SFX Engine review
A web-based AI sound effect generator for game developers, app developers and video creators, with an API and MCP server, from $10/month.
By Noahlast updated pricing verified
SFX Engine screenshots & video
SFX Engine in 20 seconds
Best for: Generating a consistent set of UI, notification and game sound effects from text prompts, including from a coding agent over MCP.
Pricing: No ongoing free plan (15 trial credits); Starter is $10/month, Creator $25/month and Pro $90/month, or $8, $20 and $72 a month billed yearly.
- SFX Engine plans cost $10/month (500 credits), $25/month (4,000 credits) and $90/month (15,000 credits); yearly billing takes 20% off.
- An SFX Engine sound effect costs 3 credits and can run up to 47 seconds, with up to four takes per prompt.
- SFX Engine's MCP server at api.sfxengine.com/mcp offers 6 tools and signs in with OAuth instead of an API key.
- New SFX Engine accounts get 15 free credits, about 5 sound effects, without a card; downloads require a paid plan.
- Every SFX Engine paid plan includes royalty-free commercial use.
Limitations: Downloads and commercial use require a paid plan from $10/month.; Credits do not roll over between billing periods.; Sounds cannot be resold or redistributed as standalone files.
Top alternatives: ElevenLabs, Notify Sound, Stable Audio, Fish Audio, Zedge — full list
What is SFX Engine?
SFX Engine is an AI sound effect generator aimed at game developers, app developers, video editors and podcasters who need custom sounds without searching stock libraries. A prompt describes the material, distance, mood and length of a sound, such as a warm two-note notification chime of 1 second, and the generator returns up to four variations side by side, each billed as one 3-credit sound. Every plan includes royalty-free commercial use under a non-exclusive license that forbids reselling or redistributing the sounds as standalone files. Beyond the generator, a public library of prompt-made sounds is free to browse and download, organized into categories such as UI and buttons, pixel game, game show, whoosh and sci-fi. For automation, the REST API exposes sound-effect generation to build scripts and backends, and the remote MCP server at api.sfxengine.com/mcp gives coding agents six tools, including generate_sound_effect, generate_music and get_credit_balance, signing in through OAuth on first use.
SFX Engine is a web-based AI sound effect generator: users describe a sound, optionally with a length, and get up to four takes of a royalty-free clip of up to 47 seconds, from footsteps and explosions to UI clicks, notification chimes and retro game effects. Paid plans cost $10/month for 500 credits, $25/month for 4,000 and $90/month for 15,000, or 20% less billed yearly, and a sound effect costs 3 credits, so Starter makes about 166 a month. The same credits pay for background music, DJ transitions, stem splitting and voiceover. SFX Engine also runs a REST API and an MCP server that lets Claude Code, Cursor, ChatGPT, Codex and other agents generate sounds, save the files and wire them into a project. There is no ongoing free plan: new accounts get 15 credits to try, and downloads need a paid plan.
Standout feature: An MCP server and REST API that let Claude Code, Cursor, ChatGPT or Codex generate sound effects, save the files into a project and wire them into code, at 3 credits per sound.
Biggest weakness: There is no ongoing free plan: new accounts get 15 credits (about 5 sounds) to try, but downloads and commercial use need a paid plan from $10/month, unused credits do not roll over, and every take of a prompt is billed as a separate sound.
SFX Engine: pros and cons
Pros
- Every paid plan includes royalty-free commercial use in games, apps, videos, ads and podcasts.
- Sound effects run up to 47 seconds with up to four takes per prompt, at 3 credits each, or about 166 a month on Starter.
- The MCP server signs in with OAuth and works with Claude Code, Claude, Cursor, VS Code, ChatGPT, Codex, Windsurf and Gemini CLI.
- The same credits also cover background music, DJ transitions, stem splitting and voiceover.
- The public sound library can be browsed and downloaded for free.
Cons
- No ongoing free plan; the 15-credit trial allows generating and listening but not downloading.
- Credits reset to the plan amount at each renewal, with no rollover.
- Four takes of one prompt cost 12 credits, so Starter's 500 credits cover about 41 four-take prompts.
- The license is non-exclusive and revocable and bans reselling or redistributing sounds as standalone files, which rules out selling sound packs.
SFX Engine pricing
From $10/mo · verified from the vendor's pricing page
| Plan | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Trial | Free | 15 credits (about 5 sound effects) with no card; generate and listen only, since downloads and commercial use need a paid plan. |
| Starter | $10/mo | 500 credits a month (about 166 sound effects), music and voiceover tools, API access, priority email support; $8/month billed yearly. |
| Creator | $25/mo | 4,000 credits a month (about 1,333 sound effects), full API access, priority support; first month half price, $20/month billed yearly. |
| Pro | $90/mo | 15,000 credits a month (about 5,000 sound effects), full API access and priority feature requests; first month half price, $72/month billed yearly. |
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