China's ByteDance Introduces New AI Image Tool To Compete With Google DeepMind's 'Nano Banana'

ByteDance, the Chinese tech company behind TikTok, has launched its latest AI-powered image generation model, Seedream 4.0, which it claims outperforms Google DeepMind's popular tool, known as "Nano Banana" (officially Gemini 2.5 Flash Image), according to the South China Morning Post.

Developed by ByteDance's Seed department, the new model combines advanced text-to-image generation with powerful image editing features. It is designed to compete directly with DeepMind's US-developed image editor, which has received strong praise since its launch in late August for its accuracy and consistency, as per the news portal.

Introducing Seedream 4.0

Banana jokes aside, this changes everything
– Generate in 2k and 4k resolution
– Up to 6 image references
– Choose any aspect ratio

Unlimited generations for Premium+ and Pro pic.twitter.com/VfTQf07rpk

— Freepik (@freepik) September 9, 2025

ByteDance said that Seedream 4.0 performed better than Gemini 2.5 Flash Image on its internal testing platform called MagicBench, scoring higher in areas like prompt accuracy, image alignment, and overall visual quality. However, the company has not yet released a formal technical report to support these claims.

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Independent AI benchmarking firm Artificial Analysis described Seedream 4.0 as a "significant evolution" of ByteDance's earlier models.

I asked seedream for a collection of giant animals and here's what I got...

9 examples and how I did it in minutes in this thread 🧵👇

1. giant fox pic.twitter.com/gmzeZ6bkmi

— TechHalla (@techhalla) September 12, 2025

The tool merges the text-to-image capabilities of Seedream 3.0 with the editing functions of SeedEdit 3.0, while keeping the price unchanged at US$30 per 1,000 generations.

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This move highlights China's growing presence in the global AI race, especially in the fast-evolving field of creative image generation.

According to SCMP, the Beijing-based tech giant stated that Seedream 4.0 features a new architecture that boosts raw image inference speed by over 10 times compared to earlier versions, making it significantly faster to use.

Feedback has been positive online, as users praised the accuracy of the editing function, which can make quick changes to images through text prompts.

The tool has been made available to domestic users on ByteDance's Jimeng and Doubao AI apps, as well as to corporate clients through its official cloud service, Volcano Engine.