# Magic Hour MCP vs Seedance on BytePlus ModelArk

> Seedance on BytePlus ModelArk scores 59.4 (C) to Magic Hour MCP's 50.7 (D) for video generation. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/magic-hour-mcp-vs-seedance-on-byteplus-modelark
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/magic-hour-mcp-vs-seedance-on-byteplus-modelark.md (~5,700 tokens)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (the key docs and every listing in one file, at most 16 MB, about 4 million tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
- DNS: dig +short TXT <slug>.grade.anchorterminal.com (the grade as a DNS TXT record, for a sandbox with no HTTP where names still resolve; also top., best.<category>. and <a>.vs.<b>. under the zone, and the same under grade.letme.dev)
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)
- Updated: 2026-11-07

Seedance on BytePlus ModelArk scores 59.4 (C) on agent readiness against Magic Hour MCP's 50.7 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Magic Hour MCP leads on schema & documentation and maintenance & community. Both do video generation.

- Magic Hour MCP: grade D, 50.7/100, rank #1053 of 1510. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/magic-hour-mcp.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/magic-hour-mcp.json
- Seedance on BytePlus ModelArk: grade C, 59.4/100, rank #706 of 1510. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/seedance-on-byteplus-modelark.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/seedance-on-byteplus-modelark.json
- Best video generation for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/video-generation/index.md
- All 183 video comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/video-generation/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Magic Hour MCP (D)

Good for: Agents making short-form video and images, from talking photos and ads to lip-synced translations, on a credit plan.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 82 against 61
- Maintenance & community, 75 against 65

Watch for: About 160 KB of tool definitions

### Seedance on BytePlus ModelArk (C)

Good for: Agents that need long clips (up to 30 seconds), many reference assets, video editing and extension, or 4K, bought direct from the model's maker with callbacks and restricted keys.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 40 against 35
- Agent ergonomics, 85 against 55
- Security & auth, 79 against 45
- Payments & pricing, 20 against 15
- Transparency & trust, 65 against 58

Watch for: No status page was found on byteplus.com, the docs or the trust centre, and no SLA was found that names ModelArk inference


## Why the edge

### Security & auth: Seedance on BytePlus ModelArk +34

- Magic Hour MCP (45): API keys as Bearer tokens or OAuth through the Claude and ChatGPT connectors (20 of 30). Destructive deletes are annotated; no read-only key (8 of 20). Tools return generated media, not third-party text (10). No audit log found (0). No security.txt or certifications found; face and voice tools come with policy limits in the terms (7 of 20). 20 + 8 + 10 + 0 + 7 = 45.
- Seedance on BytePlus ModelArk (79): Per the 9 October check for the docs pages, not re-read on 4 November. Model reading of the checklist (credential, training, retention, operator visibility, programme). API keys belong to a resource project, can be limited to named model IDs or endpoints and to an IP allowlist, and can be disabled or deleted. No expiry or rotation setting was found (28). The service terms say BytePlus will not use customer data to train models unless the customer opts in, and the data processing page and training FAQ agree (20). Task records last 7 days and video URLs 24 hours, DELETE removes a finished task record, and content that triggers the filter is kept 180 days. No general retention period for inputs was found (10). Keys show a last-used time and billing per key, and the console has usage statistics. The inference security audit page says it applies only to Skylark models (8). The trust centre lists ISO 27001, SOC 2 and other certifications for BytePlus as a whole, and the Go SDK repository's SECURITY.md points to the ByteDance security centre and a bounty policy. No security.txt, and no disclosure policy on byteplus.com itself. The Go SDK's SECURITY.md was re-read in a clone on 4 November, and OSV holds no advisory for the Go, Python or Java packages (13).

### Agent ergonomics: Seedance on BytePlus ModelArk +30

- Magic Hour MCP (55): 50 tools totalling about 160 KB of definitions (5). list_saved_items and project getters; limited size controls (10 of 20). Error handling not documented (5 of 20). Every tool annotated, 14 read-only and the three deletes marked destructive (20). Few required inputs and SDKs (Python, Node and others listed in the docs) (15). 5 + 10 + 5 + 20 + 15 = 55.
- Seedance on BytePlus ModelArk (85): Per the 9 October check, not re-read on 4 November (docs.byteplus.com answered robots.txt with its app page). Create returns only a task ID, the task object is small, and `callback_url` posts each status change so an agent need not poll (25). The list call pages with `page_num` and `page_size` up to 500 and filters by status, task ID, model and service tier, and `resolution`, `ratio` and `duration` size the output (20). Error codes come with a meaning and a suggested fix. On Seedance 2.5 some constraint errors arrive only after the task leaves the queue unless `omni_reference_task_type` is set (17). No idempotency key was found. Only successful videos are charged, a queued task can be cancelled with DELETE and a running one cannot (8). Only `model` and `content` are required, and official SDKs exist for Python, Go and Java (15).

### Schema & documentation: Magic Hour MCP +21

- Magic Hour MCP (82): All 50 tools read from tools/list with JSON Schema inputs and 29 enums, built from Magic Hour's OpenAPI specification (25). llms.txt (10). Long descriptions with a get_workflow_guide tool for choosing between them (17 of 20). Typed inputs with enums and no free-form objects (15). Worked examples; error responses not documented (5 of 15). Dated changelog with entries on 3 to 5 November 2026 (10 of 15, product changelog rather than MCP versions). 25 + 10 + 17 + 15 + 5 + 10 = 82.
- Seedance on BytePlus ModelArk (61): Per the 9 October check, not re-read on 4 November (docs.byteplus.com answered robots.txt with its app page). No OpenAPI or similar file was found. The reference pages link an API Explorer that is drawn by script, which we could not read (0). www.byteplus.com/llms.txt is a short site index, and docs.byteplus.com has no llms.txt or published Markdown twin (3). The create-task reference states which models accept each field, which input modes cannot be mixed, and when to use `frames` over `duration` or set `omni_reference_task_type` (17). Fields carry types, ranges, defaults and per-model values. `content` is a mixed array of text, image, video, audio and draft items, and a legacy mode reads parameters from the prompt text (13). cURL, Python and Java examples in the tutorial, and an error page of about 120 rows with HTTP status, code, message and meaning (15). A versioned `/api/v3` path, dated model IDs, and pages for product updates, model releases, deprecations and an API schema notice. Product updates are dated by month only and stop at August 2026 (13).

### Maintenance & community: Magic Hour MCP +10

- Magic Hour MCP (75): Changelog entries on 3, 4 and 5 November 2026 (30). More than three dated entries in 90 days (20). Changelog and support; issues on the public MCP repository not read (10 of 25). Registry entry io.github.magichourhq/magic-hour (0.1.1, 4 November) (15). No package health read (0). 30 + 20 + 10 + 15 + 0 = 75. Registry presence read from Anchor Terminal's own daily import of the official MCP registry (/api/v1/registry.json, 6 November 2026), not the registry's API.
- Seedance on BytePlus ModelArk (65): Model reading. The last dated change that touches Seedance is the 8 September 2026 deprecation notice for `seedance-1-5-pro-251215`, 57 days before this check; Dreamina Seedance 2.5 shows "Updated Aug 7, 2026" in the ai.byteplus.com model catalogue on 4 November, with no newer Seedance model. The Go SDK tagged v0.10.0 to v0.19.0 between 29 September and 3 November, but none of them changes its content-generation package, last changed on 26 August, so they don't set recency for this listing (as groq-speech-to-text's SDK releases that don't touch audio). The create-task reference's 8 October page date records no change. 20, in place of 30 (cause time and correction). The deprecation policy promises at least 30 calendar days' notice. `seedance-1-5-pro-251215` got 64 days, from 8 September to 11 November 2026, after about 11 months on sale and with no automatic migration, and a Seedance 1.0 lite model went in the May 2026 batch. The minimum is short (12 of 20). Monthly product updates, model release and deprecation pages, with support by console ticket and a Discord server we did not test, per the 9 October check (11 of 15). Current official SDKs for Python, Go and Java (15). The Go SDK is Apache-2.0 with a CI workflow and 19 tags since its 11 August import, the latest v0.19.0 on 3 November 2026. It is below 1.0 and replaced an older SDK that the docs still need for some APIs (7). 20+12+11+15+7 = 65.

### Transparency & trust: Seedance on BytePlus ModelArk +7

- Magic Hour MCP (58): Closed service under terms naming Magic Hour AI, Inc., revised 3 October 2026 (15). The privacy policy says prompts, uploads and outputs aren't sold or used to train models, for free and paid accounts, and MCP requests are handled the same way; retention periods aren't given (20 of 30). No deprecation policy found (5 of 20). Subprocessors not read (10 of 20, model providers named in tool docs). 15 + 20 + 5 + 10 = 50.
- Seedance on BytePlus ModelArk (65): Per the 9 October check, not re-read on 4 November (docs.byteplus.com answered robots.txt with its app page). Closed models under the Customer Agreement (effective 30 September 2026) and the Service Specific Terms, which are public and dated. The Go SDK is Apache-2.0. Two cited documents, the General Terms for AI Services and the ModelArk Terms, returned no text to our reader (15). The service terms, the ModelArk data processing page and the training FAQ agree that customer data is not used for training without opt-in. Filter-triggered content is kept 180 days, and no general retention period for inputs is stated. A Data Processing Addendum is incorporated, which we did not open (20). A deprecation policy with a 30 day minimum and dated timetables for each batch (18). Processing locations are named as Malaysia, Indonesia and the EU/EEA, and a sub-processor list effective 24 September 2026 promises 15 days' notice of changes, but it has no ModelArk row (14).

### Reliability: Seedance on BytePlus ModelArk +5

- Magic Hour MCP (35): Status page at status.magichour.ai, all services online, with maintenance and previous incidents sections; no MCP component read (15). Incident history not read (5). No API rate limits found (0). No retry guidance found; wait_for_* tools poll long jobs (5 of 15). No SLA found (0). Not labelled beta (10). 15 + 5 + 0 + 5 + 0 + 10 = 35.
- Seedance on BytePlus ModelArk (40): No status page was found on the site footer, the docs, the trust centre or llms.txt, per the 9 October check, and none is linked from www.byteplus.com/llms.txt or ai.byteplus.com/llms.txt on 4 November (0). With no history to read, the incident line takes the checklist's 5 for no readable record, as Seedream on ModelArk does, in place of the 0 given on 9 October (5). docs.byteplus.com answered its robots.txt request with its HTML app page on 4 November, so no docs page was requested and the docs readings are per the 9 October check, not re-read on 4 November. Rate limits are published per model, 600 task creations a minute and 10 concurrent tasks for enterprise accounts on Seedance 2.5 and 2.0, 180 and 3 for individuals, 15 and 1 at 4K, plus per-second limits on retrieve, list and delete. BytePlus calls them theoretical maximums that are not guaranteed (15). The error list has 18 entries under 429 and a burst traffic guide recommends exponential backoff. The Go SDK retries and reads a retry-after value, but the docs name no Retry-After header, no idempotency key and no safe way to retry a task creation; failed generations are not charged. This run gives backoff guidance without safe-retry guidance on writes 10, in place of 11 (10). An SLA exists for the BytePlus MLP Service at 99.5 per cent a month. It does not name ModelArk, so it is not counted (0). Seedance 2.5 is described as fully available with no preview label (10). 0+5+15+10+0+10 = 40.

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Magic Hour MCP | Seedance on BytePlus ModelArk | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 35 | 40 | Seedance on BytePlus ModelArk +5 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 82 | 61 | Magic Hour MCP +21 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 55 | 85 | Seedance on BytePlus ModelArk +30 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 45 | 79 | Seedance on BytePlus ModelArk +34 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 15 | 20 | Seedance on BytePlus ModelArk +5 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 75 | 65 | Magic Hour MCP +10 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 58 | 65 | Seedance on BytePlus ModelArk +7 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **50.7 · D** | **59.4 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Magic Hour MCP | Seedance on BytePlus ModelArk |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | MCP server | Model API |
| Vendor | Magic Hour AI, Inc. | BytePlus |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://mcp.magichour.ai/` | `https://ark.ap-southeast.bytepluses.com/api/v3` |
| Transports | Streamable HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | none | Proprietary service under the BytePlus Customer Agreement and Service Specific Terms. The Go SDK is Apache-2.0 |
| Tools exposed | 50 | none |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | `io.github.magichourhq/magic-hour` | not listed |
| Last release | none | 2026-11-03 |
| Terms last updated | not read yet | couldn't be read |
| Privacy policy last updated | not read yet | couldn't be read |
| Customer content may train models | not read yet | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict automated access | not read yet | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not read yet | couldn't be read |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not read yet | couldn't be read |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not read yet | couldn't be read |

## How the scores have moved

### Magic Hour MCP

No score change since it was listed.

### Seedance on BytePlus ModelArk

- -0.1 on 4 November 2026: correction, time
- +0.1 on 28 October 2026: new evidence
- +0.1 on 27 October 2026: checklist

## Verdicts

**Magic Hour MCP.** Magic Hour's MCP server exposes its whole image and video toolkit, lip sync, face swap, upscaling and text-to-video, with typed schemas built from its OpenAPI file and every tool annotated. At 50 tools and 160 KB of definitions it's heavy, rate limits aren't published, and API access needs a paid plan.

**Seedance on BytePlus ModelArk.** The video task API documents limits, error codes and per-model parameters in detail, with callbacks, a filterable task list and API keys restrictable by model and IP address. No status page, OpenAPI file or free video quota was found, the newest models need a USD 30 balance, and BytePlus model services are not sold in the United States.

## Before you call either

### Magic Hour MCP

1. Call get_workflow_guide first to pick the right tool
2. Use the wait_for_* tools instead of polling project status yourself
3. Check credits with get_account_info before long video jobs
4. Only swap faces or voices of people who consented

### Seedance on BytePlus ModelArk

1. POST to `/api/v3/contents/generations/tasks` on ark.ap-southeast.bytepluses.com, then poll GET `/contents/generations/tasks/{id}` or pass `callback_url`. Callbacks need an answer within 5 seconds
2. Download the result at once. Video URLs last 24 hours, task records 7 days, and a Seedance 2.5 URL allows 100 downloads
3. Pass `resolution`, `ratio` and `duration` in the request body. Parameters appended to the prompt as `--rs` or `--dur` are weakly validated and may be ignored
4. On Seedance 2.5 set `omni_reference_task_type` to `edit` or `extend` so constraint errors arrive at submission. With `auto` they arrive after the task leaves the queue
5. Do not send reference images or video with real human faces to Seedance 2.5 or 2.0. Only a queued task can be cancelled with DELETE

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Magic Hour MCP or Seedance on BytePlus ModelArk?

Seedance on BytePlus ModelArk scores 59.4 (C) on agent readiness against Magic Hour MCP's 50.7 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Magic Hour MCP leads on schema & documentation and maintenance & community.

### Do Magic Hour MCP and Seedance on BytePlus ModelArk need an API key?

Magic Hour MCP takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. Seedance on BytePlus ModelArk needs an API key.

### Can an agent call Magic Hour MCP and Seedance on BytePlus ModelArk without installing anything?

Yes. Magic Hour MCP has a hosted endpoint at https://mcp.magichour.ai/ and Seedance on BytePlus ModelArk at https://ark.ap-southeast.bytepluses.com/api/v3.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/magic-hour-mcp-vs-seedance-on-byteplus-modelark.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/magic-hour-mcp-vs-seedance-on-byteplus-modelark.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "magic-hour-mcp", "b": "seedance-on-byteplus-modelark"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare magic-hour-mcp seedance-on-byteplus-modelark`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/magic-hour-mcp.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/seedance-on-byteplus-modelark.json

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Query this catalogue directly over MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (Streamable HTTP, no key). How: https://www.anchorterminal.com/agents/#mcp