Suno Prompting Cheat Sheet

Two fields, not one — and putting the wrong thing in the wrong box is why half your prompt gets ignored.

TL;DR — THE SHORT VERSION

Two separate fields. Style carries the sound; lyrics carry the words.
The style box wants comma-separated descriptors, not sentences.
Metatags go in the lyrics field — [Verse], [Chorus], [Bridge].
Reported limits: ~1,000 characters style and ~5,000 lyrics on v4.5+; ~200 and ~3,000 on v3.5/v4.
Practical ceiling is lower — past roughly 3,000 characters of lyrics, songs rush or truncate.
Sourcing is weaker here — Suno publishes no consolidated prompting reference.

SECONDARY SOURCING

This vendor publishes no consolidated prompting guide. Built from platform documentation and community testing — weaker than the vendor-documented sheets.

The formula

Style field (comma-separated descriptors) + Lyrics field (words + structural metatags)

Template:

STYLE: [genre], [mood], [instrumentation], [vocal type], [BPM or tempo feel]
LYRICS: [Verse] … [Chorus] … [Bridge] …

Worked example:

STYLE: cinematic electronic, melancholic, 90 BPM, Rhodes piano, female vocal, no drums
LYRICS: [Verse] … [Chorus] … [Bridge] …

Breakdown — what each part does

Style field

Genre, mood, instrumentation, vocals, tempo. Comma-separated descriptors — a paragraph here works against you.

Lyrics field

The actual words, plus structural metatags telling the model what section comes next.

Metatags

[Verse], [Chorus], [Bridge], [Outro] and similar, inside the lyrics field only.

Tag count

Reported sweet spot is 5–8 style descriptors. Under 4 is vague; over 10 starts conflicting.

Does it take a negative prompt?

No negative field.NO

Exclusions go in the style box as positive descriptors where possible — "no drums" works as a style term, but "instrumental, sparse arrangement" steers more reliably. As with the tag count, restraint beats volume: conflicting descriptors are the main cause of output that ignores half the prompt.

What not to do

Do not put genre or production notes in the lyrics field.✕

Do not put lyrics in the style field.✕

Do not write the style box as a sentence — use comma-separated descriptors.✕

Do not fill the 5,000-character lyrics box. Past ~3,000 the song starts rushing.✕

Do not stack more than about ten style descriptors — they begin to conflict.✕

SOURCING NOTE

Suno publishes no consolidated prompting reference, so the figures here come from third-party guides and API documentation from Aug 2026, which disagree at the margins. The two-field structure and metatag usage are uncontroversial; treat the character numbers as approximate and verify in the app.

The checklist

Before you send it:

1 — Style and lyrics in the correct boxes?□

2 — Style written as comma-separated descriptors?□

3 — 5–8 style descriptors, not twenty?□

4 — Structural metatags present in the lyrics?□

5 — Lyrics under about 3,000 characters?□

SOURCE

Third-party Suno guides and API documentation, Aug 2026. Secondary sourcing — Suno publishes no consolidated prompting reference.

Model versions and vendor documentation both move. Re-read the source before relying on a specific number. Errors are logged at corrections.

Every other sheet in this set: all model cheat sheets.