Suno Prompt for BPM: How to Set Tempo Correctly (2026)

How do you write a Suno prompt for a specific BPM?

Updated 2026-09-22

Put the tempo as a plain number followed by "BPM" right after the genre name, near the start of the prompt, for example "boom bap hip-hop, 90 BPM, dusty drums, warm upright bass, laid-back male rap vocal, vinyl crackle, moody mix".

Suno and Udio treat this as a strong hint, not a lock, so the actual tempo can drift by a few beats per minute either way, and can sometimes double or halve if the beat is sparse or very slow.

The prompt

boom bap hip-hop, 90 BPM, dusty drums, warm upright bass, laid-back male rap vocal, vinyl crackle, moody mix

More promptsCopy and paste

Boom bap at 90 BPM

boom bap hip-hop, 90 BPM, dusty drums, warm upright bass, laid-back male rap vocal, vinyl crackle, moody mix

Use it when: use for a classic head-nod hip-hop tempo with a rap vocal

Trap at 140 BPM

trap, 140 BPM, sub bass, fast hi-hats, sparse dark synth, aggressive male rap vocal, tight low end

Use it when: use when you want the faster half-time trap feel rather than boom bap

House at 124 BPM

house, 124 BPM, four-on-the-floor kick, rolling bassline, bright piano stabs, breathy female vocal, wide reverb

Use it when: use for dance tracks where a steady club tempo matters more than melody

Downtempo at 70 BPM

downtempo, 70 BPM, soft kick, deep sub bass, mellow electric piano, whisper female vocal, warm analog mix

Use it when: use when the model keeps rushing a slow ballad and you want it anchored lower

Drum and bass at 174 BPM

drum and bass, 174 BPM, fast breakbeat, deep sub bass, dark pad, distant female vocal, tight percussion

Use it when: use for genres with an unusually fast standard tempo that models sometimes round down

Instrumental with no drift

lo-fi hip-hop instrumental, 85 BPM, dusty drums, warm bass, mellow piano, vinyl crackle, no vocals

Use it when: use for a beat you want to loop or layer, where an exact, locked tempo matters more than lyrics

Leave out

quality words like "masterpiece" or "best"
percentages or dB numbers
more than one tempo instruction
artist names as a tempo reference
double BPM mentions in both style and lyrics box

Where exactly do you put the BPM in a Suno prompt?

Put it in the style or prompt box, not the lyrics box, right after the genre name so it reads as part of the core description: "synthwave, 100 BPM, driving arpeggio, punchy drums". Putting the number at the very end of a long prompt makes it less likely to be picked up, since later words carry less weight the longer the prompt gets.

Why does the tempo still drift?

Suno and Udio generate audio from a description, they do not run a metronome first and then compose to it, so the number is a strong suggestion rather than a hard setting. In practice this means a 90 BPM request can render at 87 or 94, and very slow or very sparse prompts sometimes render at double or half the number you asked for because the model reads the groove differently than the number.

Genres with a very distinctive pulse, like drum and bass at 174 BPM or house at 124 BPM, tend to hold tempo better than ambient or ballad styles where the beat is soft or absent.

What is double-time and half-time, and how does it cause drift?

Double-time means the drums or hi-hats subdivide twice as fast as the main pulse feels, and half-time means the snare or clap lands on beat 3 instead of beats 2 and 4, making a fast tempo feel slow. Trap at 140 BPM is a common example: it is often felt and described as 70 BPM half-time, so if you write 140 you may get fast hats over a slow-feeling groove, and if you write 70 you may get an unexpectedly sluggish track.

For trap, hip-hop with a half-time feel, or ballads with double-time hats, name the feel as well as the number, e.g. "140 BPM, half-time feel".
If the render comes back at the wrong speed, try stating the genre's most common tempo instead of an unusual one, since the model leans on genre defaults when the number and the genre don't usually go together.

Is there a way to actually lock the tempo instead of just suggesting it?

Lyro Music's beat and instrumental generation runs on ACE-Step 1.5, with a tempo lock: the BPM goes to the model as a separate setting rather than as a word in the prompt, so it holds far better. This matters for anything that needs to sync to a click, a video cut or another track. Sung lyrics in Lyro, including Turkish lyrics, route to a different model (Lyria 3 Pro) built for vocal performance rather than fixed timing, so an instrumental beat is the better choice when exact BPM is the priority.

For a full example, hip-hop instrumentals commonly sit at 80 to 100 BPM, most often 85 to 95, which is a safer range to lock to than an unusually specific number like 91 or 93.

Common mistakes

Writing the BPM at the very end of a long prompt: move it right after the genre name near the start.
Naming a tempo that fights the genre's usual feel, like "ballad, 174 BPM": use the genre's typical range or state the feel explicitly.
Assuming the number is exact: treat it as a target and expect a few BPM of drift either way.
Repeating the BPM in both the style box and the lyrics box: this doesn't reinforce it and can confuse section structure.
Needing a genre with a half-time or double-time feel but only giving the number: add "half-time feel" or "double-time hats" so the groove matches the tempo you meant.

Questions

Does writing BPM twice in the prompt make it more likely to work?

No, repeating the number doesn't add weight and can clutter the prompt. Write it once, clearly, right after the genre, and let the rest of the prompt describe drums, bass, voice and mood.

What BPM should I use if I don't know the right tempo for a genre?

Use a well-known reference range: house sits around 120 to 128 BPM, hip-hop boom bap around 85 to 95, trap around 130 to 150 (often felt as half-time), drum and bass around 170 to 176, and ballads around 60 to 80. Starting inside the normal range for the genre gives the model less reason to override it.

Can I ask for a tempo change partway through the song?

You can try section tags like [Verse] and [Chorus] with different BPM mentions, but tempo changes mid-song are unreliable in Suno and Udio since the model tends to hold one steady pulse throughout. Treat a mid-song tempo shift as a request the model may or may not follow rather than a guarantee.

Why did my prompt come out at exactly half the BPM I asked for?

This usually happens with half-time genres like trap, where the drum pattern naturally implies half the numeric tempo. Add "half-time feel" alongside the number, or try stating the tempo the groove actually feels like rather than the technical doubled number.

Does the key or scale affect how well BPM is followed?

No, key and tempo are handled separately by the model; naming a key like G minor or D minor affects harmony, not timing. Keep tempo and key as separate, clear pieces of the prompt rather than combining them into one instruction.

Should I use words like "fast" or "slow" instead of a BPM number?

Use both if you can: a number gives a target, and a word like "driving" or "laid-back" tells the model what the tempo should feel like. On their own, words like "fast" are vague and can land anywhere from 110 to 175 BPM depending on genre.

Is there a way to check what BPM a generated track actually came out at?

Suno and Udio don't display the rendered BPM in the interface, so you'd need an external tool that detects tempo from the audio file to confirm it. If exact tempo matters for syncing to video or other tracks, a tempo-locked tool is more reliable than checking after the fact.