Best AI Music Generators (2026): Cost per Usable Song

You type a prompt, an AI music generator hands you a finished song with vocals, and it's good. Then you try to put it on Spotify, or under a client's ad, and learn your plan never covered that.

That's AI music in 2026. Making songs is nearly free; keeping them is what you pay for.

On Suno's $10 plan you can generate hundreds of songs a month but download 20, and on Udio, none. So we priced each tool by the song you can actually use. One plan turned out to be paid for, yet not commercial at all.

Every price, limit and licence term here was read from each vendor's own pricing page, help centre or terms on 7 October 2026.

The picks, and what a usable song costs on each

Here's the short version. "Usable" means a track you can download and use commercially on that plan. The last column is our arithmetic on each vendor's published monthly price.

Two rows should make you stop. Suno's cost per song doesn't fall on its dearer plan, and Udio's last column isn't a typo. Both get explained below, starting with the tool most people try first.

Suno: the best songs, rationed by downloads

Suno is the default for a full song with lyrics and vocals from one prompt. Pro is $10 a month ($8 billed yearly) for 2,500 credits. Premier is $30 ($24 yearly) for 10,000 credits plus Suno Studio, its multitrack editor.

Credits used to be the limit. Suno's help centre, last edited before its v6 models launched in September, says 50 credits make about 10 songs. At that rate, Pro makes roughly 500 songs a month.

But since 3 September, Pro lets you download 20 of them. Premier, 60.

And the download is where your rights live. Suno's terms say you "may not commercially exploit Output that has not been downloaded by you through an approved channel". A song sitting in your library is for listening and sharing on Suno, not for releasing.

So a usable song costs $0.50 on Pro and $0.50 on Premier, or $0.40 on either billed yearly. Premier buys more drafts, Studio and a third stem type, not cheaper keepers. The one exception: Suno's help centre says Studio workflows on Premier aren't subject to download limits.

You're probably thinking you'll just record the audio instead. The terms name "recording or stream ripping" as prohibited, so a recorded copy carries no commercial right. The good news sits in the same section: once downloaded on a paid plan, a song's rights are perpetual, even after you cancel.

• Free plan: 50 credits a day, no commercial rights, no monthly downloads
• Commercial use: Pro and Premier, only on songs you download
• Downloads and formats: 20 or 60 a month, a song counts once in any format; extra downloads are sold in the app, unpriced publicly
• Stems and vocals: vocals and your own recorded voice on Pro; 2 stem types on Pro, 3 on Premier

ElevenLabs Music: licensed, with fine print by plan

ElevenLabs is best known for voices, and its music model is the one sold on licensing. Its docs say Eleven Music was made with labels, publishers and artists. They call it "cleared for nearly all commercial uses, from film and television to podcasts".

Starter is $6 a month (currently $1 for the first month) for 33 minutes of music, which ElevenLabs puts at 8 to 16 tracks. Creator is $22 for 134 minutes. That's 18 and 16 cents a minute, the cheapest licensed music here.

Now look at the Starter column. "Commercial, no streaming": no release to Spotify or Apple Music, and no lossless WAV. Both start on Creator.

Film, TV, radio and multi-platform games aren't on any plan you can buy online. ElevenLabs' music terms (updated 26 May 2026) reserve those for Enterprise Music, whatever the docs say about film and television. The same terms list lower generation limits than the pricing page, 17 minutes on Starter, so we've quoted the pricing page and flagged the gap.

For ads, YouTube, podcasts and branded social, Creator is the plan to buy. You can try ElevenLabs free first, but its terms list music downloads on the free plan as "Not permitted". If you also pay it for voiceover, our ElevenLabs alternatives guide covers that half of the bill.

• Free plan: 11 minutes a month, personal use only, credit to Eleven Music required
• Commercial use: from Starter ($6); streaming release from Creator ($22); film, TV and radio need Enterprise Music
• Downloads and formats: lossless WAV from Creator, a separate "high-quality download" from Pro ($99)
• Stems and vocals: vocals or instrumental; 2 and 4 stems on Starter and Creator, up to 6 from Pro

AIVA keeps the copyright unless you pay for Pro

AIVA composes in more than 250 styles and exports MIDI, the note data you can open in a DAW and re-orchestrate. That makes it a sketchpad for film and game scoring rather than a song machine.

Its pricing page loads on yearly billing and prices in euros. Flip the switch to monthly and Standard is €15 plus VAT, Pro €49 plus VAT (€11 and €33 billed yearly).

Read the first line on each card. Free and Standard both say "Copyright owned by AIVA", and Standard lets you monetise only on YouTube, Twitch, TikTok and Instagram. Pro alone says "Copyright owned by YOU", with full monetisation and WAV export.

That flips the per-track maths too. Standard's 15 downloads cost €1.00 each. Pro's 300 cost about 16 cents (11 cents billed yearly), so Pro is both the cheaper download and the only one you own.

And budget for VAT: AIVA is the only tool here priced in euros with tax added on top.

• Free plan: 3 downloads a month, tracks up to 3 minutes, no monetisation, credit to AIVA required
• Commercial use: limited to four platforms on Standard; full, with your own copyright, on Pro
• Downloads and formats: MP3 and MIDI on every plan; all formats and WAV on Pro
• Stems and vocals: the pricing page doesn't list stems or vocals

SOUNDRAW: unlimited downloads, for background music

SOUNDRAW says its model is trained only on music its in-house producers wrote and recorded. You generate beats and background tracks, then shape them in a mixer: length, energy, instruments.

Creator is $12.99 a month (shown against a struck-through $19.99), or $11.04 billed yearly. Its FAQ says Creator downloads have "literally no cap", which makes it the cheapest unlimited plan here.

The catch is the word background. Creator covers music behind your videos, podcasts and games, and the plan table marks "Distribute & monetize songs" as not included. Putting a song on Spotify takes an Artist plan: $25.99 for 10 downloads, $38.99 for 20 with WAV and stems, or $64.99 for unlimited.

Even then, there's a condition. SOUNDRAW's licence page allows distribution only if you modify the beat first, "by remixing, adding your vocals or an instrumental track played by you". An unmodified download can't go to Spotify or into Content ID.

Where it beats the others is the licence's reach. It lists client work, radio and TV among the uses every plan covers. It does ask you to check with SOUNDRAW first for video you don't own, such as films and ads.

• Free plan: none listed on the pricing page, only a "Try it for free" button
• Commercial use: every plan, as background music; songs on Spotify from Artist Starter, modified only
• Downloads and formats: unlimited MP3 on Creator; 10, 20 or unlimited on Artist plans; WAV from Artist Pro
• Stems and vocals: stems from Artist Pro ($38.99); you add your own vocals

Stable Audio, when you want stems and drafts in volume

Stability AI's Stable Audio runs as a web app and a DAW plugin, and every plan includes both. It's the volume play. Solo is $12 a month for 660 credits, which Stability puts at about 165 full-mix generations or 110 multi-track ones, each up to 6 minutes.

That's roughly 7 cents a full mix, or 11 cents when you want the parts separately.

Every paid plan carries a commercial licence, and Stability's terms of service assign the output to you "to the extent permitted by applicable law". The pricing FAQ adds that audio made on a paid plan stays covered after you cancel.

Two things to know before you subscribe. Unused credits don't roll over. And nothing on the pricing page mentions vocals or lyrics: it sells full mixes and multi-track generations, so think instrumental beds and cues, not songs.

• Free plan: 50 credits a month, about 12 full mixes, personal and non-commercial use
• Commercial use: every paid plan, from Solo ($12)
• Downloads and formats: no download cap listed; tracks up to 6 minutes
• Stems and vocals: multi-track generations on every plan; vocals not mentioned

Mubert's $14 plan isn't for commercial use

Mubert generates royalty-free tracks by mood, genre and tempo, up to 25 minutes long, which suits streams and long videos. Its paid plans all include unlimited lossless downloads. So far, so good.

Then read the labels. Creator, the $14 plan ($11.69 yearly), is the paid plan we warned you about: "Non-Commercial", or in the FAQ's words "for personal and non-monetized content". A monetised channel needs Pro at $39 ($32.49 yearly).

Pro still excludes "Freelance & Agency Work" and "App & Services". Client work starts at Business, $199 a month.

No plan lets you publish tracks on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube Music, or register them in Content ID. And if you cancel, the FAQ says you can't use old tracks in new projects, though published ones stay up.

For your own monetised stream, Pro is fair value. For client work, SOUNDRAW's licence covers more for less.

• Free plan: 25 tracks and 5 MP3 downloads a month, non-commercial
• Commercial use: from Pro ($39); client and agency work from Business ($199)
• Downloads and formats: unlimited WAV and MP3 on paid plans; no streaming release on any plan
• Stems and vocals: stem editing on every plan, a full track editor from Pro; vocals not mentioned

Udio: good songs you can't take with you

Udio was Suno's closest rival for vocal songs. Then, on 29 October 2025, it partnered with Universal Music Group. Its help centre now says "downloading of audio, video, and stems has been disabled".

The pricing page still sells Standard at $10 a month ($8 yearly) for 2,400 credits and Pro at $30 ($24) for 6,000. It doesn't mention downloads at all.

So the cost per usable track can't be worked out: you can make, play and share songs inside Udio, but nothing leaves. Until that changes, don't pay for Udio if the music has to end up anywhere else.

• Free plan: 10 credits a day and 100 a month, 3 full-length songs a day
• Commercial use: nothing to use outside Udio while downloads are off
• Downloads and formats: audio, video and stem downloads disabled
• Stems and vocals: vocal songs, with Voice Control from Standard; stems can't be downloaded

What a usable song costs, plan by plan

Here's every paid plan side by side, billed monthly. "Usable output" is what you can download and use commercially on that plan.

Fair objection: most generations get thrown away, so a per-generation price flatters everyone. That's why we used downloads where the vendor caps them. It's the count of songs you keep.

Say you post three YouTube videos a week, each with a fresh background track: about 13 a month. SOUNDRAW Creator covers that at $12.99 with no cap. So does ElevenLabs Starter at $6, if the tracks average under two and a half minutes.

Now say you release six vocal songs a month on Spotify. Suno Pro's 20 downloads cover it for $10, while ElevenLabs needs Creator at $22. Mubert can't do it on any plan; SOUNDRAW only if the vocals are yours.

How we chose these AI music generators

We started from the tools in nearly every current roundup and in our best AI audio generation tools guide. We kept the ones that sell music generation to individuals at a published price.

For each one, we read the pricing page in a fresh browser and flipped the monthly and yearly toggle. Where rights were defined elsewhere, we read those pages too: Suno's September terms, ElevenLabs' music terms, SOUNDRAW's licence, Stability's terms and Udio's help centre.

That gave us the four answers in each section's list, plus the price and what a credit or download buys.

What we didn't do: generate, compare or rate any music. Models change fast (Suno moved to v6 in September), and a sound-quality ranking from this month would mislead you by spring. Every tool here except SOUNDRAW lists a free plan, so test your own prompt there.

We dropped Beatoven.ai, often listed for video scoring. The "Pricing" link on its own homepage led to a 404 page on 7 October 2026, so we couldn't read its plans.

So which one should you pick?

If you want songs with vocals that you'll release, pick Suno Pro. It's $10 for 20 releasable songs, with rights that outlive your subscription. Move to Premier only for Studio or more drafts.

If it's music for ads, YouTube and podcasts and the licence matters, pick ElevenLabs Creator at $22. Skip Starter if a track might ever end up on Spotify.

For background music in bulk, SOUNDRAW Creator. For a copyright you own, or MIDI to score with, AIVA Pro.

Instrumentals and stems at volume point to Stable Audio Solo, and your own monetised stream to Mubert Pro, never Creator.

And skip Udio until downloads come back.

Need a voiceover or a presenter for the same video? Our ElevenLabs vs Fish Audio comparison and best AI avatar generators guide price those per minute too.