Doubao Seed 2.1 Pro vs Muse Spark 1.3
Doubao Seed 2.1 Pro wins on Overall, Multimodal; Muse Spark 1.3 wins on Coding. Every numeric field is compared below, with a worked monthly-cost example and a pick rule for each use case.
Verdict at a glance
Choose Doubao Seed 2.1 Pro if you…
- World-leading video understanding
- Excellent Chinese
- Strong agent ability
- Full 256K context
- Best for: Video understanding, Chinese tasks, AI agents
Choose Muse Spark 1.3 if you…
- #1 DeepSWE long-horizon coding
- Open weights, self-hostable
- Extremely low cost
- Fast
- Best for: Coding, Open-source deployment, Budget
Head-to-head aggregate scores
Scores are 0–100, aggregated from public benchmark information and independently weighted across three leaderboards. Rank is out of 26 tracked models.
Aggregated from public sources and independently weighted; methodology on the Terms page. Scores within 3 points are treated as statistically tied.
Specs & pricing — every field side by side
List API prices in USD per 1M tokens. The highlighted cell is the stronger value/capability on that row.
| Dimension | Doubao Seed 2.1 Pro | Muse Spark 1.3 | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vendor | ByteDance (CN) | Meta (US) | Different vendors |
| Released | 2026.06 | 2026.09 | Muse Spark 1.3 is newer |
| Overall (rank) | 78 · #9 | 64 · #22 | Doubao Seed 2.1 Pro +14 |
| Coding | 76 · #10 | 88 · #5 | Muse Spark 1.3 +12 |
| Multimodal | 92 · #3 | 76 · #17 | Doubao Seed 2.1 Pro +16 |
| Context window | 256K | 256K | Tie |
| Max output | 256K | 64K | Muse Spark 1.3 longer |
| Effective-context | 93 | 85 | Doubao Seed 2.1 Pro more reliable |
| Input $/1M | $0.83 | $1.25 | Doubao Seed 2.1 Pro cheaper |
| Output $/1M | $4.17 | $4.25 | Doubao Seed 2.1 Pro cheaper |
| Cache discount | custom | none | Muse Spark 1.3 deeper |
| Speed | ~65 tok/s | ~70 tok/s | Muse Spark 1.3 faster |
| TTFT | 0.5s | 0.4s | Muse Spark 1.3 snappier |
| Function calling | 85 | 72 | Doubao Seed 2.1 Pro ahead |
| Refusal rate | ~11% | ~4% | Muse Spark 1.3 less restrictive |
| English | 72 | 84 | Muse Spark 1.3 |
| Chinese | 95 | 62 | Doubao Seed 2.1 Pro |
| Modalities | text, image, video | text, image | different coverage |
| Open weights | No | Yes | Muse Spark 1.3 is open |
| Fine-tuning | Yes | Yes | |
| Free tier | Doubao App free; free quota on the Ark platform | Open weights free to self-host; hosted API at $1.25/$4.25 per 1M | |
| SOC2 / no-train | no / yes | no / yes | |
| Private deployment | Yes | Yes | Both support it |
Fields drawn from vendor public documentation and the Modelspectra 26-model dataset; speed varies with network, concurrency and prompt length. Verify current pricing before purchase.
Dimension-by-dimension analysis
Reasoning & overall intelligence
Doubao Seed 2.1 Pro leads the overall aggregate by 14 points (78 vs 64). That is a meaningful, not marginal, edge on hard, multi-step reasoning, while Muse Spark 1.3 remains a strong generalist that is not out of its depth on routine work.
Agentic coding
This is a clear gap: Muse Spark 1.3 scores 88 against 76. On multi-file edits, SWE-style tickets and long-horizon agent loops Muse Spark 1.3 needs fewer correction turns; Doubao Seed 2.1 Pro is still competent for scripts and assisted completion but trails as task complexity rises.
Multimodal
Doubao Seed 2.1 Pro leads multimodal 92 vs 76. A concrete modality difference: Doubao Seed 2.1 Pro additionally handles video.
Speed & latency
Muse Spark 1.3 is faster in interactive use: ~70 tok/s with 0.4s TTFT versus ~65 tok/s with 0.5s TTFT (about 1.1× the throughput). For conversational UIs where perceived responsiveness drives retention, that edge is a real product factor even when raw reasoning is lower.
Context: window vs usable recall
Nominal windows are 256K for Doubao Seed 2.1 Pro and 256K for Muse Spark 1.3. Effective-context scores point the same way as window size — Doubao Seed 2.1 Pro is ahead on usable recall (93 vs 85), so prefer it for long-document work where details cannot be missed.
Price & total cost
Doubao Seed 2.1 Pro is the cheaper API at $0.83/$4.17 versus Muse Spark 1.3 at $1.25/$4.25 per 1M input/output tokens — list input is about 1.5× lower.
Chinese vs English
English: Doubao Seed 2.1 Pro 72 vs Muse Spark 1.3 84. Chinese: 95 vs 62. For Chinese-language production, Doubao Seed 2.1 Pro is the stronger pick. Note that non-Chinese models generally require overseas network access for their APIs.
Tool use & ecosystem
Function-calling score: Doubao Seed 2.1 Pro 85 vs Muse Spark 1.3 72, so Doubao Seed 2.1 Pro has the edge on structured tool use. Fine-tuning is available from Doubao Seed 2.1 Pro and Muse Spark 1.3. Factor in existing SDK/plugin familiarity — switching cost often outweighs a few-point tool-use gap.
Cost worked example — same workload, real token math
Assume a production workload of 100M input + 30M output tokens per month, with 90% of input tokens served from cache. Figures use public list prices.
| Scenario · per month | Doubao Seed 2.1 Pro | Muse Spark 1.3 | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| List priceno cache applied | $208100M in × $0.83 + 30M out × $4.17 | $252100M in × $1.25 + 30M out × $4.25 | 1.21×gap |
| With caching90% of inputs cache-hit | $208no published cache discount | $252no published cache discount | 1.21×gap |
Illustrative model; your input/output mix and cache-hit ratio change the result. Prices are list rates before any enterprise agreement.