Baichuan M2 32B?
Baichuan M2 32B is cheaper at $0.07 input / $0.07 output per million tokens (median across 1 API provider). Seed 1.6 Flash costs $0.022 input / $0.223 output per million tokens (official Volcengine Ark API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.07 per million tokens for Baichuan M2 32B versus $0.072 for Seed 1.6 Flash (1× 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. Seed 1.6 Flash has not been scored yet, Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct has not been scored yet and Baichuan M2 32B has not been scored yet.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Seed 1.6 Flash, Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct and Baichuan M2 32B yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. Note that Baichuan M2 32B does not support tool calling, which most coding agents need.
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 Flash and 131,072 for Baichuan M2 32B. Maximum output per response: Seed 1.6 Flash up to 32,000, Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct up to 524,288, Baichuan M2 32B up to 131,072 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Seed 1.6 Flash accepts text, images and video; Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct accepts text; Baichuan M2 32B accepts text. Seed 1.6 Flash handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct and Baichuan M2 32B publishes its weights (Apache 2.0 and Apache-2.0) and can be self-hosted; Seed 1.6 Flash is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Seed 1.6 Flash is the newest, released Aug 28, 2025. Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct came out Aug 20, 2025; Baichuan M2 32B came out Aug 13, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: 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.
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