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Qwen Image 2.0 vs Seedream 4.0

No measurable difference between Qwen Image 2.0 (65) and Seedream 4.0 (57) on the photo-anchored quality scale, where a real photograph is 100: the gap is within the margin of error.

Qwen Image 2.0
Seedream 4.0

Overview

VendorAlibaba
VendorByteDance
ReleasedFeb 10, 2026
ReleasedSep 9, 2025
License—
LicenseProprietary
Input modalities
Input modalities
Output modalities
Output modalities
Pricing $0.035 / img
Pricing $0.03 / img

Score

Overall 65
Overall 57

Same brief, side by side

Fashion and beauty

Prompt used:A Black woman with long locs, bare shoulders and a strapless cream top stands among dense tropical foliage and looks calmly into the lens. She holds an amber glass dropper bottle with a gold cap up in front of her chest with both hands, fingertips lightly touching it. Broad green leaves and tall reed stems fill the background; a blurred leaf crosses the bottom of the frame.

Qwen Image 2.0 — Fashion and beauty: A Black woman with long locs, bare shoulders and a strapless cream top stands am69Seedream 4.0 — Fashion and beauty: A Black woman with long locs, bare shoulders and a strapless cream top stands am80

Food and beverage

Prompt used:A young woman with dark hair in a beige knitted t-shirt holds an open kraft cardboard pizza box in front of her and lifts one slice out of it, smiling and looking down at the pizza. The pizza is a thin-crust with ham, mushrooms, tomato, green pepper and melted cheese, one slice missing and the lifted slice trailing toward the camera. The background is a plain dark teal wall.

Qwen Image 2.0 — Food and beverage: A young woman with dark hair in a beige knitted t-shirt holds an open kraft card46Seedream 4.0 — Food and beverage: A young woman with dark hair in a beige knitted t-shirt holds an open kraft card57

Interior

Prompt used:A spacious modern hotel room. A double bed with a pale wood slatted headboard, crisp white linen and a beige throw at the foot stands against the left wall, with a small wooden bench beside it. Turquoise blackout curtains flank a bright window with white sheers; a cream armchair with a mustard cushion and a round side table sit in the window bay. On the right, past a white structural column, a black flat TV on a bracket, a mirror, a white writing desk with a telephone and a lamp, a white office chair and a chrome bin. The floor is covered wall to wall with a striped carpet in turquoise, sand and grey. On the far left the corner of an orange armchair and a second desk.

Qwen Image 2.0 — Interior: A spacious modern hotel room. A double bed with a pale wood slatted headboard, c104Seedream 4.0 — Interior: A spacious modern hotel room. A double bed with a pale wood slatted headboard, c83

Layout and typography

Prompt used:A teenager's home study corner. A silver all-in-one computer on a wooden desk shows a quiz page headed "Geometry Quiz" with the line "Test your geometry skills!" beneath it, a triangle diagram labelled A and B with a question mark, and a second question "2. Which shape is trapezoid?" above three coloured shapes marked A, B and C in circles. The wall behind is covered with a year calendar grid of twelve months, a pink poster reading "Toys friday", a comic-style poster of a woman in sunglasses captioned "THE MOST POWERFUL WARRIOR!", and pinned photographs. On the desk: a white keyboard and mouse, an open notebook with a pencil, a banana, a glass bowl of sweets, potted cacti, a desk lamp, a small digital clock and a stack of hardback books with "ENGLISH" and "CHEMISTRY" on the spines. A brown moulded chair stands at the left.

Qwen Image 2.0 — Layout and typography: A teenager's home study corner. A silver all-in-one computer on a wooden desk sh14Seedream 4.0 — Layout and typography: A teenager's home study corner. A silver all-in-one computer on a wooden desk sh−14

People and lifestyle

Prompt used:A wide-angle group selfie of five friends at a house party, all laughing and crowded into frame. Left: a curly-haired young man in a denim jacket over a white tee, arm extended toward the camera. Next to him a Black man in a white football jersey with red and navy stripes, giving a thumbs up and holding a beer bottle. Behind them a bearded man in a paisley bandana, round glasses and a rust knitted polo, raising a glass of beer. On the right a red-haired woman in a mesh top laughing with her eyes closed, and in front of her a dark-haired woman in a pink shirt and tinted narrow sunglasses holding a bottle of pink drink. The room behind is a dark loft with shelves, a lit table lamp, a colourful painting and blue LED glow.

Qwen Image 2.0 — People and lifestyle: A wide-angle group selfie of five friends at a house party, all laughing and cro15Seedream 4.0 — People and lifestyle: A wide-angle group selfie of five friends at a house party, all laughing and cro16

Product and e-commerce

Prompt used:Two wireless earbud charging cases displayed on white geometric podiums, both open with the earbuds inside. On the left, a white case tilted on a cube, lit with pink from the left and blue from the right. On the right and slightly lower, a black glossy case on a second block, catching a red highlight along the earbuds. The blocks stand on a mirrored surface reflecting them and a pink light streak. The background is a smooth purple-to-blue gradient.

Qwen Image 2.0 — Product and e-commerce: Two wireless earbud charging cases displayed on white geometric podiums, both op87Seedream 4.0 — Product and e-commerce: Two wireless earbud charging cases displayed on white geometric podiums, both op67

Social marketing

Prompt used:A full-length shot of a young mixed-race woman with shoulder-length curly dark hair standing in a bright minimal showroom, looking calmly into the lens. She wears an oversized purple sweatshirt, light blue wide-leg jeans and white sneakers, and holds two large printed sheets and a fan of colour swatches against her hip. Behind her a fluted light wood sideboard on thin black legs with white narcissi in a pot, a small framed picture, a white vase with bare branches and a blue object; above it a large arched mirror reflecting shelves and a window. Plain white walls and a grey seamless concrete floor.

Qwen Image 2.0 — Social marketing: A full-length shot of a young mixed-race woman with shoulder-length curly dark h71Seedream 4.0 — Social marketing: A full-length shot of a young mixed-race woman with shoulder-length curly dark h79

Street and architecture

Prompt used:A flat frontal telephoto view of part of a glass office tower facade, filling the whole frame with a grid of tall dark-framed windows over four floors. Through the glass, lit office interiors are visible: white columns, desks, monitors, office chairs, printers, potted plants and a satellite dish. Across the upper glass, warped mirror reflections of a neighbouring building and sky ripple over the panes in green-grey tones.

Qwen Image 2.0 — Street and architecture: A flat frontal telephoto view of part of a glass office tower facade, filling th73Seedream 4.0 — Street and architecture: A flat frontal telephoto view of part of a glass office tower facade, filling th53

Judged head to head

Qwen Image 2.0 and Seedream 4.0 were also compared with each other directly. The verdict above still comes from the scale.

A coin flip: 52% for Qwen Image 2.0, no measurable difference.

Gap (Bradley–Terry)
+0.07 [−0.14, +0.28]
Preference
51.8% of blind comparisons preferred it (ties split, all questions)
Prompt adherence120 preferred · 208 equal · 102 other preferred
Believability170 preferred · 133 equal · 129 other preferred
Aesthetics170 preferred · 78 equal · 183 other preferred

432 blind comparisons, each pair shown 3 times

Qwen Image 2.0 vs Seedream 4.0: side-by-side summary

Qwen Image 2.0, from Alibaba, released Feb 10, 2026, scores 65 on our photo-anchored quality scale, where a real photograph is 100. Average API price $0.035 / img across 4 providers.

Seedream 4.0, from ByteDance, released Sep 9, 2025, scores 57 on our photo-anchored quality scale, where a real photograph is 100. Average API price $0.03 / img across 4 providers. License: Proprietary.

Both scores come from blind pairwise tests on the same 48 scenes between 21 August and 11 September 2026: 576 pairs and 1,727 judgements, each pair judged 3 times.

Score

  • Qwen Image 2.0: 65
  • Seedream 4.0: 57

Price

  • Qwen Image 2.0: $0.035 / img
  • Seedream 4.0: $0.03 / img

Vendor

  • Qwen Image 2.0: Alibaba
  • Seedream 4.0: ByteDance

Released

  • Qwen Image 2.0: Feb 10, 2026
  • Seedream 4.0: Sep 9, 2025

Qwen Image 2.0 model details, scores and pricingSeedream 4.0 model details, scores and pricing