Doubao-Seed-Code: ByteDance's Programming Model

ByteDance's specialized programming model optimized for agentic tasks. Achieves state-of-the-art on SWE-Bench with 62.7% lower costs and 256k context.

DoubaoByteDanceCode ModelProgrammingSWE-BenchVolcano EngineAgentic ProgrammingCost-Effective AI
Developer
ByteDance (Volcano Engine)
Type
Code Model
License
Proprietary
🌐 Official Website💰 Pricing & API

Overview

Doubao-Seed-Code is ByteDance's Volcano Engine specialized programming model, released on December 3, 2025, and optimized specifically for agentic programming tasks. The model achieved a new state-of-the-art result on the SWE-Bench-Verified official leaderboard, demonstrating superior performance in software engineering tasks while offering 62.7% lower costs compared to industry averages.

Built on ByteDance's expertise with Doubao, which has become China's leading AI chatbot, Doubao-Seed-Code extends this capability into the specialized domain of programming assistance. The model is designed to address the growing need for AI tools that can effectively assist with software development, combining exceptional performance with cost-effectiveness.

Capabilities

Doubao-Seed-Code demonstrates exceptional capabilities for software engineering and programming tasks:

  • State-of-the-Art Performance: Achieved new state-of-the-art results on SWE-Bench-Verified, demonstrating superior performance in real-world software engineering tasks
  • Agentic Programming: Optimized for tasks where AI agents need to understand, modify, and generate code autonomously
  • Bug Fixing Excellence: Enhanced capabilities in identifying and fixing bugs in codebases
  • Frontend Development: Specialized strengths in frontend development workflows
  • Large Codebase Handling: 256k token context window enables work with entire codebases
  • Cost Optimization: Transparent input caching and competitive pricing reduce usage costs by 62.7% compared to industry average
  • Code Generation: High-quality code generation that adheres to software engineering best practices
  • Code Understanding: Deep understanding of complex codebases and context

Technical Specifications

Doubao-Seed-Code is built with specifications optimized for software engineering workflows:

  • Context Window: 256k tokens maximum context length
  • Input Length: 224k tokens maximum input length
  • Output Length: 64k tokens maximum output length
  • Architecture: Specialized architecture optimized for programming tasks with agentic capabilities (specific architecture details not publicly disclosed)
  • Training: Fine-tuned and optimized specifically for software engineering workflows
  • Cost Efficiency: 62.7% lower costs than industry average
  • Input Caching: Transparent input caching for cost optimization on repeated queries
  • Pricing: Starting at 1.2 yuan per million tokens for inputs up to 32k tokens
  • API Compatibility: Compatible with Anthropic API standard for easy integration

Performance Metrics

Based on comprehensive evaluations, Doubao-Seed-Code demonstrates exceptional performance:

  • SWE-Bench-Verified: Achieved new state-of-the-art result on the official leaderboard, demonstrating superior performance in real-world software engineering tasks
  • Real-World Software Engineering: Superior performance on actual GitHub issues and real-world coding challenges from open-source repositories
  • Bug Fixing: Enhanced capabilities in identifying and resolving code issues with high accuracy
  • Code Quality: High-quality code generation that follows software engineering best practices and codebase conventions
  • Cost Efficiency: 62.7% lower usage costs compared to industry averages, making it one of the most cost-effective programming models available
  • Frontend Development: Specialized strengths in frontend development workflows and web technologies
  • Agentic Programming: Optimized performance for autonomous code modification and generation tasks

Use Cases

Doubao-Seed-Code is designed for a wide range of software engineering applications:

  • Bug Fixing: Identifying and resolving issues in codebases with high accuracy
  • Code Refactoring: Improving code quality and maintainability while preserving functionality
  • Feature Implementation: Adding new functionality to existing codebases
  • Code Review Assistance: Helping identify potential issues and improvements
  • Legacy Code Understanding: Making sense of complex or unfamiliar codebases
  • Frontend Development: Specialized support for web development workflows
  • Agentic Workflows: Autonomous code modification and generation in agent-based systems
  • Large Codebase Analysis: Understanding and working with extensive codebases
  • Test Generation: Creating comprehensive test suites for code validation
  • Documentation Generation: Generating code comments and technical documentation

Integration & Compatibility

Doubao-Seed-Code offers broad compatibility with popular development environments:

  • Volcano Ark Platform: Full integration with ByteDance's AI development platform
  • AI Experience Center: User-friendly web interface for testing without configuration
  • Claude Code: Integration with Anthropic's Claude Code environment
  • Cursor: Compatibility with the popular AI-powered code editor
  • veCLI: Support for Volcano Engine's command-line interface
  • Anthropic API Compatible: Works with tools that use the Anthropic API standard

Pricing & Access

Doubao-Seed-Code offers cost-effective pricing options:

  • Entry-Level Pricing: Starting at 1.2 yuan per million tokens for inputs up to 32k tokens
  • Transparent Pricing: Clear pricing tiers based on input length
  • Input Caching: Transparent input caching reduces costs for repeated queries
  • Flexible Plans: Lite and Pro coding plans available for different usage patterns
  • Cost Advantage: 62.7% lower overall usage costs compared to industry average

Access is available through:

  • Volcano Ark Platform: AI Experience Center for testing
  • API Access: Full API availability for integration into applications
  • Development Tools: Integration with Claude Code, Cursor, veCLI, and Anthropic API-compatible tools

Limitations

While Doubao-Seed-Code excels at programming tasks, it has some constraints:

  • Specialization: Optimized specifically for programming, may not perform as well on general language tasks outside of software engineering
  • Platform Access: Currently available primarily through Volcano Ark platform, requiring account setup and API access
  • Knowledge Cutoff: Training data has a specific cutoff date and may not reflect the most recent technologies, frameworks, or libraries
  • Regional Availability: Some features may vary by region, with primary optimization for Chinese market
  • Language Support: While supporting multiple programming languages, some features may work better with Chinese codebases or documentation
  • Complexity Limits: Extremely large or complex codebases may still present challenges despite 256k context window
  • API Dependencies: Integration with development tools requires compatible environments and may need configuration

Ecosystem & Tools

Doubao-Seed-Code integrates with ByteDance's comprehensive AI ecosystem:

  • Volcano Ark Platform: ByteDance's AI development and deployment platform
  • AI Experience Center: Web-based testing interface
  • Development Environment Integration: Compatible with Claude Code, Cursor, veCLI
  • API Access: Full API support for programmatic access
  • Management Console: Console-based management and monitoring capabilities

Community & Resources

Frequently Asked Questions

Doubao-Seed-Code was released by ByteDance's Volcano Engine on December 3, 2025.
Doubao-Seed-Code is a programming model launched by ByteDance's Volcano Engine, specifically optimized for agentic programming tasks. It achieved state-of-the-art results on the SWE-Bench-Verified leaderboard and offers 62.7% lower costs than industry average.
Doubao-Seed-Code achieved a new state-of-the-art result on the SWE-Bench-Verified official leaderboard, demonstrating superior performance in software engineering and bug-fixing tasks compared to other programming models.
The model offers overall usage costs that are 62.7% lower than the industry average, with pricing starting at 1.2 yuan per million tokens for inputs up to 32k tokens. It also supports transparent input caching to further reduce usage costs.
Doubao-Seed-Code offers a maximum context length of 256k tokens, with a maximum input length of 224k tokens and a maximum output length of 64k tokens, enabling it to handle large codebases and complex programming tasks.
Developers can access Doubao-Seed-Code through the Volcano Ark platform's AI Experience Center for testing, or integrate it into development environments including Claude Code, Cursor, veCLI, and tools compatible with the Anthropic API.
The model excels at bug fixing, frontend development, and agentic programming tasks. It provides stable and efficient intelligent programming assistance with enhanced capabilities in software engineering workflows.

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