Ever fancied yourself as a musician but have never actually picked up an instrument or sung a note in tune? That no longer matters, thanks to Suno.
Suno is the AI-powered way to create full-length tracks in seconds with just a simple text prompt. But how does Suno actually work? Does it “borrow” the music of renowned artists to create the songs?
We explain everything you need to know about the controversial music generator including what Suno is, how much it costs and how it works.
What is Suno?
Suno is an AI-powered music generator that enables users to create full length songs with a simple text prompt. Users can swap between Simple mode, to generate a song with or without lyrics depending on your preference, or Custom mode which allows you to add your own lyrics and audio plus exclude any unwanted styles from your track.
Available on web, iOS and Android apps, Suno also allows you to discover and even remix songs generated by fellow creators and easily share your own tracks too.
Alongside its generating tools, Suno also includes Hooks, which are completely free to create and therefore don’t cost any credits. Hooks essentially allows you add Suno music to an uploaded video to build “engaging, shareable content”.
What is the Suno controversy?
Perhaps unsurprisingly due to the nature of the program, Suno has been the cause for controversy over the past few months. Essentially three of the biggest global record labels – Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group – put forward a lawsuit against Suno and claimed that the AI tool trained its models on copyrighted music without authorisation”.
However, Warner Music Group (WMG) has since settled the lawsuit against Suno and, in a pretty major plot twist, has now agreed upon a partnership with the AI music maker. In a statement published in November 2025, the “first-of-its-kind partnership” promises to bring together Suno’s “best-in-class AI capabilities with WMG’s artist development leadership”.
Although specific details are a little scarce at the moment, both Suno and WMG promise that the partnership should open “new revenue opportunities for artists and songwriters”. Essentially, it is said that WMG artists who decide to opt in for the use of their names, images, likenesses, voices and compositions to be used in AI-generated music will see “new revenue streams”.
Plus, the partnership promises to offer “new experiences for fan engagement” whereby fans are “able to build around participating artists’ sounds” which should ensure they get compensated.
Is Suno free?
Like other generative AI tools, including Claude, Suno offers a free plan with limitations alongside paid-for subscriptions which unlock more features.
Suno’s Basic Plan is free, and offers access to the latest v4.5 model, 50 credits that renew daily (which equates to 10 songs), the ability to create up to four songs at once and a shared generation queue.
Next up is the Pro Plan which is either $10 / £8 a month or $96 / £72 a year. The Pro Plan gives subscribers access to the latest v5 model, the ability to create up to 10 songs and 2500 monthly credits, which equates to around 500 songs, although users do also have the option to purchase additional credits if needed. Pro offers access to the Personas tool which lets users reuse a song’s voice and style, and video generation.
Not only that but Pro users benefit from commercial use rights for songs made while subscribed, early access to new features and priority creation queue too.
For $30 / £22 a month or $288 / £216 annually, the Premier Plan boasts the most features available. Alongside all the tools found in the Pro Plan, Premier throws in a whopping 10,000 monthly credits which equates to up to 2000 songs and the ability to purchase extra too. There’s also Studio which is Suno’s first generative audio workstation.
We’ll dive more into the ins and outs of Studio below but as an overview, Suno explains the feature combines traditional digital audio workshop (DAW) functionality with AI-powered music creation and enables multitrack and layered editing.
What is Suno Studio?
While traditional DAWs either require users to record each element themselves or choose pre-recorded samples or loops, Suno’s Studio instead enables you to instantly generate any instrument that matches the style, key and tempo of your existing composition. This means you won’t need to look through sample libraries, nor hire musicians for any missing parts as AI can do this all for you.
However, it’s worth noting that you also don’t have to necessarily purely rely on AI-generated files to add to your song, as you can also import non-Suno audio files into Studio.
In addition, Studio is fitted with a multitrack editing interface that allows you to rearrange and re-layer all elements of your song. For example, Suno explains you can create “bass lines, percussion or melodies” that integrate with your existing songs, while also adjusting the BPM, pitch, volume and more.
As mentioned earlier, Suno Studio is currently only available for Premium users only.
Is Suno music allowed on Spotify?
There are a few caveats to keep in mind if you want to upload your Suno-generated music onto Spotify. If you made your songs under either the Pro or Premier plan then you can distribute the tracks to the likes of Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, TikTok and more. However, all tracks made under the Basic plan can not be used for commercial use, and therefore cannot be shared on a music platform.
Suno also warns that if you start a paid subscription after you created the song, this will not give you a retroactive license for the song, so be really careful if you plan on monetising the music you make with Suno.
Does Suno own my song?
If you were subscribed to either Pro or Premier when the song was created, Suno explains this means you are considered as the owner of the track, and retain the rights to commercial use even if you end the subscription.
This means that all songs created with Suno’s free Basic plan are owned by Suno, although you are still able to use those tracks for non-commercial purposes.
Suno also explains that regardless of which Suno version you use, if you write your own lyrics then you still own them after submitting them to Suno too. However, you must ensure you obtain permission for all lyrics and content that you upload.
Udio vs Suno
You may have also heard of Udio, a similar AI-powered music generator which recently not only settled its copyright infringement litigation with Universal Music Group (UMG) but also announced a partnership with the company, and will provide a new “cutting-edge generative AI technology that will be trained on authorised and licensed music” in 2026.
Udio is a similar tool to Suno and allows users to generate their own tracks by entering a text prompt. Like Suno, Udio offers three subscription plans: Free, Standard and Pro.
The Free plan is ideal for those who just want to play around with the music generator, and includes ten daily and 100 monthly credits and you can generate up to four songs at the same time. However, it’s worth noting that there’s a limit of three two 2:10s song generations per day.
Udio’s Standard plan costs either £10 / $10 a month or £96 / $96 a year and includes 2400 monthly credits, the ability to generate up to six tracks at once, plus tools such as Voice Control, music and lyrics editing, upload custom cover art and more.
Finally, the Pro plan includes everything found in Standard alongside 6000 monthly credits and the ability to create ten songs at once.
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