The short answer
Suno is an AI music generator from Suno Inc. that creates complete songs, with vocals and lyrics, from a text description or your own words. Since 9 September 2026 it runs on the v6 model family: v6 and v6-wild on the paid Pro and Premier plans, and v6-mini for everyone. The free plan gives 50 credits a day, only 7 lifetime trial downloads and no commercial rights, so anything you plan to publish should be made on a paid plan.
| Made by | Suno Inc., United States |
|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes: 50 credits a day, v6-mini only, 7 lifetime trial downloads, no commercial use |
| Models | v6 and v6-wild (Pro, Premier), v6-mini (all plans) |
| Best at | Complete songs with vocals, jingles, intros and background music |
| Shows sources | No. It generates music; it does not cite sources |
| Team plans | No business plan listed; Pro and Premier have shareable workspaces |
| Your data | Terms licence your uploads and voice for Suno's AI models; no opt-out described |
What Suno is in late 2026
Suno is an AI music generator made by Suno Inc., a company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. You describe a song in a sentence, or paste your own lyrics, and Suno writes, sings and produces a complete track, usually with vocals, verses and a chorus. Around that core it has grown into a small music studio: a lyrics editor, stem separation, your own voice, custom models and, on the top plan, a full digital audio workstation called Suno Studio.
The biggest change this year came on 9 September 2026, when Suno launched the v6 model family. There are three models. v6 is the flagship, which Suno describes as reliable and precise. v6-wild is experimental and gives more varied, surprising results, so it suits brainstorming. v6-mini is the faster, smaller model and the only one on the free plan. Suno says v6 was trained on licensed data from Warner Music Group, BMG and Believe, and that it will retire its older models as v6 rolls out.
v6 also added editing that used to need a producer: you can change part of a song with a plain-language instruction, edit a single lyric, mash up several sources and sample or isolate audio. Earlier in the year, v5.5 (26 March 2026) brought Voices, which lets you record or upload your voice and sing with it, Custom Models trained on at least six of your own tracks, and My Taste, which learns your preferences.
What Suno is best at, with real examples
Finished-sounding music in under a minute
Suno's strength is that the first result already sounds like a song, not a sketch. For people at work that means a jingle for an internal event, a 30-second bed under a product video, an intro for a podcast or a theme for a team offsite. You can ask for a genre, tempo, mood and instruments, and choose instrumental if you do not want vocals.
Turning your words into a song
Paste your own lyrics and Suno sings them. This is the fastest way to make a birthday song, a training mnemonic or a demo for a songwriter. The lyrics editor, redesigned in July 2026, can suggest rhymes and lines and lets you edit with plain instructions such as "make the second verse less formal".
Building on audio you already have
You can upload audio (up to 8 minutes on the free plan, up to 30 minutes on paid plans), sample a section of it, extend it or mash two songs together. Stem separation splits a track into parts such as vocals and drums, which is useful when you want to drop the vocal and keep the beat under a voiceover.
Working from your AI assistant
Since 28 October 2026 a beta Suno MCP connector lets Claude, ChatGPT and other MCP clients create and remix songs, on every plan, using your credits. It needs an early access sign-up, so treat it as a preview.
Where Suno falls short
- The free plan is for personal use only. Songs made on the free plan cannot be used commercially, and the free plan has no monthly downloads, only up to 7 lifetime trial downloads for personal use.
- Downloads are capped. Pro includes 20 song downloads a month and Premier 60. Under the terms that took effect on 3 September 2026, commercial use depends on a permitted download, so the cap matters more than the credits for many business users.
- Copyright is uncertain. Suno's terms say it makes no warranty that copyright will vest in any output, and that similar outputs may be generated for other users. Whether you can register a song depends on the rules in your country.
- Legal disputes are not over. Warner Music Group settled with Suno in November 2025 and BMG signed a partnership in August 2026, but Sony Music and Universal Music Group are still suing. On 18 September 2026 they filed a second suit over 60,202 recordings that also targets v6, and Music Business Worldwide reported no settlement as of 30 October 2026.
- Fine control costs more. The deepest editing, Advanced Split stems and Suno Studio are on Premier only.
Commercial use and copyright: what Suno's terms actually say
This is the part most guides get wrong, so here it is from Suno's own terms of service (revised 10 August 2026, effective 3 September 2026) and its rights and ownership help pages. It is a summary, not legal advice.
| Question | Free plan | Pro and Premier |
|---|---|---|
| Can I use songs commercially? | No. Personal, non-commercial use only. | Yes, for songs you download while subscribed, within your monthly download allowance. |
| Who holds the rights? | The terms limit use rather than assign ownership. | Suno assigns you its rights in the output, subject to the terms. |
| Does upgrading cover old songs? | No. Subscribing does not give retroactive commercial rights to songs made on the free plan. | |
| What if I cancel? | Not applicable. | Rights tied to downloads you already made are perpetual and survive cancellation or downgrade. |
| Can I release on Spotify? | No. | Yes, songs made while on Pro or Premier can go to services such as Spotify and Apple Music. |
Three more rules are worth knowing. Remixes of other people's songs are jointly owned and may only be used non-commercially, whatever your plan. Suno may add a fingerprint, watermark or metadata showing which tier made a song, and you agree not to remove it. And downloading a song by any route other than Suno's own, such as ripping a stream, is prohibited and does not count as a permitted download.
The practical rule: if a song might ever earn money, appear in an advert or go on a streaming service, make it and download it while you are on a paid plan, and keep a record of the date.
How to get better songs from Suno
- Describe the sound, not the feeling only. "Upbeat" is vague. "Indie pop, 118 BPM, bright acoustic guitar, hand claps, warm female vocal" gives Suno something to aim at.
- Use Custom mode. On the Create page, choose Custom to get separate boxes for the style description and your own lyrics. The prompts below are labelled with which box each part goes in.
- Write your own lyrics for anything that matters. Generated lyrics tend towards clichés. Even rough lines of your own, with clear section labels such as [Verse] and [Chorus], make the result feel specific.
- Keep the brief short and concrete. One genre, one mood, two or three instruments and a vocal style. Long lists of genres blur the result.
- Generate several, then edit the best. It is cheaper to pick the best of a few takes and fix one section with a plain-language edit than to keep regenerating the whole song.
- Use v6-wild for ideas and v6 for the final. On paid plans, explore with v6-wild, then recreate the direction you like in v6 for a more controlled result.
- Avoid real artist names. Describe the style in musical terms instead. It keeps you clear of imitation problems and usually works better anyway.
A worked example: music for a 30-second product video
Say marketing needs a soundtrack for a 30-second launch clip by Friday. On Pro, start with v6-wild and a short brief such as "bright electronic pop, 122 BPM, plucky synths, no vocals, builds to a big finish at 25 seconds". Generate a few takes and listen against the edit, not on their own, because music that sounds great alone often crowds the voiceover. Pick the closest take and switch to v6 to recreate that direction with more control. Then use a plain-language edit to fix the one part that does not fit, for example "remove the drums in the first five seconds". If the video has a narrator, use stem separation to lower or drop any lead melody that clashes with speech. Download the final version while your subscription is active, note the date in the project folder, and you have a track your company can use commercially under Suno's terms. The whole job usually takes less time than searching a stock library, and you end up with something nobody else has licensed for the same campaign, although Suno does warn that similar outputs can be generated for other users.
Privacy: what happens to your uploads and your voice
Under Suno's terms you keep ownership of what you submit, but you grant Suno a broad, perpetual and irrevocable licence to use your content, including the voice in a Voice Model, for its AI and machine learning models and to improve its products. Suno's terms do not describe an opt-out from this, and we could not find a training switch in the help pages we checked. So do not upload unreleased music you do not own, client audio or anyone else's voice without permission, and think carefully before uploading your own voice.
Which Suno plan suits whom
Plans and current prices are on the official pricing page. In short:
- Free (50 credits a day, v6-mini only, 7 lifetime trial downloads, no commercial rights) suits trying it out and personal songs you share by link.
- Pro (2,500 credits a month, 20 downloads, v6 and v6-wild, commercial rights) suits marketers, creators and small teams who need a few usable tracks a month.
- Premier (10,000 credits a month, 60 downloads, Suno Studio, Advanced Split) suits musicians and producers who want to edit in depth.
Suno is not for you if you need guaranteed, registrable copyright, or if your company forbids sending audio to a service that can train on it. For background music with clearer licensing, a stock music library may still be the safer choice. See the best AI for music for other options, and our Suno lessons to practise. If your project is video, Suno pairs well with a video tool such as Runway or Kling AI, and the guide to making an AI video shows the full workflow. You can compare tools side by side at /compare or browse ready-made AI stacks.
Prompts to copy
Jingle for a product launch
Style box: upbeat synth pop jingle, 120 BPM, punchy drums, bright synth bass, confident female vocal, short with a clear ending. Lyrics box: [Intro] [Chorus] [product name], [one-line promise] [Outro]
You get: A short, catchy jingle you can trim and test under a launch video
Instrumental bed for a voiceover
Turn on Instrumental. Style box: calm corporate ambient, 90 BPM, soft piano, light pads, subtle pulse, sparse intro, steady volume, confident and warm.
You get: Background music that does not fight a narrator
Podcast intro sting
Turn on Instrumental. Style box: lo-fi hip hop podcast intro, 85 BPM, dusty drums, warm Rhodes chords, vinyl crackle, short build, clean stop. Song title: [podcast name] intro.
You get: A branded opener with a clean cut point
Team anthem from your own lyrics
Style box: feel-good acoustic folk, 100 BPM, guitar, hand claps, gang vocals in the chorus. Lyrics box: [Verse] [your lines about the team] [Chorus] [your chorus] [Verse] [your lines] [Chorus]
You get: A fun, singable song for an offsite or farewell
Training mnemonic song
Style box: bouncy children's TV pop, 110 BPM, xylophone, simple bass, clear male vocal. Lyrics box: [Verse] The five steps are [step 1], [step 2], [step 3], [step 4], [step 5] [Chorus] [step 1], [step 2], [step 3], [step 4], [step 5]
You get: A memorable way to teach a process
Lyrics first, in Claude or ChatGPT, then paste into Suno
Write lyrics for a 2-minute song about [topic] for [audience]. Use [Verse], [Chorus] and [Bridge] labels on their own lines, plain everyday words, no cliches like 'shine' or 'fire', and a chorus under 20 words that repeats a clear hook.
You get: Original lyrics you can edit before you generate the song
Brainstorm directions with v6-wild
Choose v6-wild and turn on Instrumental. Style box: unexpected fusion of [genre A] and [genre B], 105 BPM, lead [instrument], an unusual texture in the background, [mood].
You get: Several different directions to choose from before you commit
Fix one part of a song
Edit instruction for an existing song (v6): Keep everything else the same. In the second chorus, make the drums hit harder, double the vocal and add a short guitar fill before the final line.
You get: A targeted edit instead of a full regeneration