Stable Audio Open 1.0
Stability AI · Audio & music · 1B · Released 19 July 2024
Stable Audio Open generates variable-length audio, up to 47 seconds, in stereo at 44.1kHz, from a text prompt. It was trained on openly-licensed audio (Freesound and the Free Music Archive), and the model card notes it is strongest at sound effects and field recordings rather than realistic singing, and works best with English prompts. At around a billion parameters it is consumer-GPU friendly, though no official VRAM figure is given. The licence is Stability's Community License: free for research and for commercial use by organisations under US$1 million in annual revenue, with an enterprise licence required above that.
Strengths
- Generates up to 47 seconds of stereo 44.1kHz audio
- Trained on openly-licensed audio, and strong at sound effects
- Around 1B parameters, so consumer-GPU friendly
Weaknesses
- Weaker at realistic vocals than at effects and textures
- Best with English prompts
- The Community License adds a revenue-threshold condition for larger organisations
Hardware requirements
| Quantisation | Approx. VRAM | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Native (1B) | ~6GB | Approximate; no official figure. Around a billion parameters, so consumer-GPU friendly |
What you'd need to run this
Roughly what a machine to run this would need, at up to three levels of quality. Memory is the deciding factor.
Minimum to run it
Native (1B) · ~6GB needed
One 12GB GPU
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GBor a Mac or mini-PC with unified memory, if you prefer no discrete GPU, Mac mini M5 Pro .
At least 32GB of system RAM alongside the card.
around £700–£1,100
What else 12GB runs →Licence
Stability AI Community License
Stable Audio Open 1.0: common questions
- What hardware do I need to run Stable Audio Open 1.0?
- At its most compressed (Native (1B)) it needs roughly 6GB of VRAM, and about 6GB for good quality. VRAM figures are approximate and depend on context length and settings.
- Is Stable Audio Open 1.0 free for commercial use?
- Commercial use is permitted, but with conditions. Free for research and for commercial use by individuals and organisations with under US$1 million in annual revenue; above that threshold an enterprise licence from Stability AI is required. Read the licence before relying on it at scale.
- Can I run Stable Audio Open 1.0 on Apple Silicon?
- It can run on Apple Silicon through general runtimes, but it is not specifically optimised for it.
Availability
Recommended for
- Local sound-effect and audio-texture generation
- Adding generated audio to a project without cloud services
- Smaller organisations under the revenue threshold
Related models
Related guides
Glossary
Catalogue entry last verified 18 August 2026. Specifications change; verify anything you are about to spend money on.