Music recognition API pricing: what to expect and how to choose

Q: Is there a free trial for the AudD API?

Yes. You get 300 recognition requests free on signup, with no credit card required.

Q: How does AudD API pricing work?

Usage-based, not a subscription. File recognition is pay-as-you-go at $5 per 1,000 requests, with volume discounts to about $2 per 1,000 at scale. Stream monitoring is billed per concurrent stream per month: $45 on AudD's database or $25 on your own uploaded catalog.

Q: Do I need a subscription to use AudD?

No. You pay only for what you use.

When you are building an app that identifies songs, choosing a music recognition API involves more than comparing accuracy. Pricing shapes your project’s economics, especially as you move from prototype to production.

Music recognition is not a single flat per-request product. Different recognition tasks have genuinely different costs behind them, and the better providers bill in a way that reflects that. Understanding how the models work before you commit helps you avoid budget surprises and pick a provider that can grow with you.

Why pricing is not a single flat rate

Recognizing a short clip is cheap. Scanning a two-hour DJ set for every track it contains is not — it is many fingerprint comparisons, not one. Monitoring a radio station continuously, 24/7, is different again: the cost is tied to how many live sources you watch at once, not to any single lookup.

A good pricing model maps onto those differences instead of flattening them. At AudD, that maps directly onto the three recognition surfaces:

Standard recognition (a short clip, one best match) bills per request. This is the unit behind a “name that song” button or a single uploaded clip.
Enterprise recognition (long audio or video, chunked into segments, every match returned with timestamps) bills per 12 seconds of audio processed. A long file costs more than a short one because the server fingerprints more of it. This is why you control how much gets scanned with parameters like limit, every, and skip.
Stream monitoring (continuous live audio) bills per concurrent stream. Watching one station around the clock is one unit of capacity, regardless of how many songs play.

Matching the surface to your input is the single biggest cost decision you make. Sending a long file to the standard endpoint will not work; sending a short clip through enterprise works but makes you reason about chunk billing for an answer the standard endpoint would have returned in one request.

AudD pricing at a glance

Plan	Price	What you get
Free trial	$0	300 recognition requests, no credit card
File recognition	$5 per 1,000 requests	Pay-as-you-go; volume discounts to about $2 per 1,000 at scale
Volume (file recognition)	$450 / $800 / $1,800 per month	100,000 / 200,000 / 500,000 requests per month
Stream monitoring	$45 per stream / month	Against AudD’s database — or $25 per stream / month against your own uploaded catalog
Enterprise	Custom	On-premise deployment and unlimited-length file recognition — contact [email protected]

Pricing is usage-based: you pay for the requests and streams you actually use, not a fixed monthly subscription, and the 300-request free trial needs no card. The numbers above are current as of 2026; audd.io carries the live figures.

The cost drivers to understand

Database size and coverage. A larger reference database carries more licensing and infrastructure overhead, but it also means fewer missed matches. AudD recognizes against a catalog of 160 million songs. The question for your project is whether you need that breadth or whether a narrower catalog fits — though for most copyright, attribution, and monitoring use cases, broad coverage is exactly the point.

Recognition mode. Real-time recognition for live streams and radio monitoring is a heavier operation than a one-off file lookup; it ties up capacity continuously. That is why it is billed as concurrent capacity rather than per request.

How much audio you process. For long-form content, the cost scales with the audio you actually fingerprint. Scanning every chunk of a multi-hour file costs more than sampling it. If you only need a yes/no verdict rather than a complete tracklist, sampling (with every and skip) cuts the metered audio substantially.

Metadata depth. The core response carries artist, title, album, and label. Identifiers like ISRC and a match score are available on a Startup plan or higher. Provider links — Apple Music, Spotify, Deezer, MusicBrainz — are returned only when you request them, so you are not paying for enrichment you do not use.

Hidden costs to watch for in any provider

Long recordings. Processing hours of audio adds up faster than developers expect when billing is tied to duration. Estimate around peak inputs, not the average file. With AudD’s enterprise endpoint, always set limit during development so an unbounded call on a multi-hour file cannot silently meter hundreds of chunks.
Re-processing. Re-scanning the same content re-bills. Cache results keyed by content ID so you can re-run policy without re-scanning.
Integration effort. The API itself is straightforward, but storing results, handling retries, and building moderation or reporting logic around it is real work. Official SDKs (AudD ships eleven, covering Python, Node/TS, Go, Rust, PHP, Swift, Kotlin, .NET, Java, C, and C++) shorten that path.

Choosing a model for your stage

Prototypes and MVPs. Validate your concept before spending on volume. AudD provides a public test token that works on the standard endpoint (limited to a small number of requests per day) so you can confirm integration and recognition quality on real audio before committing. Focus on integration speed and match quality with your own test clips.

Growing applications. Once you have usage data, look for a billing model without dramatic cliffs between tiers. Per-request standard recognition and per-12-second enterprise billing both scale gradually with usage, so cost tracks demand rather than jumping at thresholds.

Production and scale. At higher volume, the questions shift to reliability, support, and how cleanly the model handles your real traffic. Look past a single per-call figure: factor in integration complexity, ongoing maintenance, and how much audio your workload actually processes.

A practical decision framework

Map your inputs to surfaces. Short clips, long files, and live streams bill differently — get this right first.
Estimate against peak inputs. Long files and busy months drive cost, not averages.
Calculate total cost over twelve months for your expected usage, not just a per-call rate.
Factor in integration time and the development resources required; an official SDK in your language reduces it.
Test accuracy and speed against your actual audio before committing.

Getting started

The most reliable way to validate both technical fit and cost is to test with your own audio. Start with the test token on the standard endpoint, measure your actual usage patterns, and scale from there.

Get a token at dashboard.audd.io and check the live pricing at audd.io.

Pricing FAQ

Is there a free trial for the AudD API? Yes — 300 recognition requests free on signup, with no credit card required.

How does AudD API pricing work? It is usage-based, not a subscription. File recognition is pay-as-you-go at $5 per 1,000 requests, with volume discounts to about $2 per 1,000 at scale. Stream monitoring is billed per concurrent stream per month: $45 against AudD’s database, or $25 against your own uploaded catalog.

Do I need a subscription to use AudD? No — you pay only for what you use.

How much does enterprise or on-premise recognition cost? Enterprise arrangements (on-premise deployment, unlimited-length file recognition) are custom-priced. Contact [email protected].

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