Suno, ElevenLabs, or Stable Audio: pick by what you can take out and where it can go
Three AI music tools built for different jobs, compared by the part that now decides the purchase: what you can export, what the licence lets that file do, and where it can be released.
Suno changed what a subscription lets you keep on 3 September. Downloads now run on a monthly count: 20 files on Pro, 60 on Premier, and no limit inside Suno Studio 1.
Six days later Suno replaced every model with v6, built with Warner Music Group, BMG and Believe, and retired v5.5 and everything older 2.
The destinations tightened in the same weeks. Spotify said it removed 50 million AI-generated tracks from recommendations during 2026, and it has been signing licences for a forthcoming AI remix tool 3.
On 28 October, Universal Music Group (UMG), Sony and the distributor DistroKid told a Manhattan court they were working on a resolution over how much data on AI-flagged uploads DistroKid has to hand the labels 4.
The demos settle the sound. The purchase now turns on two plainer questions: what comes out of the tool, and what the licence lets that file do.
Quick pick
Suno for a song you mean to publish, with vocals and a finished mix. Pro costs US$10 a month and downloads 20 of them 5.
ElevenLabs for music at volume under video, ads and courses, where the same credits also buy the voiceover. Starter costs US$6 6.
Stable Audio for beds, loops and samples you will edit in a DAW, from models trained on licensed audio. Solo costs US$12 7.
Udio still sells plans, and every one of them now produces music that stays inside Udio 8.
Comparison at a glance
Prices are the vendors' own published figures, read on 3 November 2026. The last row is my arithmetic on those figures.
| Field | Suno | ElevenLabs | Stable Audio |
|---|---|---|---|
| What you are buying | A song generator with vocals, plus Suno Studio, its suite for stems, MIDI and effects 5 | One music line inside a production suite that also makes voiceover, sound effects and dubs 6 | Licensed-data music and sound-effect models, usable in a browser, a DAW plugin or an API 9 |
| What you can export | 20 downloads a month on Pro, 60 on Premier, no limit inside Studio. One song counts once, stems included 1 | Metered by credits rather than files: 900 credits per minute of music. ElevenMusic adds five lossless downloads a day free, 400 a month on Pro 610 | Metered by credits: 660 credits is about 165 full mixes or 110 multi-track generations a month 7 |
| What the licence allows | Commercial use attaches to a permitted download on a paid tier; remixes stay personal 11 | You own the track on every plan; free commercial use requires credit; downloads are blocked on tracks built on another artist's song 10 | You own outputs under the Community Licence; companies above US$1M revenue are directed to the Enterprise licence 9 |
| Entry price and monthly allowance | Pro US$10 a month, or US$8 billed yearly: 2,500 credits and 20 downloads 5 | Starter US$6: 30,000 credits, about 33 minutes of music 6 | Solo US$12: 660 credits, about 165 full mixes 7 |
| What moved in 2026 | v6 on 9 September, download caps from 3 September, TuneCore distribution from 8 September 212 | Music v2.5 on 11 September, now the default model 10 | Stable Audio 3.0 on 20 May, with three of its four models open-weight 9 |
| The limit that interrupts work | The monthly download count; past it you buy more or wait 1 | Credits shared with voiceover, sound effects and dubbing 6 | Generations stop near six minutes, and multi-track ones cost more credits 79 |
| Cost of one usable export | US$0.50 per downloaded song on Pro or Premier 5 | About US$0.18 per minute on Starter 6 | About US$0.07 per full mix on Solo 7 |
Suno: a song, bought by the download
v6 arrived on 9 September in three versions. The flagship v6 and the looser v6-wild come with Pro and Premier; v6-mini is open to everyone, including the free plan 2.
Suno retired v5.5 and every earlier model that day. Old songs still play, and remixing one now runs on v6, so the result sounds different from what you started with 1.
The download count is what shapes your month. One song costs one download whatever format you take, and its stems travel inside that same download 1.
Failed downloads go uncounted, and unused ones expire at the end of the billing cycle 1.
Free accounts get seven trial downloads for the life of the account, for personal use. Cancel a paid plan and the library stays playable, while downloads fall back to that free allowance 1.
Commercial rights are narrower than the download button suggests. The September terms grant commercial use for output you obtained as a permitted download under your tier's allocation, meaning a file exported through Suno's own download button while you pay 11.
A track that never left through an approved download stays a personal-use track. Stripping watermarks or fingerprints to hide where it came from is forbidden 11.
Remixes are jointly owned with whoever else worked on them, and stay non-commercial even on Premier 11.
The terms also decline to promise that copyright will vest in your song at all 11.
Distribution has a route. Tracks made with the new industry-partner models are eligible to go out through Believe and TuneCore, which Suno partnered with on 8 September 12.
Suno added audio watermarking and fingerprinting so its output can be identified off-platform. It says the download caps exist to slow mass export to streaming 12.
At published rates, Pro works out to US$0.50 per downloadable song: US$10 for 20. Premier costs US$30 a month, or US$24 billed yearly. It lands on the same US$0.50, with 60 downloads and Studio's uncapped exports for production work 5.
ElevenLabs: music by the minute, inside a suite
ElevenLabs sells music as one line in a production suite that also makes voiceover, sound effects and dubs 6.
Music v2.5 became the default in ElevenMusic on 11 September. The company reports that listeners preferred it in a blind test across 47,885 pairs of takes, which is the vendor's own result 10.
The billing unit is the minute of music, at 900 credits 6. Starter's 30,000 credits buy about 33 minutes a month, Creator's 121,000 buy about 134, and Pro's 600,000 buy about 667 6.
Those credits are shared. A month of dubbing and voiceover bills against the same pool as your soundtrack 6.
Ownership is the draw. ElevenLabs states that you own what you make in ElevenMusic on every plan, including Free 10.
On the free tier the commercial licence asks for credit to ElevenMusic and gives five lossless downloads a day. The paid ElevenMusic tier raises that to 400 downloads a month 10.
A track built on another artist's song is the exception. ElevenLabs blocks its download on any plan 10.
Permissions stay with the track, so cancelling or downgrading leaves your finished songs under the terms they were made under 10.
Two of the company's own pages disagree on the free tier. The Creative pricing page lists music commercial use as a Starter feature at US$6, while the v2.5 note describes free commercial use with credit 610.
For anything a client pays for, buy Starter and keep the invoice.
At 900 credits a minute, scoring a ten-minute video costs about US$1.80 of Starter credits 6.
Stable Audio: the parts, rather than the song
Stability AI released Stable Audio 3.0 on 20 May 2026 as four models trained on licensed audio 9.
Three of them are open weights, free to download and run, and the two larger models handle tracks past six minutes 9.
The company says output is yours to distribute and commercialise under its Community Licence 9.
The work happens where you already edit: a browser app, a plugin for Ableton, Logic and Pro Tools, or an API 13. Generations run from one second to six minutes, with inpainting for swapping out a section 13.
Plans are metered in credits that reset monthly and expire unused 7. Solo at US$12 carries 660 credits, which its page puts at about 165 full mixes, or 110 multi-track generations that arrive as separate parts to mix 7.
Session at US$30 carries 1,800 credits, Producer at US$90 carries 6,000, and Studio at US$199 carries 14,000 7.
Audio made on a paid plan keeps its licence after you cancel, which matters for a catalogue you intend to keep selling 7.
One clause decides it for agencies. Organisations with more than US$1M in annual revenue are directed to the Enterprise licence for commercial coverage and indemnification, whatever the consumer page's commercial licence line suggests 9.
Udio: the one you hear and keep inside the app
Udio switched off downloads of audio, video and stems on 29 October 2025, the day it announced its partnership with Universal Music Group 8.
The help-centre note explaining the change was last updated in February 2026, with downloads still switched off 8.
Plans stay on sale. Standard is US$10 a month, or US$8 a month billed yearly at US$96, with 2,400 credits. Pro is US$30 a month, or US$24 yearly at US$288, with 6,000 14.
Extra credits cost US$3 for 100 or US$25 for 1,000 14.
A paid Udio plan now buys generation and sharing inside Udio. Money meant for a deliverable belongs somewhere else.
Where the track can go
A permitted download still meets the destination's own rules 11.
Spotify has been tightening its rules and signing licences at the same time. It removed 50 million AI-generated tracks from recommendations in 2026, and it has been signing licences for a forthcoming paid remix tool with UMG, Merlin, Kobalt and, since 20 October, Believe and its self-releasing platform TuneCore 3.
The majors are chasing the numbers behind that flood. UMG and Sony want DistroKid's monthly counts of AI-flagged deliveries, and the two sides agreed to give DistroKid until 6 November to answer the proposed order 4.
UMG's separate suit against DistroKid, filed on 15 September, carries a footnote worth reading. It says the case "is not about the distribution of AI-generated music when clearly disclosed as such" 4.
That footnote is the practical rule for a buyer. Disclose the track as AI-made, keep the record of a permitted download, and release where the platform's terms allow it.
Pick by the job
- A song with vocals you want on streaming. Suno Pro at US$10 buys 20 keeper songs a month, and tracks from the partner models can go out through TuneCore 512.
- A soundtrack under a video series. ElevenLabs Starter at US$6 covers about 33 minutes; Creator at US$22 covers about 134 6.
- Loops, beds and edits inside a DAW. Stable Audio Solo at US$12, or Session at US$30 for about 450 full mixes 7.
- A brand film for a company past US$1M in revenue. Stable Audio Enterprise, for the indemnification, or Suno Premier with a lawyer's reading of the terms 911.
- An afternoon of exploring what the models do. Suno's free plan and Stable Audio's 50 free credits cost nothing, and Udio's free tier works if you only want to listen 5714.
Traps that waste the money
- Paying Udio for a file. Udio has sold plans without downloads since October 2025, on every tier 8.
- Reading Premier's Studio exemption as unlimited downloads everywhere. Outside Studio the cap is 60 a month 1.
- Using a track that came out through a screen recording. The commercial licence follows a permitted download, and the rest stays personal 11.
- Making a cover or remix for a paid ad. Suno keeps remixes personal-use even on Premier, and ElevenLabs blocks downloads of tracks built from another artist's song 1011.
- Holding a yearly plan bought for "unlimited downloads". The cap applies to every plan from 3 September, and the FAQ offers cancellation as the remedy 1.
- Letting a consumer commercial licence cover a company above US$1M in revenue. Stability AI points those buyers to Enterprise 9.
- Spending a shared credit pool twice. At ElevenLabs the same credits pay for dubbing, voiceover and music 6.
- Treating a genre's sound as fixed. v6 retired the model you liked, and remixing an old song regenerates it in v6 1.
Test it in one afternoon
- Pick one brief you actually have: a 30-second bed, a two-minute song, or a loop pack.
- Buy the cheapest paid tier of two candidates, on monthly billing.
- Generate until one result is good enough, export it, and note what the export consumed.
- Price a month at your real volume: songs, minutes or generations.
- Read the licence sentence for your exact destination, and check whether your company's revenue sends you to an enterprise tier 9.
- Check the rules of the platform where the track will live, then cancel the plan you passed over.
Bottom line
Suno if the deliverable is a song and 20 keepers a month is enough. ElevenLabs if music is one soundtrack among many and the same credits buy your voiceover. Stable Audio if you want parts and edits from a licensed model. Udio if you only ever want to listen.
Prices were checked on 3 November 2026, and the per-export figures are arithmetic on the vendors' published allowances.
References
- 1
- 2Introducing v6
suno.com
- 3
- 4
- 5Suno pricing
suno.com
- 6ElevenLabs pricing
elevenlabs.io
- 7Stable Audio Pricing
stableaudio.com
- 8
- 9
- 10Introducing Music v2.5, our best music model yet
elevenlabs.io
- 11
- 12
- 13Stable Audio
stableaudio.com
- 14Udio Pricing
udio.com
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