Which free plans refill: Synthesia, ElevenLabs, Suno, Runway, Descript

Three of these free plans refill on a schedule and two are one-time. Synthesia Basic lists 500 credits a month, ElevenLabs Free 10,000 credits a month and Suno Free 50 credits per day. Runway Free gives 125 one-time credits and Descript Free gives 100 AI credits that its page marks as one-time, though it also lists 60 media minutes a month. Check the Sume row below: the docs I read describe a paid USD balance and manual top-ups, and no free allowance.

A refilling free plan is a recurring budget; a one-time free plan is a trial. They suit different needs, so do not compare them on the headline number.

What the numbers buy

In music terms, ElevenLabs Free is about 11 minutes a month at the page's 900 credits per minute. In video terms, Runway's 125 credits is two Gen-4.5 clips at 60 credits per 5 seconds, because 125 / 60 = 2.08. A one-time pool is gone after those clips; a monthly pool will return next month.

Synthesia Basic's 500 credits and 10 minutes of video do not tie out the way the paid tiers do, so read its page for what the credits count against. I only report the two figures it lists.

Using a free plan well

Treat a refilling plan as the place for drafts and a metered tool as the place for finals. A quick checklist keeps you honest about which is which.

Pairing a refilling plan with a metered balance is a common pattern. Use the refilling pool for ideas you may throw away, and use the balance for the part where the output goes to a client. In practice that means the ElevenLabs Free pool for rough music, Synthesia Basic for a first look at a script, and a Sume job for the clip that has to be assembled and delivered. Keep a note of which pool each asset came from, because the license lines differ: ElevenLabs Free and Suno Free exclude commercial use, and Descript Free exports with a watermark.

• Check the commercial-use line before shipping anything from a free tier.
• Check the watermark line: Descript Free exports 720p with a watermark.
• Log what you generated where, because a one-time pool cannot be topped up by waiting.
• Move final-quality work to a paid tool the day you need rights, resolution or API access.

Where Sume sits

Sume has the other shape: you add a balance in the dashboard through a Stripe checkout and each job reserves its estimated cost, so the first generation is the first charge. Cheap non-AI jobs are the closest to a free trial: Audio detach is $0.01, Video trim is $0.02 and a caption job is $0.20.

If the point is to test whether an API fits your pipeline, those three jobs plus one timeline render are under $0.50 in total at documented prices: $0.01 + $0.02 + $0.20 + $0.10 = $0.33.