How to Use Seedream 5.5 and 5.0 Online: Prompts, Edits and Text in Images
Key Takeaways
Write Seedream prompts as plain sentences: subject, action and setting first, then style, light and framing. Comma-separated keyword lists give weaker results.
Put any words you want in the image inside double quotes and keep them short. ByteDance says Seedream 5.0 Pro and Flash render text in Chinese, English and 14 more languages, and Seedream 5.5 cuts garbled text further.
For edits, say exactly what to change and what must stay the same, and refer to your uploads as Image 1, Image 2 and so on.
There's no negative prompt field. Write exclusions into the sentence, such as "no text other than the title".
On Mage you can run Seedream 5.5 and 5.0 in the browser with nothing to install, unlimited on the Pro plan at up to 2K.
What Are Seedream 5.5 and 5.0?
Seedream 5.5 is the newest of ByteDance's Seedream image models, released in November 2026. ByteDance tuned it for more realistic skin, light and materials, clearer small text, and edits that keep the rest of the image steady over many rounds. The 5.0 generation before it comes in three versions: Seedream 5.0 Pro is the 5.0 flagship, Seedream 5.0 Flash is the fast, low-cost version for drafts, and Seedream 5.0 Lite renders larger, at 2K or 3K.
All four make images from a text prompt and edit images you upload. That means one prompt box covers a new poster, a product shot moved to a new scene, a changed outfit, or a sketch turned into a photo. This guide shows how to get each of those right, with prompts you can copy and adapt.
If you're still choosing a version, our Seedream model comparison covers all six Seedream models side by side.
How Do You Start Using Seedream 5.5 and 5.0 Online?
You don't need a GPU, an app or an API key. Here's the quickest route, on Mage.
Step 1: Sign up free on Mage. New members get 300 Gems once, enough for about 12 images on Seedream 5.5 at 1K or 11 on Seedream 5.0 Flash.
Step 2: Open the Seedream generator and choose Seedream 5.5, 5.0 Pro, 5.0 Flash or 5.0 Lite in the Model menu.
Step 3: Pick an aspect ratio. There are 9, from a 21:9 cinema frame to a 9:21 phone wallpaper, and Mage sizes the image for you, so you don't need to write the ratio into the prompt.
Step 4: Pick a resolution. Seedream 5.5, 5.0 Pro and 5.0 Flash render at 1K or 2K, and 5.0 Lite at 2K or 3K.
Step 5: Write your prompt, add any images you want to edit or reference, and generate. Your images are private by default and carry no watermark.
How Do You Write a Good Seedream Prompt?
Seedream reads prompts the way a person reads a brief, so write it like one.
Start with the subject and the job
Open with what the image is and what it's for. "A product photo of a ceramic coffee mug for an online store" tells Seedream more in one line than ten adjectives. If the image is a poster, a logo, an infographic or a storyboard frame, say so up front.
Then add style, light and framing
After the subject, describe how it should look: the style ("watercolor children's book illustration", "35mm film photo"), the light ("low sun from the right, long soft shadows") and the framing ("close-up, shallow depth of field", "wide shot from above").
Be specific, not ornate
Since Seedream 4.0, ByteDance has advised precise wording over piles of adjectives. "A red vintage bicycle leaning on a sunlit brick wall" beats "a stunning, beautiful, amazing bicycle". In a busy scene, list every object and where it sits, the way you'd describe a room to someone who can't see it.
Keep it under a page
ByteDance recommends keeping prompts under about 600 English words. Past that, details start to drop out. Most good prompts are 30 to 120 words.
Prompt part | What to write | Example |
Subject and job | What the image is and what it's for | A product photo of a ceramic coffee mug for an online store |
Action and setting | What's happening and where | steam rising, on a walnut table by a rainy window |
Style | The medium or look | soft natural-light photography, muted colors |
Light | Where the light comes from and its mood | cool daylight from the left, warm lamp glow behind |
Framing | Shot size, angle, focus | close-up at table height, background softly blurred |
Exclusions | What to leave out | no text, no logos, no hands |
Here's a full prompt built that way:
A product photo of a matte sage-green ceramic coffee mug for an online store. Steam rises from the mug, which sits on a walnut table by a rainy window. Soft natural-light photography with muted colors, cool daylight from the left and a warm lamp glow in the background. Close-up at table height, background softly blurred. No text, no logos, no hands.
How Do You Put Readable Text in a Seedream Image?
Text is one of Seedream 5's strengths, and three habits make it reliable. ByteDance says Seedream 5.5 garbles even less: in its tests of Chinese and English text, dense small print included, severe errors fell to 0.4% of images.
Quote the exact words
Put the text in double quotes: a poster titled "NIGHT GARDEN", not a poster titled night garden. Seedream then treats the quoted words as text to render, not as a description.
Say where and how it appears
Name the placement and the lettering: "the title across the top in tall white serif capitals", "a small price tag in the lower right that reads "$12"". Short lines render best, so keep headlines to a few words and leave paragraphs of copy for your layout tool.
Use your own language
ByteDance says Seedream 5.0 Pro and Flash render text in Chinese and English plus Russian, Arabic, Filipino, Thai, Turkish, Korean, Malay, Spanish, Portuguese, Indonesian, French, German, Vietnamese and Japanese. You can write the whole prompt in any of those languages. Seedream 5.5 takes the same multilingual prompts, and in our tests on Mage it set Spanish, Japanese and Russian lines correctly.
Example:
A minimalist concert poster for a summer jazz night. A single trumpet made of glowing vines on a deep navy background, tiny fireflies around it. The title "NIGHT GARDEN" across the top in tall white serif capitals, and "JULY 18 · RIVERSIDE PARK" in small gold letters at the bottom. Clean layout, lots of empty space, no other text.
For more poster and thumbnail ideas, see the AI poster generator and the AI thumbnail generator guides.
How Do You Edit a Photo With Seedream 5?
Upload a photo, then write the change as an instruction. Seedream handles four kinds of edit well: adding something, removing something, replacing something, and changing a property such as color, material, light or style.
The rule that matters most is to say what must stay the same. "Change her jacket to a red raincoat, keeping her face, pose and the background unchanged" works far better than "make the jacket red". Avoid vague words like "it" or "that one": name the object you mean.
If you'll edit the same image many times in a row, use Seedream 5.5. ByteDance trained it to keep the parts you didn't ask to change exactly as they were, without color drift, and showed 100 edits in a row on one image. For an exact spot, Seedream 5.5, 5.0 Pro and 5.0 Flash also read coordinates; the Seedream prompting guide shows how.
Examples:
Remove the tourists in the background and fill the space with the same cobblestone street, keeping the couple and the light unchanged.
Replace the coffee cup in her hand with a glass of iced matcha, keeping her hand position and expression unchanged.
Turn this daytime street photo into the same street at night in the rain, with neon signs reflecting on the wet road. Keep the composition unchanged.
Turn this pencil sketch of a living room into a photorealistic interior. Keep the furniture layout exactly as drawn, and leave out the sketch lines and handwriting.
For pixel-level fixes to one area, such as a stray hand or a misspelled word, Mage's Inpaint app lets you brush over just that spot. To change the lighting of a finished image, try Relight.
How Do You Combine Several Reference Images?
Seedream can take several images in one run. On Mage that's up to 10, and the 5.5 and 5.0 models are especially good at pulling one element from each.
Number your images
Refer to uploads by their order: Image 1, Image 2, Image 3. Then say what to take from each: "Put the sneaker from Image 2 on the person in Image 1", "Apply the color palette of Image 3 to Image 1".
Name what to keep and what's new
For reference-based images, first say what to carry over (the character's face, the product's shape and label, the illustration style), then describe the new scene in full.
Save faces and products once
If the same person or product appears again and again, save it on Mage as a Character or a Reference and call it by its @handle in any prompt. Seedream 5.5, 5.0 and 4.5 take both, so a prompt like "@maya wearing @yellowcoat in a snowy Tokyo street at dusk" keeps her face and the coat the same from image to image.
Example:
Put the woman from Image 1 in the jacket from Image 2, standing in the train station from Image 3. Keep her face, hairstyle and expression from Image 1 and the jacket's color and stitching from Image 2. Morning light through the station windows, candid street-photo framing, 35mm film look.
What Does the Prompt Optimizer on Seedream 5.0 Pro Do?
Seedream 5.0 Pro works through your prompt before it draws, and on Mage you choose how much time it spends there with the Prompt Optimizer setting. Standard, the default, spends the most and gives ByteDance's best quality. Fast does a quicker pass, and Off does the least. The setting applies to prompts without input images.
Leave it on Standard for finals. Switch to Fast or Off when you're testing many variations and want each one back sooner. Seedream 5.5 has no Prompt Optimizer setting: it always takes the standard pass.
Common Seedream Problems and How to Fix Them
Problem | Likely cause | Fix |
Text is misspelled or garbled | Long text, or words not in quotes | Quote short text, and use Seedream 5.5 |
An object from the prompt is missing | Too many details in one long sentence | List objects in short sentences with positions |
An edit changed the whole image | The prompt didn't say what to keep | Add "keep everything else unchanged" |
Wrong subject edited | Vague words like "it" or "that one" | Name the object and its image number |
Image is too small for print | 5.5, 5.0 Pro and Flash stop at 2K | Use Seedream 4.5 at 4K, or the Image Enhancer |
Seedream 5 Questions, Answered
Is Seedream 5.5 free to use?
New Mage members get 300 Gems once, which covers about 12 images on Seedream 5.5 at 1K, 11 on 5.0 Flash or 4 on 5.0 Pro at 1K. For regular use, Seedream is unlimited on Mage's Pro plan ($30 a month) at up to 2K.
Can Seedream 5 edit my own photos?
Yes. Upload a photo and describe the change, and say what should stay the same. Seedream can add, remove and replace objects, and change color, light or style.
How many reference images can Seedream 5 use?
Up to 10 per run on Mage, counting uploads, saved Characters and References.
What resolution does Seedream 5.5 support?
On Mage, Seedream 5.5, 5.0 Pro and 5.0 Flash render at 1K or 2K and Seedream 5.0 Lite at 2K or 3K. For 4K, use Seedream 4.5.
Does Seedream 5 support negative prompts?
No. Put what you want left out into the prompt, such as "no text, no logos".
What aspect ratios does Seedream 5 support on Mage?
Nine, from 21:9 to 9:21, including square, 16:9, 4:5 portrait and 9:16 for phones.
Why does Seedream refuse some prompts on Mage?
Seedream on Mage runs with a strict content filter. Mage checks the prompt and the first image before generation, and a refused run is refunded with a notice that suggests other models to try.
Make Your First Seedream 5.5 Image
Start with one of the prompts above, change one detail at a time, and keep the versions you like. The Seedream prompting guide has more examples for portraits, products, posters and edits.
Open Seedream on Mage and try it. Have fun creating!
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