Best AI Music Generators 2026: Licenses, Prices and Free Plans
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We compared nine AI music generation tools on what a business may do with the tracks: commercial use, downloads, streaming release and ownership. Paid plans with commercial use start at $6 a month; prices checked on 7 October 2026.
Verdict: For licensed music in ads and branded video, ElevenLabs: deals with Merlin and Kobalt, commercial use from $6 a month, streaming release from $22. Plans up to Pro are “For Individual Use Only”; firms under 10 staff need Scale ($299), under 50 Business ($990). Small company: Soundraw Creator, $16.99. Vocals: Suno Pro, $10. Udio: no downloads since October 2025.
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Licenses, prices and rights side by side
The best AI music generator for a business is the one whose license covers the job, from a YouTube channel to a paid ad or a Spotify release.
Prices checked on 7 October 2026, in US dollars before tax: monthly billing first, then the monthly rate when billed yearly. Trustpilot ratings were read the same day.
| Tool and entry plan | Monthly / billed yearly | Each month | Free plan: commercial use | Trustpilot (reviews) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ElevenLabs Starter | $6 / $5 ($1 first-month offer ended 18 October 2026) | 17 min to generate, 30 to download (terms) | No: personal use only | 3.1 (1,175), whole company |
| Soundraw Creator | $16.99 / $11.04 | Unlimited MP3 downloads | No: no license, no downloads | 2.0 (33) |
| Stable Audio Solo | $12 / no yearly price | 660 credits, about 165 full-mix generations | No: personal, non-commercial | No profile for stableaudio.com |
| Mubert Creator | $14 / $11.69 (non-commercial; Pro $39 / $32.49) | 500 tracks, unlimited downloads | No: non-commercial, attribution required | 1.7 (24) |
| Loudly Personal | Not shown / $8 | 2,500 credits, songs up to 7 min | No | 2.2 (29) |
| Suno Pro | $10 / $8 | 2,500 credits (about 500 songs), 20 downloads | No | 1.7 (184) |
| Udio Standard | $10 / $8 | 2,400 credits, no downloads | No | 1.5 (59) |
| Boomy Creator | $14.99 / $9.99 | 25 WAV downloads | No: no downloads | 1.8 (27) |
| AIVA Standard | Not shown / €11 plus VAT | 15 downloads, tracks up to 5 min | No: non-commercial, credit to AIVA | 2.8 (3) |
Soundraw’s dollar prices are from its US page as archived on 30 September 2026; the EU page showed Creator at €5.83 a month billed yearly. AIVA showed euros only, Loudly yearly prices only. Mubert, Loudly, AIVA and Boomy have under 30 reviews each: small samples.
What the paid license allows, from each vendor’s terms, license page or help center.
| Tool | Who owns the track | Commercial use | Spotify and other streaming services | Content ID |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ElevenLabs | You, under the general terms; output may not be unique | Online and offline, except film, TV, radio and studio games | From Creator ($22) | Not stated |
| Soundraw | Soundraw keeps the recording rights; you get a license | Yes, including YouTube, client work, radio and TV | Artist plans, after you modify the beat | Prohibited |
| Stable Audio | Not stated on the pricing page | “Commercial license” on paid plans | Not stated | Not stated |
| Mubert | Mubert | Pro and Business only | Prohibited | Prohibited |
| Loudly | Loudly | While you subscribe; projects published then stay monetizable | Only through Loudly’s distribution | Prohibited |
| Suno | You, on Pro and Premier; no copyright guarantee | Downloaded songs only | Yes, on paid plans | Not stated |
| Udio | Udio and its licensors | Prohibited | Prohibited | Not applicable: no downloads |
| Boomy | Boomy, with full commercial rights on download | Yes, downloaded songs | Yes, any distributor | Not stated |
| AIVA | AIVA on Standard; you on Pro | Standard: YouTube, Twitch, TikTok and Instagram only; Pro: full monetization | Not named on the pricing page | Not stated |
What each vendor says about its training sources, and its label deals as of 7 October 2026.
| Tool | What the vendor says about its sources | Label and publisher deals |
|---|---|---|
| ElevenLabs | “Built in partnership with artists, labels, and publishers” | Merlin and Kobalt (August 2025); UMG (September 2026, for a separate new platform) |
| Soundraw | “trained only on music we create in-house” | None in our sources |
| Stable Audio | “trained on a fully licensed dataset” | UMG alliance (October 2025), Warner partnership (November 2025) |
| Mubert | “Trained on proprietary dataset” | None in our sources |
| Suno | Partner-licensed content plus users’ creations (v6) | Warner, BMG, Believe; sued by UMG and Sony |
| Udio | Licensing agreements “to train new models” | UMG, Warner, Merlin, Kobalt, Believe, NMPA; sued by Sony |
| Boomy | No copyrighted songs without permission | None in our sources |
| Loudly, AIVA | Not checked | Not checked |
Licensed music for ads and branded content
For ads and client work, you want licensed sources and a written list of allowed uses per plan; ElevenLabs has both.
ElevenLabs music: plans, minutes and rights
ElevenLabs launched its music generator on 5 August 2025 with deals with Merlin and the publisher Kobalt, after a training deal with SourceAudio’s catalog of pre-cleared songs, Music Business Worldwide reported. Its music page says the tracks “are cleared for broad commercial use” and that commercial rights “vary by subscription tier”. On 10 September 2026 it signed a multi-year licensing deal with Universal Music Group for a separate, future platform.
Rights table from the music model terms (updated 26 May 2026), read on 7 October 2026; prices from the pricing page.
| Plan | Monthly / billed yearly | Music a month: generate / download | Streaming release | Who may subscribe |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 11 min / not permitted | No | Individuals |
| Starter | $6 / $5 | 17 min / 30 min | No | Individuals |
| Creator | $22 / $18.33 | 62 min / 250 min | Yes | Individuals |
| Pro | $99 / $82.50 | 304 min / 500 min | Yes | Individuals |
| Scale | $299 / $249.17 | 1,100 min / 1,500 min | Yes | Also organizations under 10 employees |
| Business | $990 / $825 | 4,800 min / 4,000 min | Yes | Also organizations under 50 employees |
- Minutes: the pricing page shows more, about 33, 134 and 667 on Starter, Creator and Pro. The terms call this table “an integral part” of them, so we quote it.
- Uses: online and offline commercial use “except film, TV, radio, & Studio Games” on every paid self-serve plan; those need Enterprise.
- Company size: Free to Pro are “For Individual Use Only”; joining a plan you aren’t eligible for can cost you outputs, fees or credits.
- Excluded sectors: weapons, tobacco, prescription drugs, adult entertainment, religious organizations and political campaigning (Music Terms, 26 May 2026).
- Prompts: no names of artists, songs, albums, publishers or labels, and output “may not be unique”.
- Credits: one pool shared with speech tools, 900 per music minute. Unused credits expire at the end of the billing cycle after you cancel or downgrade; paid-plan tracks stay usable.
- Free plan: “Personal use only”, and a distributed track needs a credit such as “Created in collaboration with ElevenLabs”.
- Reviews: Trustpilot 3.1 from 1,175 reviews on 7 October 2026, for the whole company (48% five-star, 38% one-star).
Good fit: freelancers and solo creators making ads, branded video and podcasts; firms under 10 employees on Scale. Poor fit: film, TV, radio, multi-platform games and the excluded sectors. Voice plans are in our ElevenLabs review.
See ElevenLabs music plans and minutes
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Background music for video and podcasts
For YouTube, podcasts and product videos, check downloads, monetization and Content ID; Soundraw, Mubert and Loudly all forbid Content ID registration. To edit the video itself, see our guide to AI video editing tools.
Soundraw: in-house catalog, $16.99 a month
Soundraw says its AI is “trained only on music we create in-house”. Its Creator plan costs $16.99 a month or $11.04 billed yearly (US prices archived on 30 September 2026) for unlimited MP3 downloads. It covers individuals and companies under 10 employees, for background use “where the music supports the story”.
- Allowed: YouTube, product videos, client work, games, hold music, radio and TV; movies, TV or ads you don’t own need Soundraw’s approval.
- Streaming release: Artist plans only, from $29.99 a month or $19.49 billed yearly, after you rework the beat with your own vocals or instruments.
- After you cancel: anything made while subscribed “stays licensed for life”, but unedited tracks in meditation, lo-fi or relaxation content (Artist plans) stay up only while you subscribe.
- Catch: a yearly plan paid monthly binds you for 12 months; cancel early and the rest is charged at once.
Stable Audio: licensed training data from $12
Stability AI says all Stable Audio models are “commercially safe and trained on a fully licensed dataset”. The Solo plan costs $12 a month for 660 credits, about 165 full-mix generations of up to 6 minutes, with a “Commercial license”. Session costs $30, Producer $90 and Studio $199.
Licenses survive cancellation. The terms page didn’t load for us, so ownership and streaming release are unconfirmed; there is no Trustpilot profile for stableaudio.com.
Mubert: commercial use starts at Pro
Mubert’s Creator plan ($14 a month, $11.69 billed yearly) is non-commercial; Pro ($39, or $32.49) adds commercial use, and Business ($199, or $149.29) covers agencies and apps. Mubert owns the tracks and grants a sync license.
- Its disclaimer reads “All payments are non-refundable” and rules out streaming platforms, Content ID and stock libraries. After you cancel, old tracks can’t go into new projects.
- Mubert runs an affiliate program; at a 1.7 Trustpilot rating from 24 reviews we don’t add a recommendation link.
Loudly: a license that lasts as long as the subscription
Loudly sells its Personal plan at $8 a month billed yearly ($96): 2,500 credits, songs of up to 7 minutes, monetization on social channels, YouTube and podcasts. Pro, at $24 a month billed yearly ($288), adds ads, client work, apps and indie games.
- Rights last only while you subscribe (license of 19 January 2026); projects published in that time stay monetizable.
- Loudly keeps the rights, forbids Content ID claims and releases to streaming services only through its own distribution. Ad use is licensed only for campaigns with a paid-media budget up to $100,000 a year.
Best AI song generator for vocals: Suno vs Udio
Both make full songs with lyrics and vocals. Since the 2025 label deals, only Suno lets you download them for commercial use.
Is Suno free? Suno pricing and download limits
Suno’s free plan gives 50 credits a day, about 10 songs, but “No monthly song downloads” and “No commercial rights”; Suno owns those songs. Pro costs $10 a month or $96 a year for 2,500 credits and 20 downloads a month. Premier, at $30 or $288, gives 10,000 credits and 60 downloads. The download caps started on 3 September 2026.
- Rights: Suno assigns its rights in paid-plan songs to you, but only downloads are commercial, and it makes “no representation” that copyright exists.
- Release: paid downloads may go to streaming services, film, TV and games without credit to Suno. On 8 September 2026 Suno said new-model tracks will be eligible for Believe and TuneCore distribution.
- Limits: remixes of others’ songs are never commercial, and rights holders “may also have the right to collect revenue” on other platforms.
- Old free songs: a December 2025 help article says subscribing adds no rights to them; one dated 6 October 2026 says they “can now qualify” through a paid download.
- Payments: “final and non-refundable, unless otherwise determined by Suno”.
Udio: what changed after the label deals
After settling with Universal Music Group on 29 October 2025, Udio switched off downloads. Its terms of 12 November 2025 forbid downloading tracks, posting them on YouTube, TikTok or Spotify, and any commercial use; output belongs to Udio and its licensors.
Udio’s Standard plan still costs $10 a month ($8 billed yearly) for 2,400 credits and Pro $30 ($24) for 6,000; a February 2026 help article lists 1,200 and 4,800. A 7-day trial you don’t cancel is charged as a full yearly plan, unless you switched it to monthly first. We found no launch notice for the licensed platform announced for 2026.
| As of 7 October 2026 | Suno | Udio |
|---|---|---|
| Paid plans, monthly / billed yearly | Pro $10 / $8; Premier $30 / $24 | Standard $10 / $8; Pro $30 / $24 |
| Credits a month | 2,500 or 10,000 | 2,400 or 6,000 |
| Downloads | 20 or 60 a month; no monthly downloads on Free | None since 29 October 2025 |
| Commercial use | Paid plans, downloaded songs only | Prohibited |
| Streaming release | Allowed on paid plans | Prohibited |
| Who owns the output | You on paid plans; Suno on Free | Udio and its licensors |
| Labels | Deals with Warner, BMG, Believe; sued by UMG and Sony | Deals with UMG, Warner and others; sued by Sony |
| Trustpilot | 1.7 (184) | 1.5 (59) |
For business use, only Suno of the two, and only on a paid plan. If the lawsuits rule Suno out, Suno alternatives such as ElevenLabs, Soundraw, Stable Audio and Mubert describe licensed or in-house training data.
Releasing on Spotify and YouTube: plans and platform rules
Besides Suno (paid plans), ElevenLabs (from Creator) and Soundraw (Artist plans, reworked beats), Boomy allows a streaming release on paid plans, and AIVA Pro hands you the copyright. Loudly releases only through its own service; Mubert and Udio forbid it; every free plan here is personal or non-commercial.
Boomy: any distributor, from $14.99 a month
Boomy Creator costs $14.99 a month or $9.99 billed yearly for 25 WAV downloads, with “Full commercial use of downloaded songs” and “Permission to distribute downloaded songs to DSPs”. Pro costs $39.99 or $29.99 for 250. Boomy owns the copyright by default, but downloads keep their commercial rights after you cancel, and any distributor is allowed.
AIVA: the copyright is yours only on Pro
AIVA showed euro prices only. Standard, at €11 a month billed yearly plus VAT, allows monetization “only on Youtube, Twitch, Tik Tok and Instagram”, and AIVA keeps the copyright. Pro, at €33, reads “Copyright owned by YOU” and “Full monetization”, with 300 downloads a month.
Platform rules: YouTube, Spotify, Deezer
- YouTube asks creators to disclose AI content that “Creates music that’s the main focus of the video”. Since 15 July 2025, mass-produced or repetitive uploads count as “inauthentic content”, which can’t be monetized.
- Spotify said on 25 September 2025 that it had removed over 75 million spammy tracks in 12 months. It allows vocal impersonation only with the artist’s authorization and backs AI credits under the DDEX standard, which it says is “not about punishing artists who use AI responsibly” (Spotify newsroom).
- Deezer gets about 90,000 fully AI-generated tracks a day, over half of new uploads at its June 2026 peak. It tags them and keeps them out of algorithmic recommendations and editorial playlists (21 July 2026).
- Bandcamp banned music made wholly or in substantial part by AI on 13 January 2026.
Free AI music generators: what you can legally use
None of the nine free plans allows commercial use, and five give no regular downloads. For a personal project, the best free AI music generator by file count is Loudly: one basic-quality MP3 a day, as of 7 October 2026.
| Free plan | What you can make | Downloads | Use allowed | Conditions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ElevenLabs Free | 11 min of music a month | Not permitted under the terms | Personal use only | Credit required when distributing |
| Suno Free | 50 credits a day, about 10 songs | No monthly downloads | Non-commercial; Suno owns the songs | Up to 7 lifetime trial downloads for some accounts |
| Udio Free | 10 credits a day, 100 a month | None | Non-commercial | 3 full-length songs a day |
| Soundraw Free | Generate and edit tracks | None | No license | Paid plan needed to download |
| Stable Audio Free | 50 credits, about 12 full-mix generations a month | Not stated | Personal, non-commercial | Resets on the 1st of each month |
| Mubert Ambassador | 25 tracks a month | 5 a month, MP3 | Non-commercial | Audible watermark; attribution |
| Loudly Free | Limited; 30-second previews | 1 a day, MP3 | Non-commercial | License for 1 social media channel |
| AIVA Free | Tracks up to 3 min | 3 a month | No monetization; AIVA owns the copyright | Credit to AIVA |
| Boomy Free | 25 song saves | None | Non-commercial | Paid plan needed to download |
Meta’s MusicGen code is MIT-licensed, but its model weights are released under CC-BY-NC 4.0, a non-commercial license. Google’s Lyria 3.5, in Gemini and Google Flow Music, watermarks its tracks with SynthID; its model page states no commercial terms.
Lawsuits and label deals, as of 7 October 2026
- 24 June 2024: Sony Music, UMG and Warner Records sued Suno in Massachusetts and Udio in New York, the RIAA announced.
- October and November 2025: UMG (29 October) and Warner (19 November) settled with Udio and signed licenses; Warner and Suno settled on 25 November.
- 20 July 2026: Sony sued Udio again, over 30,117 recordings the court had kept out of the first case.
- 31 July 2026: the Munich Regional Court I largely upheld GEMA’s claim against Suno (case 42 O 763/25), barring four acts concerning six songs. Suno can appeal.
- August and September 2026: Suno signed deals with BMG (12 August) and with Believe and TuneCore (8 September). On 18 August, the Boston judge declined to add 61,026 recordings to the first case, which covers 560.
- 25 August 2026: UMG, Sony and Warner joined Stability AI’s $76 million funding round.
- 10 September 2026: UMG and ElevenLabs signed a multi-year licensing agreement.
- 18 September 2026: UMG and Sony filed a second suit against Suno over 60,202 recordings and asked for a jury trial (Music Business Worldwide). Suno called the claims “fundamentally flawed on both the facts and the law”.
How we picked, and what we left out
We started from Google’s US results for “best AI music generator” on 7 October 2026. We kept tools with public self-serve prices and a written license, then compared what the license allows, its price, the free plan, training-data claims and Trustpilot ratings.
On 7 October 2026 we read each pricing page, license or terms page and relevant help articles. Without paid accounts, we have no audio samples or sound-quality scores; see how we test. We may earn a commission through the two ElevenLabs links; no other tool here pays us (editorial transparency policy).
What we left out
- Google bought ProducerAI (formerly Riffusion) on 24 February 2026; on 7 October 2026, riffusion.com redirected to Google Flow Music. Google AI Pro includes music generation; see our Gemini vs Claude guide.
- Adobe Firefly’s Generate Music, broadly available since 20 August 2026, promises “universally licensed original tracks”; Adobe’s product page blocked our request.
- Epidemic Sound is a stock music library, not a generator: unlimited downloads and copyright protection on all plans, ads from Pro. Its prices didn’t load for us.
- Beatoven.ai closed its consumer service, RouteNote reported on 28 September 2026. We didn’t check Canva or Artlist.
FAQ
Not under its AI announcement of 25 September 2025, updated in 2026. Spotify targets spam and impersonation instead: it removed over 75 million spammy tracks in 12 months and allows vocal impersonation only with the artist’s authorization. Deezer keeps fully AI-generated tracks out of recommendations; Bandcamp banned music made wholly or in substantial part by AI in January 2026.
Yes. As of 7 October 2026, UMG and Sony are suing Suno in Boston over 560 recordings in a 2024 case and 60,202 in a suit filed on 18 September 2026. A Munich court ruled largely for GEMA on 31 July 2026, subject to appeal. Warner settled in November 2025.
None of the nine we compared on 7 October 2026: every free plan is personal or non-commercial, and so are Meta’s open MusicGen weights. Commercial use starts at $6 a month on the licensed-catalog platform at the top of our table, or $10 on Suno Pro.
Yes, if your plan includes commercial use. YouTube asks you to disclose AI music that is the main focus of a video and doesn’t monetize mass-produced, repetitive uploads. Soundraw, Mubert and Loudly forbid registering their tracks in Content ID, and Udio forbids posting its tracks on YouTube.
Suno assigns its rights to Pro and Premier subscribers, and AIVA Pro reads “Copyright owned by YOU”. Boomy keeps the copyright but grants full commercial rights on downloads; Mubert, Loudly and Udio keep ownership. Suno’s help center adds that music made 100% with AI doesn’t qualify for US copyright.
For a small company, Soundraw: Creator costs $16.99 a month or $11.04 billed yearly for unlimited MP3 downloads and covers firms under 10 employees. Stable Audio Solo ($12) has a commercial license; solo creators can start at $6 on the licensed-catalog platform at the top of our table.
For songs you can release, Suno Pro: $10 a month for 2,500 credits and 20 downloads, with commercial rights and streaming release on downloaded songs. Udio has had downloads off since 29 October 2025 and bans commercial use. Suno faces suits from UMG and Sony; we don’t score sound quality.