Suno is capping the number of songs its users can download from its AI music platform.
From September 3, the two categories of paying Suno subscribers will see their allowances dramatically change:
Pro subscribers, who pay $8-$10 a month, will be capped at 20 monthly song downloads. Currently, Pro subscribers have no download limit and are granted 2,500 song credits per month.
Premier subscribers, who pay $24-$30 per month, will be capped at 60 monthly song downloads. Currently, Premier subscribers – who also gain access to browser-based production suite, Suno Studio – have no download limit and are granted 10,000 song credits per month.
Also from September 3, Suno’s free users will see their downloads capped at seven downloads in total – i.e. a lifetime download limit. Currently, Suno grants free users 50 song credits that replenish daily.
Importantly, the seven permitted downloads on the new free tier are cleared for personal use only, meaning a free user can keep the file but cannot put the song on streaming services such as Spotify, sell it, or use it in commercial work.
Suno stated in a blog post on Monday (August 10) that the download restrictions “will make it harder for bad actors to mass-export music”.
That’s a clear nod to individuals who have mass-created and downloaded tracks from Suno before uploading them to streaming services – at least in some cases to gain royalties through artificial plays. This led one artists’ rights coalition earlier this year to label Suno a “fraud-fodder factory”.
Suno added on Monday: “We are introducing download limits to ensure our platform is used for intentional music creation, while still allowing everyone to create, remix, listen, and share on Suno.”
Subscribers who hit their monthly limit under the new rules will be able to buy additional downloads, explained Suno on Monday, while Premier subscribers can keep downloading their work from Suno Studio without limit.
“SOON, WE’LL INTRODUCE A NEW GENERATION OF SUNO MODELS, DEVELOPED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE MUSIC INDUSTRY. THESE MODELS ARE BETTER THAN ANYTHING WE’VE EVER RELEASED – ON EVERY METRIC.”
SUNO BLOG
Suno continues to promise that new models, licensed by members of the music industry, are around the corner.
Reads the blog: “Soon, we’ll introduce a new generation of Suno models, developed in partnership with the music industry. These models are better than anything we’ve ever released – on every metric we’ve ever measured. In early testing, they generate outputs faster, deliver higher fidelity audio, and give you more control over your music than ever before.”
Adds Suno: “When the new models launch, all prior models will be retired. The most important thing to know is that everything you’ve already made will remain in your library. Every song will continue to be playable and shareable, and you can still use existing songs as the basis for covers and remixes.”
Suno appears well prepared for those who try to circumvent its download restrictions by using a third-party audio ripper, or recording a track as it plays, to build a library of files outside Suno’s monthly cap.
Suno’s new Terms of Service, published on Monday (August 10), read: “Obtaining a copy of an Output by any means other than a download channel made available by Suno is prohibited (for example, recording or stream ripping are prohibited).”
What punishment awaits Suno users who still flout the rules and, for example, use a stream-ripper?
According to its ToS, Suno says it can investigate and “take appropriate legal action” against anyone who violates its conditions of use, “including removing the offending content from the Service, suspending or terminating the account of such violators, and reporting the violator to law enforcement authorities”.
The company can also terminate an account at its “sole discretion” if it believes a user has “violated or acted inconsistently with the letter or spirit” of the terms, according to the Suno document.
Suno has not explicitly stated how it might detect users obtaining songs outside its download channels.
However, the new Suno terms reserve the company’s right to “append a fingerprint, watermark, or metadata indicating the applicable service tier of an Output and whether such Output was a permitted Download”.
Suno users agree not to “remove, alter, obscure or circumvent” those markers “for the purpose of concealing or misrepresenting the provenance, service tier, or status of that Output.”
Last week, Suno Co-Founder and CEO, Mikey Shulman, said in a blog post that the company would adopt “new audio watermarking and fingerprinting technology” in “the coming weeks”, to work with distribution platforms on “combatting fraud and misuse”.
Such changes would also help align Suno with the EU AI Act, whose transparency rules require providers to embed machine-readable markers in AI-generated content.
Generative AI services already on the market before August 2, 2026 have until December 2, 2026 to comply with that marking requirement.
The rough framework for Suno’s new download restrictions was made public in November 2025, in the release announcing Suno’s settlement and licensing deal with Warner Music Group.
“Moving forward, downloading audio will require a paid account,” the WMG release stated.
The WMG release added: “Suno will introduce download restrictions in certain scenarios: specifically, in the future, songs made on the free tier will not be downloadable and will instead be playable and shareable.”
“Paid tier users will have limited monthly download caps with the ability to pay for more downloads,” the WMG release said.
Suno appears to have landed in a slightly different place than it announced in the WMG pact on the free tier: The WMG release said free-tier songs would not be downloadable at all; free users will instead get seven one-off downloads.
Rival Udio went further after settling with Universal Music Group in October 2025, disabling downloads entirely.
Suno’s retention of downloads is therefore the key difference between its deal with WMG and Udio’s separate deals with UMG and WMG.
Suno’s Chief Music Officer Paul Sinclair argued publicly in February for “open studios, not walled gardens”.
One last thing to understand about Suno’s new rules: From September 3, a song sitting in a paying subscriber’s library cannot be released, sold, or licensed until a download has been ‘spent’ on it.
Yet ‘spending’ does not unlock every track on Suno for commercial exploitation.
Suno lets track-makers permit others to rework their existing song into a Remix.
Those Remixes were already restricted to personal and non-commercial use under the current terms.
The new Suno document adds that the restriction holds “regardless of your subscription tier or whether the Remix is a permitted Download”.
Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment remain plaintiffs in a copyright case brought against Suno by the RIAA in June 2024.
Suno also faces a proposed class action from independent artists, filed in June 2025, over the alleged use of their recordings to train its models.Music Business Worldwide
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