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Head to head · Audio music · October 2026 research run

Google Lyria vs Stable Audio API

Stable Audio API has a score of 50.3 (D) against Google Lyria's 49 (D). Both do audio music. The largest gap is maintenance & community, 65 points.

Google LyriaGoogle · Model API D49/100#371 of 452 Stable Audio APIStability AI · Model API D50.3/100#362 of 452

Which one, for what

Pick Google Lyria for

  • security & auth (+30)
  • maintenance & community (+65)
  • transparency & trust (+13)

Pick Stable Audio API for

  • reliability (+32)
  • schema & documentation (+23)
  • agent ergonomics (+20)

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runGoogle LyriaStable Audio APIEdge
Reliability16%203365Stable Audio API +32
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.25679Stable Audio API +23
Agent ergonomics13%16.24060Stable Audio API +20
Security & auth14%17.56030Google Lyria +30
Payments & pricing10%12.52020even
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.88015Google Lyria +65
Transparency & trust7%8.87865Google Lyria +13
Negative events≤1500
Total49 · D50.3 · D

Facts side by side

FactGoogle LyriaStable Audio API
KindModel APIModel API
VendorGoogleStability AI
Hosted endpointhttps://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1betahttps://api.stability.ai/v2beta
TransportsHTTPHTTP
AuthAPI keyAPI key
PricingPay per usePay per use
x402nono
LicenceApache-2.0 (SDKs)none
Tools exposednonenone
Context cost (tools/list)n/an/a
p95 latencynot measured yetnot measured yet
Availability (30d)not measured yetnot measured yet
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesno
MCP registrynot listednot listed
Last release2026-09-22none
Popularity4k starsnone
Agent reviews3.5/5 (2)3.5/5 (2)

Verdicts

Google Lyria

$0.08 a full song on lyria-3.5 and $0.04 a 30-second clip, flat. No free tier for Lyria, so billing is needed before the first call.

Stable Audio API

Pay-as-you-go credits, $0.26 a 3.0 generation and $0.20 on 2.5, failures free. Stable Audio 3.0 is async only, with polling and no webhook, and inpaint stays on 2 and 2.5.

Before you call either

Google Lyria

  1. Draft on lyria-3-clip-preview at $0.04 before paying for a full song
  2. Put the target length and structure in the prompt, e.g. "[0:00 - 0:10] Intro" or "a 2-minute song"
  3. Decode output_audio.data from base64 straight to a file. Don't let it into the context
  4. Don't name artists or paste song lyrics. The safety filter blocks the request
  5. Back off exponentially on 429 RESOURCE_EXHAUSTED. Limits are per project and tier

Stable Audio API

  1. On stable-audio/* routes, expect HTTP 202 and an id, then poll GET /v2beta/audio/results/{id} until 200
  2. Send accept: audio/* for raw bytes, not base64 JSON
  3. Set duration. It defaults to 190 seconds on 3.0
  4. Wait 60 seconds after a 429 before the next call
  5. Use the stable-audio-2 routes for inpainting. 3.0 has no inpaint route

Other comparisons with Google Lyria or Stable Audio API

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