Suno has no single prompting manual, but its help centre, release notes and hub guide cover the essentials. This sheet is built from those, for v6.
- v6 is the only current model. Suno: “All models prior to v6 have been retired, but your songs will still be in your library and remain unchanged.”
- Three variants: v6, v6-wild (“less predictable and more varied”) and v6-mini (“available to everyone”).
- Be specific. Suno: “To write a prompt, be specific: mention genre, mood, keywords, and instrumentation.”
- Structure tags steer the song: “Suno works best when you guide it with structure tags such as [Verse], [Chorus], and [Bridge].”
- Exclude is Suno's negative field — Custom Mode, then Advanced Options.
- Watch the Variety slider. It changes your style prompt; set it to 0 to keep your tags exactly.
- Downloads are capped since 3 Sep 2026: 7 lifetime trial downloads on Free, 20 a month on Pro, 60 a month on Premier.
The vendor documents part of this and not the rest. Quoted lines are the vendor's; anything unquoted is labelled as practice.
The formula
Suno, How to make a song, read at source 16 Sep 2026. Suno's own style example is written in sentences: “Style: Contemporary R&B song at 92 BPM in F minor.”
Template:
STYLE: [genre] at [BPM] in [key]. [vocals]. [instrumentation]. [production notes].
LYRICS: [Verse] … [Chorus] … [Bridge] …
EXCLUDE: [instruments or styles you do not want]
Worked example:
STYLE: Cinematic electronic at 90 BPM in D minor. Soft female vocal. Rhodes piano, sub bass, sparse percussion. Wide reverb.
LYRICS: [Verse] … [Chorus] … [Bridge] …
EXCLUDE: drums, electric guitar
Breakdown — what each part does
Style
Genre, mood, instruments, vocals, tempo and key. Suno's example writes this as short sentences.
Lyrics
The words, with structure tags marking each section.
Structure tags
[Verse], [Chorus], [Bridge] — inside the lyrics.
Exclude
What you do not want. Suno: “Enter any information (instruments, etc) that you do not want in your track”
Variety slider
Suno: “The Variety slider is designed to introduce variety in your outputs by adjusting and updating your style prompts.”
Does it take a negative prompt?
Suno Help, How do I exclude elements of a song? (edited 19 Dec 2025), read at source 16 Sep 2026: “Start making your Custom Mode song as you normally would”; “Click on Advanced Options to open a menu that starts with Exclude”.
Use it for the specific things you keep getting and do not want. Positive direction still does the steering — "sparse arrangement" moves a song further than a long Exclude list.
Style says what it sounds like, tags say where the song goes, Exclude says what stays out. Keep each in its own box.
What not to do
An earlier version of this sheet said the style box wants comma-separated descriptors, not sentences; Suno's own example is written in sentences. It also gave character limits for v4.5 to v5.5 and a 3,000-character point where songs "rush", both from third-party sites. Those models are retired and the Suno pages read for this sheet give no limits for v6, so the numbers were removed. The "5–8 style descriptors" sweet spot had no source and was removed too. What v6 does document: generations of up to eight minutes.Suno Help, What's new in v6, edited 9 Sep 2026, read at source 16 Sep 2026: “All three variants support up to 8 minutes per generation.”
Making songs is not capped by this; taking them out is. Suno’s limits: “Free: Up to 7 (lifetime) trial downloads”, “Pro: 20 downloads per month”, “Premier: 60 downloads per month”. Trial downloads do not reset, and “Trial downloads are for personal use only: commercial rights apply to songs downloaded on paid plans.” The limits cover songs made before 3 Sep too. The 7 apply to free users who joined before that date; later free users “may occasionally receive trial downloads”. Premier subscribers using Suno Studio have no download limit, and extra downloads can be bought.Suno, An update to our downloads policy and Terms of Service, 10 Aug 2026, read at source 22 Sep 2026: “On September 3, we will introduce the following download limits based on your tier”.
Free or paid? What the free plan allows, who owns the output, and when you need to pay: free vs paid AI image, video and music tools.
Where this model sits among the others: which models take a negative prompt, and what each vendor publishes as its formula.
Voice and music prompting more generally is on prompting music and voice.
The checklist
Before you send it:
Suno, Introducing v6 · Suno Help, v6 FAQ · Suno Help, What's new in v6 · Suno Help, How do I exclude elements of a song? · Suno, How to make a song All read at source on 16 Sep 2026. Added 22 Sep 2026: Suno, An update to our downloads policy and Terms of Service.
Model versions and vendor documentation both move. Re-read the source before relying on a specific number.
Every other sheet in this set: all model cheat sheets.