Short, practical write-ups on the parts that trip people up before they've even generated a song - getting keys, and picking a provider. For anything that goes wrong once you're in the app, see the FAQ instead.
Swara Sound doesn't talk to Suno directly - Suno's own API isn't publicly self-serve, so access goes through kie.ai, a third-party platform that resells API access to Suno's models.
Swara Sound never sees or stores this key on a server - it's saved to a hidden folder in your own Google Drive and sent straight through to kie.ai with each request.
Mureka runs its own API directly, no reseller involved.
Same as Suno: the key lives in your Drive, not on a server we control.
Suno (via kie.ai) is the simplest starting point - most consistent vocal quality, priced per song, no infrastructure to manage.
Mureka is usually cheaper per song and returns multiple takes per request, so you get a choice back for roughly the same spend.
ACE-Step on your own RunPod pod only makes sense once you're generating enough that GPU-time pricing beats per-song pricing, or you want a model you can fine-tune (see the Trained sound / LoRA feature on the Bands page). It's also the only option with real setup: deploying and keeping a pod running yourself.
All three show a live per-song cost estimate on the Create page once you've added a key, so you can compare against your own usage before committing to one.
Most AI music apps put themselves between you and the model: you pay them a markup, and your songs and prompts sit on their servers. Swara Sound doesn't do that - it's an interface, not a middleman.
Concretely: you sign up for your own account with Suno (via kie.ai), Mureka, or RunPod, generate your own API key there, and pay that provider directly at their price. Swara Sound relays the request using your key and never marks it up or stores it. Your library and settings live in your own Google Drive or your own disk, not a database we run - see Privacy & Terms for the full picture.
The trade-off is upfront setup - you need an account and a key with at least one provider before you can generate anything, which the homepage walks through in three steps.