Piotr Olszewski · updated October 12, 2026If you want to make a song with vocals, go with Suno - it has the cheapest paid plan ($8 a month) and commercial rights from the first paid tier. If you need music for an ad or a film and you're worried about rights, pick ElevenLabs Music or Soundraw, because both vendors explicitly license the output for commercial use. For pulling vocals out of an existing track, LALAL.AI is the simplest option.
Quick picks
- Best overall: Suno - full songs with vocals from one description, Pro plan from $8 a month.
- Best free: Suno on the Free plan (50 credits a day), but with no downloads and no commercial rights.
- Safest for licensing: ElevenLabs Music and Soundraw - commercial license on paid plans.
- Cheapest: ElevenLabs Starter at $6 a month, with commercial use of music.
- For stem separation: LALAL.AI (from €6.75 a month) and Moises.
Comparison table
| Tool | Starting price | Free plan | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Suno | $8/mo | yes, 50 credits a day | songs with vocals |
| Udio | price not confirmed | not confirmed | experiments, remixes |
| ElevenLabs Music | $6/mo | yes, no commercial rights | music for ads and video |
| Soundraw | Creator plan (see pricing page) | trial | royalty-free backing tracks |
| AIVA | €11/mo (billed yearly) | yes, 3 downloads | instrumental music, MIDI |
| Mureka | pricing after login | trial | songs with vocals |
| LALAL.AI | €6.75/mo | yes, 10 minutes | removing vocals and instruments |
| Moises | pricing after login | yes, limited | practice, separation, key change |
Suno - best for songs with vocals
Suno makes a complete song: lyrics, melody, vocals, arrangement and mix. You type a style description or paste your own lyrics with tags like [Verse], [Chorus], [Bridge], and a moment later you have two versions to choose from. I use Suno for my own songs, and I get the best results from my own lyrics rather than lyrics the model writes - generated lyrics often sound stiff. I also keep tracks at around 2:40, because on longer ones I more often hear the structure falling apart.
Per the pricing page as of October 2026:
- Free - $0, 50 credits a day, v6-mini model, no song downloads and no commercial rights.
- Pro - $8 a month (about 20% less on annual billing), 2,500 credits, 20 downloads a month, v6 and v6-wild models, commercial rights.
- Premier - $24 a month (about 20% less on annual billing), 10,000 credits, 60 downloads a month, Suno Studio, commercial rights.
Included credits don't carry over from day to day or month to month.
Who it's for: content creators, musicians sketching ideas, people making songs for birthdays, weddings and short videos.
Downsides: a download cap on paid plans (a change that followed Suno's settlement with Warner Music Group in late 2025), no commercial rights for songs made on the free plan, and pronunciation can stumble on less common words.
Udio - strong sound, but limited downloads
Udio was Suno's main rival for a long time, valued especially for sound quality and editing parts of a track. In late 2025 Udio reached a settlement with Universal Music Group and disabled downloads of finished tracks, and the platform is expected to move toward a licensed remixing service. I couldn't read Udio's current pricing in October 2026 (the page didn't return plan details), so I'm not quoting a price.
Who it's for: people who want to experiment with music inside the platform.
Downsides: uncertain download and licensing status, and no publicly readable pricing. If you need a file to publish, choose Suno or ElevenLabs Music.
ElevenLabs Music - music with a cleaner license
You probably know ElevenLabs for voice synthesis, but since 2025 it also has the Eleven Music model. It generates vocal and instrumental tracks from a text prompt and lets you edit sections of a track. The vendor says music made on paid plans is cleared for commercial use, and at launch ElevenLabs announced licensing deals with publishers (Merlin, Kobalt).
Per the pricing page as of October 2026 (Eleven Music uses 900 credits per minute of music):
- Free - 10,000 credits, no commercial rights for music.
- Starter - $6 a month, 30,000 credits, or about 33 minutes of music.
- Creator - $22 a month (with a first-month discount), 121,000 credits, about 134 minutes.
- Pro - $99 a month, 600,000 credits.
Who it's for: agencies, ad creators and YouTubers who need certainty about licensing.
Downsides: credits are shared with voice and dubbing, so they run out fast if you also do a lot of voiceover work. Vocal songs feel less "alive" than Suno's.
Soundraw - royalty-free backing tracks for video
Soundraw doesn't make songs with vocals. It generates instrumental tracks that you then trim and adjust for tempo, mood and structure. It's a tool for video editors, not singers. The vendor says everything you make during your subscription stays licensed for life, even after you cancel.
The pricing page lists four plans:
- Creator - the cheapest tier, unlimited downloads, MP3 only, commercial use.
- Artist Starter - 10 downloads a month, MP3.
- Artist Pro - 20 downloads a month, MP3, WAV and stems.
- Artist Unlimited - unlimited, MP3, WAV and stems.
The page shows prices in local currency based on your location, so I'm not quoting USD amounts - check the pricing page for your region.
Who it's for: YouTubers, video editors, podcasters and small businesses making video.
Downsides: no vocals, and on the Creator plan you don't get WAV or stems.
AIVA - instrumental music with MIDI
AIVA is one of the oldest music generators. It specializes in film, orchestral, ambient and game music. Its biggest plus is MIDI export, which you can open in a DAW and keep arranging.
Per the pricing page:
- Free - €0, 3 downloads a month, copyright belongs to AIVA, no monetization.
- Standard - €11 a month billed yearly, 15 downloads, monetization only on YouTube, Twitch, TikTok and Instagram.
- Pro - €33 a month billed yearly, 300 downloads, you own the copyright, full monetization.
Who it's for: composers, indie game developers and anyone who needs a MIDI file.
Downsides: on Free and Standard the rights stay with AIVA. No vocals.
Mureka - a Suno alternative
Mureka generates full tracks with vocals, lyrics and backing from a description. It works much like Suno. I couldn't read its pricing without logging in, so test it on a trial before buying.
Who it's for: people who want to compare the sound against Suno.
Downsides: no public pricing.
LALAL.AI - removing vocals and instruments
LALAL.AI splits a finished track into vocals, bass, drums, guitars, piano and other stems. It's handy for making karaoke backing tracks, pulling out an a cappella for a remix, or cleaning background music from recordings.
Per the pricing page as of October 2026:
- Starter - free, 10 minutes in the slow queue, 200 MB per file.
- Lite - €6.75 a month (€81 a year), unlimited slow queue, 90 minutes of fast queue.
- Pro - €13.50 a month (€162 a year), 250 minutes of fast queue, VST plugin and API.
Who it's for: DJs, producers, music teachers and video editors.
Downsides: the free 10 minutes covers 2-3 tracks, and the VST plugin is only on Pro.
Moises - separation and practice
Moises combines stem separation with practice tools: key and tempo change, chord detection and a metronome. It has mobile and desktop apps. The vendor says the free plan has a limited number of uploads per month, and the full pricing only appears after you log in.
Who it's for: musicians practicing along to songs, cover bands and teachers.
Downsides: prices aren't visible without an account, and full features need a subscription.
Copyright and AI music
This is the most important part of the guide, because it's where people trip up most often.
- Copyright generally protects human creativity. In the US, the Copyright Office has said that material generated entirely by AI without sufficient human authorship can't be registered, and many other countries take a similar view. Your own lyrics, melody or arrangement change the picture, but only to the extent of your contribution.
- A platform license isn't the same as copyright. Suno, ElevenLabs and Soundraw give you the right to commercial use on paid plans. That's a contract with the company, not a guarantee that nobody will ever file a claim.
- Free plans usually don't include commercial rights. That applies to Suno, ElevenLabs and AIVA. A track from a free plan is not fit for a client's ad.
- Distributors and streaming services are tightening their rules. Mass-uploading AI tracks to Spotify can end with a banned account and your whole catalog taken down, not just one song.
- Collecting societies register human works. If you want to register a song with a performing rights organization, your contribution needs to be real and documented.
This isn't legal advice. For a campaign for a major client, have a lawyer look at the platform license.
How to choose
- You want a song with vocals - Suno Pro.
- You're making music for a client's ad - ElevenLabs Music or Soundraw, because the license is clearly described.
- You edit YouTube videos - Soundraw Creator with unlimited MP3 downloads.
- You need MIDI to keep working - AIVA.
- You want to strip vocals from an existing track - LALAL.AI, and Moises for practicing an instrument.
- You don't want to pay - Suno Free for fun, but you can't publish anything from it commercially.
Common mistakes
- Publishing tracks made on a free plan - no commercial rights means a risk of takedowns or claims.
- Using generated lyrics without editing - models get stress and phrasing wrong. Write the lyrics yourself or fix them.
- Tracks that are too long - the longer the track, the more often the structure drifts. Shorter is better.
- Naming artists in the prompt - platforms block or ignore such prompts. Describe genre, tempo, instruments and mood instead.
- Mass distribution - dozens of tracks a week on streaming services is a fast track to a ban.
- Separating stems from a low-quality file - a 128 kbps MP3 ripped from YouTube gives poor stems. Upload the best version you have.
FAQ
What is the best free AI music generator?
Suno has a Free plan with 50 credits a day, ElevenLabs gives 10,000 credits a month, AIVA 3 downloads a month and LALAL.AI 10 minutes of separation. None of these free plans includes commercial rights to the music, though.
Can I use Suno songs commercially?
Per the pricing page, you get commercial rights on the Pro and Premier plans. Songs made on the Free plan have no commercial rights. Keep in mind that distributors and streaming services have their own rules on AI music.
Who owns the copyright to AI generated music?
It depends on the platform and on your contribution. On AIVA's Free and Standard plans the rights belong to AIVA, on Pro to you. Copyright protects human creativity, so generating a track from a prompt may give you only a license from the platform, not copyright.
How do I remove vocals from a song with AI?
Upload the file to LALAL.AI or Moises and choose a vocal/instrumental split. LALAL.AI gives you 10 free minutes, which is enough for a few songs.
Suno vs Udio: which is better?
As of October 2026, Suno, because it lets you download tracks on paid plans and has clear pricing. After its settlement with Universal Music, Udio disabled track downloads, and I couldn't read its pricing.
How much does an AI music generator cost?
From $6 a month (ElevenLabs Starter) and $8 a month (Suno Pro). Stem separation starts at €6.75 a month with LALAL.AI Lite.
Sources
- Suno - pricing - checked October 12, 2026
- ElevenLabs - pricing - checked October 12, 2026
- Soundraw - pricing - checked October 12, 2026
- AIVA - pricing - checked October 2026
- LALAL.AI - pricing - checked October 2026
- Moises - pricing - checked October 2026
- Udio - pricing - checked October 2026, plan details not available
- Mureka - checked October 2026