Atlas Cloud is pay as you go, but “pay as you go” does not mean every model uses the same billing unit. The broader Atlas Cloud review covers the platform beyond pricing. You may see dollars per million tokens, per 1,000 tokens, per image, per generated second or per task. You may also see a standard endpoint, a Developer endpoint and a temporary promotion for the same model family.
The safest way to compare Atlas Cloud pricing is:
- identify the exact endpoint;
- preserve its native billing unit;
- normalize only after the model, mode, resolution and tier match;
- label the normalized result as a calculation, not an official quote.
That method reveals an important distinction: a simpler per-second number can make budgeting easier, but it does not change the underlying token economics.
How Atlas Cloud API Pricing Works
Atlas’s official billing documentation describes the following structure:
| Workload | Common billing unit |
|---|---|
| LLM | Input and output tokens |
| Image generation | Per generation; selected models use tokens |
| Video generation | Per generation, resolution or duration |
| Seedance | Output tokens, with an estimated per-second display |
| Failed request/task | Atlas says failed requests and failed tasks are not charged |
Atlas also provides a cost-estimate API that can return list price, effective price and discount. That is useful because the model collection can contain more than one commercial endpoint.
Seedance Token Formula: From Tokens to Price per Second
Atlas documents the approximate Seedance token formula as:
Video tokens = width × height × frame rate × duration ÷ 1,024
For one second of 720p video at 1280×720 and 24 fps:
1,280 × 720 × 24 × 1 ÷ 1,024 = 21,600 output tokens
The Atlas Seedance model page lists $0.0112 per 1,000 tokens. Expressed in the more common million-token unit:
$0.0112 × 1,000 = $11.20 per 1M output tokens
Now convert that rate to one generated second:
21,600 ÷ 1,000,000 × $11.20 = $0.24192 per second
Atlas displays about $0.2419/sec on the 720p page, which matches the rounded calculation.
This is a valid planning number. It is still a derived value. Atlas’s native commercial rate for this endpoint is the token rate.
Atlas Cloud vs LinkModel Seedance Pricing in the Same Units
BytePlus’s official ModelArk pricing lists the compared 720p, no-video-input row at $7.00 per million output tokens. LinkModel lists the same row at $6.30 per million. Applying the same token density:
21,600 ÷ 1,000,000 × $6.30 = $0.13608 per second
| Provider | Published/native token price | Derived 720p price/sec* | Cost for 1,000 sec* |
|---|---|---|---|
| Atlas Cloud | $11.20 / 1M output tokens | $0.24192 | $241.92 |
| BytePlus official API | $7.00 / 1M output tokens | $0.15120 | $151.20 |
| LinkModel | $6.30 / 1M output tokens | $0.13608 | $136.08 |
Sources: BytePlus pricing, Atlas Seedance page, Atlas billing guide, and LinkModel models. Derived at 1280×720, 24 fps; per-second and 1,000-second figures are calculations, not provider quotes.
In this verified scenario:
- Atlas is 60% higher than the $7.00 BytePlus official API rate: ($11.20 − $7.00) ÷ $7.00.
- LinkModel is 10% below the official API rate: ($7.00 − $6.30) ÷ $7.00.
- LinkModel is 43.75% lower than Atlas: ($11.20 − $6.30) ÷ $11.20.
The result is the same whether you compare million tokens or the correctly normalized 720p second. What changes is visibility. The million-token view shows immediately how each platform relates to the model’s native commercial structure.
How the Atlas 20% promotion changes the 720p comparison
Atlas also displayed a 20% off Seedance 2.0 promotion at verification time. If that banner discount applies to the same standard 720p endpoint, the scenario becomes:
$11.20 × 80% = $8.96 per million output tokens
21,600 ÷ 1,000,000 × $8.96 = $0.193536 per second
| 720p scenario | Atlas promotional calculation* | BytePlus official API | LinkModel |
|---|---|---|---|
| Per 1M output tokens | $8.96 | $7.00 | $6.30 |
| Derived price/sec | $0.193536 | $0.15120 | $0.13608 |
| Cost for 1,000 sec | $193.536 | $151.20 | $136.08 |
*Calculated by applying the advertised 20% discount to Atlas’s published standard token rate; it is not a separate Atlas quote. Confirm eligibility and the effective checkout price before buying.
Even in this promotional scenario, Atlas is 28% above the $7.00 BytePlus official API rate, while LinkModel remains 29.6875% lower than the calculated Atlas promotional rate.
The much lower Atlas “from $0.09/sec” message should not be read as the 720p rate. Under the same formula, 480p at 864×496 produces 10,044 tokens/sec; applying the same $8.96/M promotional calculation gives $0.08999424/sec, which rounds to $0.09. Resolution is part of the price.
Why Atlas Cloud Price per Second Is Not a New Billing Model
A per-second price is useful when you know your output duration. It becomes misleading only when the conversion is treated as though the “second” were the original billing unit or when different resolutions, modes or tiers are compared.
The practical problem is subtle:
- one provider publishes the original token price;
- another foregrounds a converted “from” price;
- the two numbers look like different products;
- the assumptions behind the conversion disappear from the buying decision.
That is not a like-for-like comparison. Keep the token price beside the per-second estimate, especially when you forecast large video volumes.
Standard, Developer and Promotional Atlas Prices
Atlas’s Nano Banana collection illustrates why tier labels matter.
| Atlas endpoint shown on the collection page | Displayed price | Correct interpretation |
|---|---|---|
| Nano Banana 2 standard text-to-image | From $0.08/image | Standard endpoint price shown |
| Nano Banana 2 Developer | $0.08 crossed/paired with $0.04/image | Separate Developer endpoint/offer |
| Nano Banana Pro standard | From $0.14/image | Standard Pro endpoint |
| Nano Banana Pro Developer | $0.14 paired with $0.07/image | Separate Developer endpoint/offer |
| Nano Banana Pro Ultra | From $0.15/image | Different product tier |
Source: Atlas image models, verified July 22, 2026.
Do not compare the $0.04 Developer row with another provider’s standard endpoint without proving that availability, quality, SLA and terms are equivalent. A lower tier-specific or promotional number may be attractive, but the tier is part of the price.
Atlas Image Pricing: Cost for 10,000 Images
For a same-model standard-endpoint comparison, Atlas lists Nano Banana 2 at $0.08 per image. Google’s official Gemini API lists the 1K output at $0.067 per image. LinkModel lists the same Gemini 3.1 Flash Image family at $0.05025 for 1K output.
| Standard 1K image workload | Google official API | Atlas Cloud | LinkModel |
|---|---|---|---|
| Per image | $0.06700 | $0.08000 | $0.05025 |
| 1,000 images | $67.00 | $80.00 | $50.25 |
| 10,000 images | $670.00 | $800.00 | $502.50 |
Sources: Google API pricing, Atlas image model page, and LinkModel models. This comparison uses the Atlas standard row, not the separate Developer row.
For 10,000 standard 1K images, LinkModel is 37.1875% lower than Atlas: ($0.08 − $0.05025) ÷ $0.08.
How to Estimate Your Atlas Cloud Bill
Use one of these formulas:
Token-priced endpoint
Estimated cost = tokens consumed ÷ 1,000,000 × price per million tokens
Per-second endpoint or normalized video view
Estimated cost = generated seconds × verified price per second
Per-image endpoint
Estimated cost = successful images × price per image
Then add operational checks:
- Is the displayed price standard, Developer or promotional?
- Does the promotion have an end date or top-up condition?
- Are failed client-side requests ever billable after GPU work starts?
- What resolution, mode and audio setting does the price assume?
- Does your account tier support the required concurrency?
One key for GPT, Claude, Seedance, Sora
Popular commercial models at verified lower rates, OpenAI SDK compatible, ZDR by default — no GPU-second math, no cold-start surprises.
Atlas Cloud Pricing FAQs
Is Atlas Cloud billed by tokens or seconds?
Both units appear across the platform. LLMs are token-billed; many video models use duration or generation units; Seedance is token-billed even when Atlas displays a per-second estimate.
Is $0.2419/sec an official Seedance rate?
It is the rounded Atlas page display for the 720p endpoint. It is derived from Atlas’s $11.20 per million output-token price and the documented video-token formula.
Why can an Atlas per-second number look cheap?
A “from” number may reflect a lower resolution, a different mode, a Developer endpoint or a promotion. The number is useful only after those conditions match your workload.
Are Atlas Cloud promotions part of standard pricing?
No. Keep standard, Developer and promotional prices in separate rows. Apply a promotion only after confirming its duration and eligibility.
Is Atlas Cloud cheaper than LinkModel?
It depends on the exact model. In the verified standard comparisons above, LinkModel is 43.75% lower for 720p Seedance by the native token rate and 37.1875% lower for 1K Nano Banana 2 images.
Final Pricing Rule
Use Atlas’s simple per-second and per-image displays for budgeting, but keep the native token rate and endpoint tier visible. A change in presentation unit is not a change in underlying cost.
For the two verified high-volume examples in this article—1,000 seconds of 720p Seedance and 10,000 standard 1K Nano Banana 2 images—LinkModel provides the lower, easier-to-reconcile price. For the full purchasing decision, read the LinkModel and Atlas comparison; teams still considering other providers can use the Atlas alternatives guide.