"Free" and "free to use in a game you sell" are not the same thing. Many AI tools give away a free tier but keep commercial rights for paying customers. If you put those assets in a game on Steam or itch.io, you could be breaking the license the moment someone buys a copy.
Below is what each tool's free tier actually allows, checked against the maker's own pricing or terms page. Prices and terms change often, so follow the source link before you rely on any line here. This is a plain-English summary, not legal advice.
The quick answer
| Tool | What it's for | Free tier in a commercial game? | Catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Meshy | 3D models from text or images | Yes, with credit | Free assets are CC BY 4.0, so you must credit Meshy |
| Tripo | 3D models from text or images | No | Free models are public and non-commercial |
| Scenario | Art in your game's own style | No | Free outputs are for personal and evaluation use only |
| ElevenLabs | Voice lines, sound effects, music | No | Commercial license starts on the paid Starter plan |
| Suno | Music and soundtrack drafts | No | Free songs have no commercial rights |
| Cascadeur | Character animation | No | Free is non-commercial and only exports its own file format |
| OpusClip | Clips for marketing your game | Watermarked | Free clips carry a watermark and expire after 3 days |
3D models and art
Meshy: the one free tier you can ship with
Meshy's free plan gives 100 credits a month, and its free-plan assets are licensed under CC BY 4.0, which allows commercial use as long as you give credit. Meshy's own FAQ says free users may sell what they make but should credit Meshy. Paid plans (from $20 a month) make the assets private and fully yours, with no credit needed. A credits screen line such as "3D assets created with Meshy" covers the attribution. Source: Meshy pricing
Tripo: pay before you ship
Tripo's free plan (200 credits) marks models as public and non-commercial. Commercial use and private models start on the Pro plan. Source: Tripo pricing
Scenario: paid plans only for shipped games
Scenario is built for keeping AI art consistent with your game's style, and custom model training needs the Pro plan. Its FAQ says all paid plans include a full commercial license, while free outputs are for personal and evaluation use only. Source: Scenario pricing
Voice, sound effects and music
ElevenLabs
The free plan includes text to speech, sound effects and music, but the commercial license is listed as a Starter plan feature, not a free one. Budget for at least one paid month before you record final voice lines for a commercial release. Source: ElevenLabs pricing
Suno
Suno's free plan states "no commercial rights" and doesn't allow monthly song downloads. Paid plans add commercial use rights, but Suno's pricing page also points to further limits in its terms of service, so read those before you ship a track. Source: Suno pricing
Animation
Cascadeur
Cascadeur's free version is non-commercial and only exports its own .casc format, so you can't get animations into Unreal without paying. The Indie plan ($8 a month billed yearly) allows commercial use if your revenue or funding is under $100,000 a year, and Pro removes that cap. Cascadeur also asks you to mention it in your credits. Yearly Indie and Pro plans turn into a perpetual license after the first year. Source: Cascadeur plans
Marketing your game
OpusClip
OpusClip can cut devlogs and gameplay into vertical shorts. On the free plan, clips are watermarked and exports expire after three days. The watermark is about branding rather than legal rights, but it's worth knowing before you post a trailer clip. Source: OpusClip pricing
Don't forget Steam's disclosure
If AI-generated art, sound, voice or text ships in your game, Steam's content survey asks you to disclose it. AI coding assistants and other development tools don't need to be disclosed; Valve's focus is content that players see or hear. If your game generates AI content while it runs, such as an NPC that improvises dialogue, you also have to describe your guardrails. Read our Steam AI disclosure summary or Valve's documentation.
One more thing: copyright on AI output
A commercial license means the tool maker won't object to you selling the output. It doesn't automatically mean you own a copyright in it. In its January 2025 report on copyrightability, the U.S. Copyright Office concluded that prompts alone aren't enough to make an AI output protectable, but that human expression can be: for example, your own work that's visible in the output, or creative arrangements and modifications you make to it. Using AI as part of a larger human-made work doesn't rule out protection. If guarding your assets from copycats matters to you, keep your own creative work in the loop. Source: U.S. Copyright Office, Part 2 report
Before you ship: a checklist
- List every AI tool that produced something players will see or hear.
- Check the plan you were on when you generated each asset, against that tool's current terms.
- Add required credits (Meshy free tier, Cascadeur) to your credits screen.
- Fill in Steam's AI disclosure for pre-generated and any live-generated content.
- Keep receipts or screenshots of your plan and the terms, in case questions come up later.
Spotted a change in one of these tools' terms? Email hello@indiebots.ai and we'll recheck it.
Originally published on IndieBots, a free directory of AI tools for indie game developers, checked against each maker's own site. Prices and terms change often: see the latest version.
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