# Sound effects and music with ElevenLabs

agh can make sound effects and music for audio requests with your ElevenLabs account: a door creak, a footstep, a loop of rain, or a minute of tavern music. You describe it, check the estimated cost, and the file is delivered for review like any other. If it isn't right, **Try again** makes another version to pick from. Sound effects and music come with the **Studio** and **Enterprise** plans. ElevenLabs bills the credits to your own account.

## Connect ElevenLabs

Sound effects and music use the same ElevenLabs account as [narration](/docs/narration). In ElevenLabs, open **Developers > API Keys** and make sure the key allows **Sound Effects** and **Music**, as well as what narration needs. Then paste it in agh under **Settings › Connectors › ElevenLabs audio**.

The project's **monthly cap** counts credits for narration, sound effects and music together. The card shows what agh spent this month on each.

## Ask for a sound effect or music

An audio request is a sound effect or music when its path ends in `.mp3`, `.ogg` or `.opus` and its spec describes it. A path ending in `.ogg` or `.opus` gets an Ogg Opus file; `.mp3` gets an MP3.

| Spec | What it does |
| --- | --- |
| `sfx` | Describes a sound effect, such as `Old wooden tavern door creaking open slowly, iron hinges, small room`. |
| `music` | Describes music, such as `Cosy medieval tavern, lute and fiddle, warm and lively, no vocals`. |
| `duration` | How long: `auto` (sound effects only), seconds such as `3` or `2.5s`, or minutes such as `1:30`. A sound effect is 0.5 to 30 seconds, and music is 10 seconds to 5 minutes. Music without a duration is a minute long. |
| `loop` | `on` makes a sound effect that loops seamlessly, for ambience. |
| `prompt_influence` | 0 to 1, for sound effects: higher follows the words more closely, and lower is more varied. 0.3 when left out. |

Give a request `sfx` or `music`, not both, and not `script` or `line`, which are for narration.

A coding agent can ask for sound effects and music like any other asset, but only a person can spend the credits.

## Make it

Open requests with an `sfx` spec have **Make sound effect with ElevenLabs…**, and those with `music` have **Compose music with ElevenLabs…**, for admins and developers. The dialog starts from the spec: you can change the description, the length (or **Auto** for a sound effect), the loop switch and prompt influence. It shows the file it delivers, about how many credits it costs, and what your account and the project's cap have left. Nothing is spent until you choose **Make** or **Compose**.

A sound effect takes a few seconds, and the file is delivered for review with provenance `ai`, made by ElevenLabs, with the settings used. Music can take a few minutes, so ElevenLabs composes it in the background: the request says it's composing, and the music is delivered for review when it's done. You can leave the page meanwhile. If it fails, the request says why and you can try again.

## Try again

In review, the sound effect or music lists its versions, each with a play button, its settings, its length and what it cost. **Try again** opens the dialog with the picked version's settings, so you can change the description or the length, and adds another version to the same delivery. Pick the one you want and accept it. The others aren't published.

## What it costs

ElevenLabs sets the rates for sound effects and music and may change them, so the dialog shows an estimate: about 40 credits a second for a sound effect of a set length, about 200 for **Auto**, and about 1,000 a minute for music. After each version agh records what it actually cost, from ElevenLabs or from your account's credits before and after, and that is what counts toward the cap. Review shows each version's cost, and says "about" where agh could only estimate it.

## Plans

Sound effects and music keep your key and call ElevenLabs from agh's servers, so they're part of the Studio and Enterprise plans. On other plans, the open request and **Settings › Connectors** show what they do and link here. To upgrade, [ask us](/support).