# ElevenLabs Music API vs MusicGPT API

> ElevenLabs Music scores 66.9 (B) to MusicGPT's 45.9 (E) for music generation. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elevenlabs-music-vs-musicgpt
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elevenlabs-music-vs-musicgpt.md (~2,300 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elevenlabs-music-vs-musicgpt.min.md (~680 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elevenlabs-music-vs-musicgpt.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-09

ElevenLabs Music API scores 66.9 (B) on agent readiness against MusicGPT API's 45.9 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. MusicGPT API leads on payments & pricing. Both do music generation.

- ElevenLabs Music API: grade B, 66.9/100, rank #268 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/elevenlabs-music.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/elevenlabs-music.json
- MusicGPT API: grade E, 45.9/100, rank #859 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/musicgpt.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/musicgpt.json
- Best music generation for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/music-generation/index.md
- All 55 music comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/music-generation/index.md

## Which one, for what

### ElevenLabs Music API (B)

Good for: Full songs with vocals and lyrics, or instrumentals where section-level control, inpainting or stems matter.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 63 against 37
- Schema & documentation, 86 against 78
- Agent ergonomics, 65 against 54
- Security & auth, 77 against 35
- Maintenance & community, 80 against 33
- Transparency & trust, 77 against 49

Watch for: Music API is disabled on the Free plan and pay-as-you-go needs a card

### MusicGPT API (E)

Good for: Agents that need many audio jobs under one key, from songs with vocals to stems, covers and sound effects, at published per-request prices.

Ahead on:
- Payments & pricing, 30 against 20

Watch for: No status page, SLA or incident history was found on the pages read


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | ElevenLabs Music API | MusicGPT API | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 63 | 37 | ElevenLabs Music API +26 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 86 | 78 | ElevenLabs Music API +8 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 65 | 54 | ElevenLabs Music API +11 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 77 | 35 | ElevenLabs Music API +42 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 20 | 30 | MusicGPT API +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 80 | 33 | ElevenLabs Music API +47 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 77 | 49 | ElevenLabs Music API +28 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **66.9 · B** | **45.9 · E** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | ElevenLabs Music API | MusicGPT API |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model API | Model API |
| Vendor | ElevenLabs | MusicGPT Ltd |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.elevenlabs.io/v1` | `https://api.musicgpt.com/api/public` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Paid | Pay per use |
| Price for music generation | $0.15 per minute of audio | $0.035 per call |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT (SDKs) | Proprietary service under MusicGPT's Terms of Service. The npm client is ISC |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-09-28 | none |
| Terms last updated | 2026-03-31 | 2025-01-01 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-05-20 | 2025-01-01 |
| Customer content may train models | yes, with an opt-out | yes |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 3.1k stars, 1.1M npm/wk | 310 npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | 4/5 (2) | none |

## Verdicts

**ElevenLabs Music API.** Vocals and lyrics in several languages, or forced instrumental, with length set from 3 to 600 seconds. Music API is disabled on the Free plan and pay-as-you-go needs a card.

**MusicGPT API.** A public OpenAPI 3.1 file with 27 operations, llms.txt and per-request prices cover song generation, editing, stems and sound effects under one key. No status page, SLA, security.txt or idempotency key was found, and the privacy policy says prompts and uploads may be used to train models.

## Before you call either

### ElevenLabs Music API

1. Strip artist and song names from user prompts before calling, or the request breaks the Music Terms
2. Pin `model_id`. The API default is still `music_v1`
3. Set `music_length_ms` and `force_instrumental: true` for background beds. Billing is by minute of audio
4. On 429, retry `system_busy` with exponential backoff, but treat `too_many_concurrent_requests` as a plan limit and queue
5. Don't plan on the MCP server for music. Its documented tools cover agents and speech

### MusicGPT API

1. Send the key as the raw `Authorization` header value. The docs show no `Bearer` prefix
2. Budget two songs for each music request. `POST /v2/MusicAI` returns two versions and the price is per song
3. Save `task_id` and poll `GET /v1/byId` with `conversionType`, or set `webhook_url`. Music AI V2 sends up to seven webhooks a request
4. Pass `model` explicitly. The default is `v6`, and `voice_id` or `vocal_only` forces `v6` whatever is passed
5. Do not retry a create blindly after a timeout. No idempotency key is documented, so a retry may bill again

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, ElevenLabs Music API or MusicGPT API?

ElevenLabs Music API scores 66.9 (B) on agent readiness against MusicGPT API's 45.9 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. MusicGPT API leads on payments & pricing.

### Do ElevenLabs Music API and MusicGPT API need an API key?

ElevenLabs Music API takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. MusicGPT API needs an API key.

### Can an agent call ElevenLabs Music API and MusicGPT API without installing anything?

Yes. ElevenLabs Music API has a hosted endpoint at https://api.elevenlabs.io/v1 and MusicGPT API at https://api.musicgpt.com/api/public.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elevenlabs-music-vs-musicgpt.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elevenlabs-music-vs-musicgpt.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "elevenlabs-music", "b": "musicgpt"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare elevenlabs-music musicgpt`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/elevenlabs-music.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/musicgpt.json

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