# ElevenLabs Music vs AIVA (2026): side-by-side comparison

Source: [GLAD-AI-TOR](https://glad-ia-tor.com) · Full page: https://glad-ia-tor.com/vs/eleven-labs-music-vs-aiva
Arena: ai-music · Crowd scores are live visitor verdicts (one per person per tool, never paid, Bayesian-smoothed).

## At a glance

| | ElevenLabs Music | AIVA |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $6/mo | $13/mo |
| Crowd score | 71% (3 votes) | 57% (3 votes) |
| provider | ElevenLabs | AIVA Technologies |
| freeTier | 10,000 credits/month (about 11 min of music), no commercial use | 3 downloads/month, 3 min max, non-commercial, credit required |
| maxLength | 5 min (10 min via composition plans) | 5 min 30 s (Pro); 3 min (Free) |
| stems | yes | yes |
| commercialUse | yes | yes |
| api | yes | no |
| audioQuality (1-5) | 4 | 3 |
| vocals (1-5) | 3.5 | 1 |
| easeOfUse (1-5) | 4 | 3.5 |
| valueForMoney (1-5) | 4 | 3.5 |

### ElevenLabs Music

> Licensed AI music cleared for commercial use from $6/month, with a real API, stem separation and tracks up to 5 minutes

Strengths:
- Cleanest licensing story of the big three: trained on licensed music via Merlin and Kobalt opt-in deals, with outputs cleared for broad commercial use on every paid plan from $6/month
- Only one of the trio with a real developer API: music generation, composition plans (structured multi-section tracks up to 10 minutes) and stem separation endpoints, with June 2026 price cuts up to 50% on the API
- Stem separation built in: 2 stems at 0.5x generation cost, 4 stems at 1x, available in both UI and API
- Music v2 (June 2026) added style shifts inside a single track, embedded sound effects and section-level inpainting, a genuine editing edge over regenerate-and-pray rivals

Weaknesses:
- Credit math bites at scale: music costs 900 credits per minute, so the free plan yields about 11 minutes a month and the $6 Starter about 33 minutes, far from Suno's ~500 songs at $10
- Songcraft and vocals trail Suno v5.5 for radio-style full songs; it shines on functional and background music more than on hits with hooks
- Real usage restrictions: no reselling into commercial music libraries, banned sectors (arms, tobacco, pharma, adult, religious, political), and no artist names, song titles or lyrics as prompts

Verdict: Pick ElevenLabs Music if the music is for something: videos, podcasts, apps, games or any commercial project where clean licensing and an API matter more than chart-ready vocals. At $6/month the Starter plan is the cheapest legally solid commercial entry in AI music, and the v2 inpainting plus stems make it the most editable of the trio. Skip it if you want full radio-style songs with standout vocals, Suno v5.5 is clearly better there, or if you need hours of output monthly, where the 900 credits/minute pricing gets expensive fast. It is also the obvious choice if you already pay for ElevenLabs TTS, since everything draws from one credit pool.

Full review: https://glad-ia-tor.com/tool/eleven-labs-music · Markdown: https://glad-ia-tor.com/tool/eleven-labs-music.md

### AIVA

> The veteran AI composer since 2016: 250+ styles, MIDI and stems export, full copyright ownership at €33/month

Strengths:
- Full copyright ownership of your tracks on the Pro plan (€33/month billed annually), rare in AI music where most tools only license usage
- Deepest DAW handoff of any mainstream generator: MP3, 16-bit/48 kHz WAV, orchestrated and reduced MIDI, stems, even chord charts as text
- MIDI export available on every tier including Free (as of June 2026), ideal for composers who re-orchestrate with their own sample libraries
- 250+ style presets with strong results in cinematic, orchestral and ambient writing

Weaknesses:
- Downloads are capped (3/month Free, 15 Standard, 300 Pro) and unused downloads do not roll over, even though generation itself is unlimited
- Weak outside orchestral genres: 2026 testers found pop output sounded like 1990s MIDI keyboard demos, with no verse-chorus structure or memorable hooks
- Standard plan (€11/month annual) keeps copyright with AIVA and only allows monetization on YouTube, Twitch, TikTok and Instagram

Verdict: Buy AIVA Pro if you score film, games or trailers and want to own your copyright outright while finishing tracks in a DAW: its MIDI and stems pipeline has no real rival. The Standard plan only makes sense for social-media creators who accept AIVA keeping the copyright and monetization limited to four platforms. Avoid it for pop, EDM or anything needing vocals: Suno covers full songs, and Soundraw is better for fast unlimited background tracks. Check the download caps and the 2.9/5 Trustpilot refund complaints before committing to annual billing.

Full review: https://glad-ia-tor.com/tool/aiva · Markdown: https://glad-ia-tor.com/tool/aiva.md

## More

Full ai-music ranking: https://glad-ia-tor.com/hall-of-fame/ai-music

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