The short answer (July 2026): Suno is a web and mobile app that converts a text description into a complete song -- vocals, instruments, and production -- in under a minute. Sign up at suno.com with a Google, Apple, or email account; the free plan gives you roughly 10 songs per day with no credit card required, running on the v4.5 model. The current flagship model, v5.5 (released March 2026), lives behind the Pro plan at $8 per month billed annually, which also unlocks commercial use rights, voice cloning with your own voice, and WAV stem export for DAW work.
Last verified: July 31, 2026, against official docs and pricing pages.
What Suno Actually Does
Suno generates full-length songs from natural-language descriptions. You type what you want; the model writes lyrics, arranges instrumentation, and produces a vocal performance -- all in one generation that typically runs two to four minutes.
The platform runs in any modern browser and has apps for iOS and Android (search "Suno- AI Songs & Music Maker" in either store). Your library syncs across devices.
Suno is a generative tool, not a traditional digital audio workstation. You describe and the model decides -- you cannot move individual notes or automate effects directly in Suno. The exception is Suno Studio (Premier plan only), a browser-based workstation with timeline editing, warp markers, time signature support, and multitrack arrangement, added in September 2025 and updated in February 2026.
Create Your First Song
Step 1: Sign up. Go to suno.com. Use Google, Apple, Microsoft, or email. The free plan activates immediately with 50 credits refreshed daily.
Step 2: Describe the song. The default Simple mode has a single text field. Write one to two sentences that include genre, mood, and subject: "Upbeat indie pop about leaving a small town, female vocals, acoustic guitar and synth bass, catchy hook."
Step 3: Click Create. Suno generates two variations simultaneously. Play both. If neither works, regenerate. Each full-song generation costs credits, and the free plan's 50 daily credits yield roughly 10 songs per day (Suno's own help center states this rate).
From any generated track, the three-dot menu lets you extend the song, create a cover version of an uploaded reference track, replace individual sections, or download the MP3.
Custom Mode: Style Prompts and Structured Lyrics
Custom mode splits creation into two separate fields. Use it once you have a feel for how the model responds, because the separation gives significantly more control.
The Style field is for sound, not story. Describe genre, subgenre, production character, tempo, and vocal type -- not mood words like "haunting." Good example: dark Americana, slow tempo, baritone male vocals, finger-picked acoustic guitar, light room reverb, sparse arrangement. Aim for 6-10 descriptors. Production terminology works better than emotional adjectives.
The Lyrics field holds your words plus structural metatags. Tags are bracketed labels placed on their own line before each section: [Verse], [Chorus], [Bridge], [Intro], [Outro], [Instrumental Break]. Suno reads these as probabilistic cues -- followed most of the time, but not guaranteed. The field holds up to 3,000 characters.
[Verse]
Red gravel roads and a fading sign
Half a tank of gas and a borrowed dime
[Chorus]
I'm heading west, leaving everything behind
For instrumental tracks, leave the Lyrics field empty and include instrumental, no vocals in the Style field.
v5.5 Features: Voices, Custom Models, and My Taste
Three features launched with v5.5 in March 2026. Voices and Custom Models require a paid plan; My Taste is available to everyone.
Voices (Pro and Premier). Record your singing voice live or upload an audio clip; Suno builds a private voice model from it. A verification step matches your voice to a spoken phrase before the model is created. Once set up, songs you generate with Voices use your voice instead of a synthetic one. Voice models are private by default.
Custom Models (Pro and Premier, up to 3 per account). Upload your original tracks to fine-tune v5.5 on your personal catalog. The resulting model produces output that gravitates toward your established sound. Useful if you have a distinctive style across multiple songs and want new generations to stay within it.
My Taste (all plans). Suno learns your listening preferences over time -- genres you return to, moods you engage with -- and applies that signal to personalize the Magic Wand autofill and suggestions. No manual setup required; it builds passively.
Stems, Export, and DAW Workflow
Every Suno song can be downloaded as an MP3. Paid plans unlock stem separation, which isolates components as time-aligned WAV files you can bring directly into Ableton, Logic, or any DAW.
Suno offers three stem modes, updated with quality improvements in June 2026:
Split from Mix: Separates a track into two files: the selected instrument or voice and everything else. Fast and useful for karaoke-style work or quick remixes.
Auto Split: Separates into up to 12 stems -- vocals, backing vocals, drums, bass, guitar, keys, strings, brass, woodwinds, percussion, synth, and FX.
Advanced Split: Choose exactly which element to extract from a list of nearly 100 instrument types. Produces the isolated sound plus a remainder track with everything else removed.
| Plan | Stem modes available |
|---|---|
| Free | None |
| Pro | Split from Mix, Auto Split (12 stems) |
| Premier | Split from Mix, Auto Split, Advanced Split (~100 instruments) |
Plans and Pricing
| Plan | Price (annual billing) | Credits per month | Model | Commercial use | Voices + Custom Models | Suno Studio | Queue |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 50 per day | v4.5 | No | No | No | Shared (4 concurrent) |
| Pro | $8/mo | 2,500 | v5.5 | Yes | Yes (up to 3 models) | No | Priority (10 concurrent) |
| Premier | $24/mo | 10,000 | v5.5 | Yes | Yes (up to 3 models) | Yes | Priority (10 concurrent) |
Prices above are for annual billing, which Suno states saves 20% versus month-to-month. Monthly subscription credits do not roll over. When paid credits run out mid-cycle, the account drops to 50 free daily credits until the next billing date. Add-on credit packs are available to Pro and Premier subscribers; purchased top-up credits do not expire but require an active subscription to redeem.
The audio upload limit is 8 minutes on the free plan and 30 minutes on paid plans. Full current pricing is at suno.com/pricing.
What You Actually Own
On the free plan: songs are for personal, non-commercial use only. Attribution to Suno is required.
On Pro and Premier: Suno's terms of service state that Suno "assigns to you all of its right, title and interest in and to any Output owned by Suno" generated from your paid account. That language sounds like full ownership, but the terms include a direct caveat: "due to the nature of machine learning, Suno makes no representation or warranty to you that any copyright will vest in any Output." The U.S. Copyright Office's current position is that works generated entirely by AI without meaningful human creative input cannot be registered for copyright. Writing your own lyrics and using the Voices feature with your own recorded voice may strengthen a claim to human authorship, but this area of law remains unsettled.
In November 2025, Suno announced a licensing partnership with Warner Music Group to build new AI models trained on WMG's catalog. The terms governing future licensed models have not been publicly disclosed. Songs generated on current models retain their existing commercial status under your subscription.
For practical purposes: a paid Suno license lets you put generated music in videos, release it on streaming platforms, and license it to clients. Whether those songs are your legally registered intellectual property is a question courts have not yet fully resolved.
FAQ
Can I put Suno music in a YouTube video without triggering Content ID?
Paid subscribers have a commercial license from Suno, so the music is cleared from Suno's side. Content ID claims from third parties are a separate question: if Suno's training data included copyrighted material, a label's Content ID system could flag a match regardless of your license from Suno. Suno's WMG licensing deal is intended to reduce this risk for future models.
What changed between v4.5 and v5.5?
v4.5 (May 2025) supports songs up to 8 minutes on the first generation and improved prompt adherence. v5.5 (March 2026) adds Voices, Custom Models, My Taste, richer arrangements, and sharper vocals. v5.5 is available to Pro and Premier subscribers; free users stay on v4.5.
Does Suno work for instrumentals with no vocals?
Yes. In Custom mode, leave the Lyrics field blank and include instrumental, no vocals in your Style prompt. Results vary -- if vocals appear anyway, regenerate or use stem separation to extract just the instrumental track.
Can I upload a melody or chord progression for Suno to arrange?
Partially. Suno's audio upload feature accepts recordings up to 8 minutes (free) or 30 minutes (paid) as a starting point. The Mashup feature lets you combine elements from multiple tracks. Direct MIDI or notation input is not supported.
How many finished songs can I realistically produce on the Pro plan per month?
The Pro plan includes 2,500 credits. Suno's help center states the free plan's 50 daily credits yield roughly 10 songs, which implies approximately 5 credits per standard generation. At that rate, 2,500 credits represents around 500 generation attempts. Most finished tracks require multiple iterations to dial in style, lyrics, and structure, so a realistic output of polished songs will be considerably lower than 500.
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