Getting Your API Keys
How to get a Seedance / Seedream API key (Volcengine Ark)
The most involved of our integrations — getting an Ark API key from Volcengine for Seedance video and Seedream images.
What a Seedance key powers in Landio
One Volcengine Ark key covers both Seedance for video generation and Seedream for image generation. The models are strong and the pricing is competitive, which is why they're worth the setup.
Be aware before you start
This is the hardest key on this list to obtain, and we'd rather say so than have you discover it halfway through.
Seedance and Seedream are ByteDance models served through Volcengine Ark, a Chinese cloud platform. The console is primarily in Chinese, and account registration typically requires identity verification that is straightforward for users in mainland China and awkward for everyone else.
If registration blocks you, look at BytePlus ModelArk — ByteDance's international platform, which serves the same model family through an English console with ordinary international sign-up. And if you just want image and video generation without any of this, OpenAI, Google or xAI are far quicker to set up and are what we'd suggest starting with.
Creating the key
The broad shape of the flow, which you may need to follow with a translated page.
Register a Volcengine account and complete the identity verification it asks for. This gate is the step most non-China users stop at.
Screenshot: The Volcengine account registration page
Open the Ark console (the Volcengine model service) and find the API key management section.
Screenshot: The Volcengine Ark console dashboard with the API key management section in the navigation
Create an API key and copy it.
Screenshot: The Ark console API key creation screen with the generated key and a copy button
Activate the Seedance and Seedream models on the account. Ark requires models to be enabled before calls to them succeed, so a valid key can still return a model-not-available error until you do this.
Screenshot: The Ark model activation screen showing Seedance and Seedream available to enable
Add a payment method or credit balance as the console directs.
Adding the key to Landio
Open AI Providers from the sidebar, find Seedance (Volcengine) in the vendor list, paste the key, and save. The key then covers Seedance video and Seedream images.
Keys are encrypted at rest and write-only — after saving, the page only tells you that a key exists, never what it is. That also means there's no way to read a key back out of us later, so keep the copy you saved at the vendor.
Adding a key doesn't unlock a feature; it changes who bills you for it. Every plan already includes an AI allowance, so drafting works before you do any of this. With your own key, that usage bills from Seedance (Volcengine) at their rates instead of counting against the allowance.
You can add more than one key per vendor. Landio will either spread calls across them or treat the extras as failover spares, depending on how you configure that vendor — useful when one key is a paid account and the rest are backups.
If something goes wrong
A model-not-found or not-authorised error on a working key nearly always means the model wasn't activated on the account — the separate step above.
Registration failures are an account-eligibility matter between you and Volcengine that we can't help with. BytePlus ModelArk is the alternative route to the same models.
Frequently asked questions
Can I get a Seedance key from outside China?
Often not through Volcengine directly — registration typically requires identity verification that assumes a mainland China identity document or business entity. BytePlus ModelArk is ByteDance's international platform for the same model family and is the practical route for most international users.
Is it worth the hassle?
Only if you specifically want these models. Seedream produces excellent images and Seedance competitive video at attractive prices, but OpenAI, Google and xAI take minutes to set up and cover the same jobs. Start with one of those and come back to this if you have a specific reason to.
What's the difference between Seedance and Seedream?
Seedance is the video model, Seedream the image model. Both are served by the same Ark key, so one key enables both.
Where does my data go?
To ByteDance-operated infrastructure, under Volcengine's or BytePlus's terms depending on which you signed up for. If your organisation has data-residency requirements, read those terms before sending client content through this vendor — that's a real consideration here in a way it isn't for a US-hosted provider.
Is it safe to paste an API key into a third-party app?
Keys are encrypted before storage and never displayed again after you save them. That said, the honest general answer is: give any third party the narrowest key you can, and keep the ability to revoke it. Where a vendor supports scoped or restricted keys, use one limited to the models Landio actually calls, and rotate it from the vendor's console if you ever stop using us.
This walkthrough was last checked against the provider's live console on . Providers redesign their dashboards without notice — if what you see doesn't match, the button names have probably moved rather than the process changing.
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