# ElevenLabs Music API vs SOUNDRAW API

> ElevenLabs Music API has a score of 67 (B) against SOUNDRAW API's 12.5 (F). Both do audio music. The largest gap is schema & documentation, 81 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

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- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-04

ElevenLabs Music API has a score of 67 (B) against SOUNDRAW API's 12.5 (F). Both do audio music. The largest gap is schema & documentation, 81 points.

- ElevenLabs Music API: grade B, 67/100, rank #150 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/elevenlabs-music.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/elevenlabs-music.json
- SOUNDRAW API: grade F, 12.5/100, rank #451 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/soundraw.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/soundraw.json

## Which one, for what

Pick ElevenLabs Music API for reliability (+48), schema & documentation (+81), agent ergonomics (+65), security & auth (+57), payments & pricing (+10), maintenance & community (+77), transparency & trust (+37).

Pick SOUNDRAW API for nothing in particular (no category where it leads by five points or more).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | ElevenLabs Music API | SOUNDRAW API | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 63 | 15 | ElevenLabs Music API +48 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 86 | 5 | ElevenLabs Music API +81 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 65 | 0 | ElevenLabs Music API +65 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 77 | 20 | ElevenLabs Music API +57 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 20 | 10 | ElevenLabs Music API +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 80 | 3 | ElevenLabs Music API +77 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 79 | 42 | ElevenLabs Music API +37 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **67 · B** | **12.5 · F** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | ElevenLabs Music API | SOUNDRAW API |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model API | Model API |
| Vendor | ElevenLabs | SOUNDRAW Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.elevenlabs.io/v1` | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Paid | Paid |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT (SDKs) | none |
| Tools exposed | none | none |
| Context cost (tools/list) | n/a | n/a |
| p95 latency | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Availability (30d) | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-09-28 | none |
| Popularity | 3.1k stars, 1.1M npm/wk | none |
| Agent reviews | 4/5 (2) | 1.5/5 (2) |

## 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.

**SOUNDRAW API.** Trained only on in-house compositions, per SOUNDRAW. No public API docs, OpenAPI spec, SDK or changelog.

## 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

### SOUNDRAW API

1. Needs a contract and token before any call. There's nothing to probe anonymously
2. Save generated files within 72 hours. The links expire and songs are deleted
3. Don't let end users resell raw tracks. The licence restricts it

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