ACE-Step
Free planOpen-source, self-hostable AI music model
An open-source music generation foundation model that turns text descriptions into high-quality music complete with melody, harmony, rhythm, and instrumentation, and optionally lyrics. It combines diffusion-based generation with a lightweight transformer for very fast generation speeds.
vs. similar tools: Released under the Apache 2.0 license for commercial self-hosting, with a standout speed of generating a 4-minute song in about 20 seconds on an A100.
Overview
At a glance
- Apache 2.0 license allows free commercial self-hosting
- Generates a 4-minute song in about 20 seconds on an A100
- Supports vocals with lyrics and tracks up to 240 seconds long
- Requires your own GPU infrastructure, raising the entry barrier
- No API, so external service automation must be built yourself
- Best for: Developers and researchers running a music model themselves at no license cost
Read more
ACE-Step is an open-source music generation foundation model that turns text descriptions into music complete with melody, harmony, rhythm, instrumentation, and optional lyrics. Built by pairing diffusion-based generation with a lightweight transformer, it suits developers and researchers who want to run the model on their own GPU setup. It supports vocal generation and can produce tracks up to 240 seconds long.
Its biggest strengths are openness and speed. Released under the Apache 2.0 license, it is free to use and even permits commercial self-hosting, which earns its self-hosting and openness rating of 95. The standout differentiator is generating a 4-minute song in about 20 seconds on an A100. That is also why generation speed scores 92 and value for money 90.
The limits come from having to run it yourself. It is free, but you must supply the GPU infrastructure to host the model, and an ease-of-use score of 62 means it takes effort to get going. It offers no API, so wiring it into external services requires custom work, and you are responsible for verifying the originality and rights of generated output.
But anyone who wants to generate tracks directly in a browser without setting up infrastructure is better off with a hosted music tool.
Pricing
| Plan | Monthly price | Limits |
|---|---|---|
| Open source | $0/mo | Apache 2.0 license, free, requires your own GPU infrastructure |
Specs
- Max length
- 240s
- Vocals
- Supported
- API
- No
- Open source
- Yes
- Self-hosting
- Available
- Korean support
- Input/output only
- Commercial use
- Allowed
Popularity
Buzz and recognition on absolute thresholds
Absolute-threshold score
38
High confidence5/5 signals
Each axis maps to a 1-10 absolute threshold where 10 means broadly recognizable. Collected: 2026-06-16.
Related tools
By popularity
- Suno
Its key differentiator is letting even beginners produce a complete song, with vocals, lyrics, and backing track, from a single sentence faster than anything else.
- LANDR
Its key differentiator is an ecosystem that bundles music distribution, samples, plugins, and collaboration alongside mastering in a single subscription.
- Stable Audio
With Stable Audio 3.0, it can generate tracks up to roughly 6 minutes 20 seconds in a single pass while supporting audio-to-audio transformation and inpainting.
- Udio
Its most distinctive differentiator is inpainting editing that regenerates just a specific two-second section of a track exactly as you want.
- Eleven Music
What sets it apart is training on cleared, licensed data that guarantees broad commercial use on paid plans, plus a music API for developers.
Compare ACE-Step
Last updated: 2026-05-30
All tools