Suno v6 vs Lyria 3.5: AI Music Compared (2026)

Within six weeks of each other, the two biggest names in AI song generation shipped new models. Google DeepMind released Lyria 3.5 on July 29, 2026 in Flow Music and brought it to every Gemini user on September 4. Suno followed on September 9 with v6, its new model family built with Warner Music Group, BMG and Believe. Both write complete songs with vocals and lyrics from a text prompt, and both claim to be the best they have made. They are still very different products, and the right choice depends far more on what you need to do with the song than on which one sounds better in a demo.

The short answer: Suno v6 is a music studio — long songs, section-by-section editing, remixes, a library and public song pages. Lyria 3.5 is a model that lives inside Google’s apps and API — up to about three minutes per track, one-shot generation, per-song API pricing and a SynthID watermark on everything. If you make songs and keep working on them, Suno fits. If you need a backing track inside Gemini or Google Vids, or you are a developer who wants an official API, Lyria fits.

Sources for everything below: Google’s Lyria 3.5 launch post, the Gemini app announcement, the Lyria 3.5 model card, the Gemini API music generation guide and pricing page; Suno’s v6 FAQ and what’s new in v6. Where a vendor has not published something, we say so rather than guess. This site is an independent Suno download tool and is not affiliated with Suno or Google.

Suno v6 vs Lyria 3.5 at a glance

	Suno v6	Lyria 3.5
Made by	Suno	Google DeepMind
Released	September 9, 2026	July 29, 2026 (Flow Music); September 4, 2026 (Gemini app and API)
Where you use it	suno.com and the Suno mobile apps	Gemini app (web and mobile), Google Flow Music, Google AI Studio, Gemini API, Google Vids
Models	v6, v6-wild (Pro and Premier), v6-mini (everyone, including Free)	`lyria-3.5` for full songs; `lyria-3-clip-preview` for 30-second clips
Longest song per generation	Up to 8 minutes	Up to 3 minutes in the Gemini app; “a couple of minutes” in the API, steerable in the prompt
Inputs	Text, audio, images, video, Suno songs and playlists	Text plus up to 10 images
Edit after generating	Yes: change one section or one lyric in plain language, extend, cover, remix, mashup	No: the API is single-turn; you regenerate to change anything
Files you get	Official downloads on your plan’s quota; public streams as M4A	Gemini app: MP3 or MP4 with cover art. API: MP3 by default, WAV on request, 44.1 kHz stereo
Official API	None	Yes, $0.08 per full song on the paid tier; no free API tier
AI labelling	C2PA Content Credentials in the metadata of downloaded files; audio watermarking announced	SynthID watermark in the audio of every track, on every surface

Where you can use each one

Suno is a destination. You go to suno.com or open the app, write a prompt or your own lyrics, and get two songs per generation. Those songs live in your library, get a public suno.com/song/… page when you publish them, and can be extended, covered, remixed or edited later. v6-mini is open to every account; v6 and v6-wild need Pro or Premier. All earlier Suno models have been retired, so v6 is the only choice for new songs — our Suno v6 explainer covers the three variants in detail.

Lyria 3.5 is spread across Google’s products rather than living in one place:

Gemini app — the consumer route. You pick a genre, vocal or instrumental, short or long, and optionally attach photos. Each track comes with cover art generated by Nano Banana. Google requires users to be 18 or over for music generation. For a full track you need to switch Gemini to the Pro model.
Google Flow Music — Google Labs’ tool for artists and “AI creatives”, where Lyria 3.5 launched first.
Google Vids — music beds for work videos, on Workspace plans.
Gemini API and Google AI Studio — for developers, with the model ID lyria-3.5.

That distribution is Lyria’s biggest advantage. If you already have Gemini open, there is no new account and no new subscription between you and a song.

Song length and structure

This is the clearest numeric difference. Suno says all three v6 models generate up to 8 minutes in one go, and recommends its extra-cost Max Mode for anything over about two minutes so vocals and style stay consistent to the end.

Lyria 3.5 tops out at up to 3 minutes in the Gemini app. In the API, Google describes full-song length as “a couple of minutes”, influenced by asking for a duration (“create a 2-minute song”) or by writing a timestamped structure ([0:10 - 0:30] Verse 1: …). Before generating audio, Lyria plans the song’s sections — intro, verse, chorus, bridge — and returns that structure along with the lyrics.

So for a three-minute pop song, both are in range. For a long-form track, an extended mix or anything past three minutes, Suno is the only one of the two that does it in a single generation.

Editing: the biggest practical difference

Suno’s v6 announcement is mostly about changing music you already have. According to Suno you can:

rewrite one section in plain language (“change the chorus so it’s sung by a gospel choir”) while the rest of the song stays the same;
change a single lyric without regenerating the track;
mash up parts of several songs in one request;
sample a moment, isolate an instrument and build a new beat around it;
extend, cover, remaster and remix — and keep working on songs made with older models, with new iterations running on v6.

Lyria 3.5 does not work this way. Google’s API guide states that music generation is single-turn: “iterative editing or refining a generated clip through multiple prompts is not supported in the current version of Lyria 3.5.” If one line of the chorus is wrong, you change the prompt and generate again. Google suggests drafting with the cheaper 30-second Clip model and only running the full model once the prompt is right.

If your workflow is “get close, then fix the details”, that alone decides it in Suno’s favour.

Inputs and control

Both models respond to detailed, musician-style prompts. Google’s prompt guidance for Lyria lists tempo in BPM, key and scale (“in D minor”), mood, instrumentation, section labels and timing. Lyria also accepts up to 10 images alongside the text and writes lyrics in the language of your prompt, adapting pronunciation to match — write in French and you get a French song.

Suno v6 takes a wider range of references in one prompt: other Suno songs, playlists, audio uploads, images and video. Suno says v6 understands more of the vocabulary musicians use — vocals, instrumentation, structure, mood, references — and in Simple mode it picks the right tool (cover, remix, extend) for you. Its Variety slider controls how much the model rewrites your style tags; set it to 0 to keep them exactly as written.

Both block requests that imitate real artists. Google says prompts asking for specific artist voices or copyrighted lyrics are filtered, and Suno now screens uploaded audio and lyrics for unauthorised use.

What you get as a file

This matters to us more than most, because it is where people get stuck.

Lyria 3.5 in the Gemini app gives you a Download button on the track: pick the MP4 video with cover art or the MP3 audio. Through the API you get base64 audio in the response — MP3 by default, WAV if you set response_format — as 44.1 kHz stereo, plus the lyrics and the song structure as text. Google does not document stems for Lyria.

Suno meters the file, not the song. Since September 3, 2026 official downloads are capped at 7 in total on Free, 20 a month on Pro and 60 a month on Premier, with unlimited exports inside Suno Studio on Premier; one song counts once whatever format you pick, and stems are part of that song. The full rules are in our download limits explainer. Every published Suno song also has a public page whose stream is an M4A file, which is what public-link tools read — more on that below.

What it costs

Suno runs on plans and credits. A standard v6 generation makes two songs for 10 credits, the same as before v6; Max Mode and prompts with many images or videos cost more. Free accounts are limited to v6-mini and get no commercial rights; Pro and Premier add v6, v6-wild and the download allowances above. Suno does not sell API access.

Lyria 3.5 is priced two ways:

Gemini app: music generation is part of your Gemini usage limits. Google does not publish a per-track number for personal accounts; its limits scale with your plan (Google AI Plus is 2× the standard limits, Pro 4×, Ultra 5× or 20× Pro) and reset on a rolling basis. For work and school accounts Google does publish numbers, from 5 up to 50 full tracks a day depending on the edition.
Gemini API: $0.08 per full song on the paid tier, and $0.04 for a 30-second Lyria 3 Clip. There is no free tier for either on the API. Google says paid-tier API content is not used to improve its products.

For a developer generating a few hundred tracks a month, Lyria’s per-song price is simple to budget. For a creator who wants to iterate on dozens of drafts and then finish a few, Suno’s credit bundle usually goes further, but the download cap is the number to plan around.

Watermarks, training data and rights

Lyria embeds a SynthID watermark in every track it generates, across the Gemini app, Flow Music and the API. Google says it is inaudible, and the Gemini app can check an uploaded file for it. Google’s model card describes the training data only as annotated audio, filtered for safety and quality; it does not name sources or licensing partners.

Suno built v6 with Warner Music Group, BMG and Believe and positions it as the foundation for opt-in artist programmes. Songs downloaded from Suno carry C2PA Content Credentials — signed metadata that identifies the file as made with Suno — and Suno runs a public checker for them. The difference from SynthID is where the label lives: C2PA sits in the file’s metadata, while SynthID is embedded in the audio itself. Suno announced in August 2026 that it would add inaudible audio watermarking and fingerprinting as well, but has not published technical details. For commercial use, Suno’s rule is unchanged: commercial rights come with an official download on a paid plan, and Free-plan songs are personal use only. Our legal guide goes through what that means in practice.

Google has not published a Suno-style commercial licence for Gemini-app tracks. If you plan to release, monetise or deliver Lyria output to a client, read the current Google terms and generative AI policy for the product you used (Gemini app, Flow Music or the API) before you publish.

Sound quality: no neutral benchmark yet

Neither company has published a head-to-head listening test. Google’s model card compares Lyria 3.5 only with its own Lyria 2 — better audio fidelity and better prompt adherence with lyrics — and Suno compares v6 only with its previous models. Early user reaction to v6 has been mixed: some long-time users, quoted by MusicRadar, describe it as more generic and more heavily compressed than v5.5, which Suno no longer offers since the older models were retired.

The honest way to decide is to run the same prompt on both. v6-mini is free on Suno and Lyria 3.5 is available to every Gemini user, so a fair A/B test costs nothing. Something like:

Upbeat indie pop at 118 BPM in A major, bright jangly guitars, live drums, warm female vocal, verse–chorus–verse–chorus–bridge–chorus, lyrics about a last summer road trip.

Listen for three things: whether the chorus actually lifts, whether the lyrics are sung clearly, and whether the song still holds together in the final minute.

Which should you use?

Pick Suno v6 if:

you want songs longer than three minutes, or you care about the last minute sounding as good as the first;
you expect to fix one section or one line instead of starting over;
you want to extend, cover, remix or mash up your own songs;
you plan to release music and want a clear commercial-rights path on a paid plan;
you want a public song page and a library to share from.

Pick Lyria 3.5 if:

you already use Gemini, Google Vids or Flow Music and want a track without another subscription;
you need a background bed, jingle, ringtone or short video soundtrack of up to three minutes;
you are building a product and need an official API with per-song pricing;
you want tempo and key written into the prompt and a WAV straight from the API;
an AI watermark embedded in the audio of every track is a requirement rather than a drawback.

Many people will reasonably use both: Lyria for quick soundtrack material inside Google’s tools, Suno for songs they intend to keep working on.

Downloading Suno and Lyria songs

Suno Music Downloader works with public Suno songs only. Paste a suno.com/song/… or suno.com/s/… link and you can preview the cover, style and lyrics, then save the audio as the original M4A, MP3, WAV or MP4 for personal use — without touching your Suno download quota and without signing in to Suno. That makes it a handy way to keep listening copies of v6 songs you are comparing, while you save your official downloads for the tracks you release.

It does not download Lyria tracks. Gemini songs are not published on suno.com and have their own Download button in the Gemini app (MP3 or MP4), and API output is already a file in your response.

Frequently asked questions

Is Lyria 3.5 better than Suno v6? Neither is better at everything, and there is no independent listening benchmark yet. Suno v6 generates longer songs (up to 8 minutes) and lets you edit sections and lyrics afterwards. Lyria 3.5 is capped at about 3 minutes and generates in one shot, but it is built into Gemini and has an official API.

Is Lyria 3.5 free? In the Gemini app, yes, within your Gemini usage limits, which are higher on Google AI Plus, Pro and Ultra. The Gemini API has no free tier for Lyria: a full song costs $0.08 and a 30-second clip $0.04.

How long can a Lyria 3.5 song be? Up to 3 minutes in the Gemini app. Through the API, Google describes full songs as “a couple of minutes” and lets you steer the length in the prompt or with timestamps. The Lyria 3 Clip model always makes 30 seconds.

How long can a Suno v6 song be? Up to 8 minutes per generation on v6, v6-wild and v6-mini. Suno recommends Max Mode, which costs more credits, for songs longer than about two minutes.

Does Suno have an API like Lyria? Not an official one. Suno’s only official interfaces are the website and the apps. Third-party providers offer API access to Suno’s models; see our guide to the Suno API.

Can I edit a Lyria 3.5 song after it is generated? Not through the model. Google’s documentation says Lyria 3.5 generation is single-turn and does not support refining a track with follow-up prompts. You change the prompt and generate again, or edit the audio in a separate tool.

Are Lyria songs watermarked? Yes. Every Lyria track carries an inaudible SynthID watermark, and the Gemini app can check an uploaded audio file for it.

Can I download Lyria or Gemini songs with Suno Music Downloader? No. The tool only reads public suno.com song pages. Download Gemini tracks with the Download button in the Gemini app, as MP3 or as MP4 with cover art.

We will update this comparison when Google or Suno change song length, pricing, editing features or licensing terms.