Teardowns › Pricing & paywalls › Loss aversion

Suno's free plan is a list of "No…" lines; Pro is "MOST POPULAR", Premier "BEST VALUE"

Suno · Pricing page · Logged-out visitors · suno.com · captured 16 Oct 2026

Honest nudgeLoss aversion Authority Reference price Social proof

Suno Pricing page, captured 16 Oct 2026 — Our capture, 16 Oct 2026, logged out. Numbers match the steps.

Step by step

1
Loss aversion
The free card lists what you lack: "No monthly song downloads", "No commercial rights", "No add-on credit purchases", "No stem separation".
2
Social proof
Pro at "$8 /month" is labelled "MOST POPULAR".
3
Authority
Premier at "$24 /month" is labelled "BEST VALUE", "Saves $72 by billing yearly!"
4
Reference price
Premier: "Saves $72 by billing yearly!"

Prices quoted in dollars ($), exactly as shown on the page we captured. Prices vary by region and change over time.

The psychology

Why it nudges

Describing the free plan by what is missing frames staying free as a loss. Popularity and value badges steer people between the two paid plans. Whether this lifts upgrades for Suno is not public.

● Mixed evidence · More on loss aversion, with sources →

Context

An AI music generator. Prices are in US$ as served to our capture (US egress); UK prices were not shown.

Honest nudge or dark pattern?

Honest nudge

Honest nudge as captured: the limitations are real and stated plainly.

Sources: Captured by Nudgeswipe, 16 Oct 2026 (logged out)

Steal this, honestly

Describe what each plan includes; keep "No…" lines factual.
Explain what "best value" is measured in.

What to test: "No…" list vs plain feature list on the free plan. Measure upgrades and free-plan retention.

Next: run it on your product

Apply this with your agent

Take the steps above into your own flow. The prompt carries this teardown, the honest-vs-dark line and the steps.

You are helping me apply a behavioural-design pattern ethically.

Pattern: Suno: Suno's free plan is a list of "No…" lines; Pro is "MOST POPULAR", Premier "BEST VALUE"
Bias: Loss aversion: Losses tend to loom larger than equivalent gains.
Why it nudges: Describing the free plan by what is missing frames staying free as a loss. Popularity and value badges steer people between the two paid plans. Whether this lifts upgrades for Suno is not public.
Our verdict: Honest nudge. Honest nudge as captured: the limitations are real and stated plainly.
Source page: https://nudgeswipe.com/examples/suno-free-plan-lists-what-you-dont-get/ (JSON: https://nudgeswipe.com/api/teardowns/suno-free-plan-lists-what-you-dont-get.json)

Rules: say a brand "uses" a tactic, never that it "worked"; outcomes are not public unless the company published them; no invented uplift estimates; flag mixed evidence. Honest nudge = true, visible, easy to reverse, and in the user's interest. Dark pattern = hides costs, fakes scarcity or popularity, shames, or makes leaving harder than joining. Quote company-published results as "X reports", with the source link, and don’t generalise them. Don’t cite retracted or failed-to-replicate studies as support (e.g. Ariely & Wertenbroch 2002). Don’t state study figures unless they’re on this page or in a source you can link. If an idea crosses the line, link the matching deceptive.design pattern.

Tasks:
1. Ask me for my product, the flow (URL or screenshots) and the goal.
2. Audit where this pattern already appears, or could, in that flow.
3. Propose 2-3 ethical experiments: hypothesis, variant copy or UI, primary metric, and a guardrail metric (refunds, complaints, cancellations).
4. Flag every dark-pattern risk and say how to stay on the honest side.

Open in ChatGPT Open in Claude Open in Grok Open in Cursor

ChatGPT, Claude, Grok and Cursor open with the prompt filled in (it is also copied, in case the prefill doesn't load). Gemini and Codex don't support prefilled links, so the prompt is copied and the app opens; paste it in.

Sources

Our capture of suno.com, 16 Oct 2026
Kahneman & Tversky (1979), Prospect theory. Critique: Gal & Rucker (2018). doi.org/10.2307/1914185
Captured by Nudgeswipe, 16 Oct 2026 (logged out): suno.com

Related teardowns

blog.duolingo.com

Duolingo Product / retention screenshot, captured 16 Oct 2026

Loss aversionConditional

Duolingo explains its own streak in behavioural terms

Duolingo · Product / retention

slack.com

Slack Pricing screenshot, captured 16 Oct 2026

Reference priceConditional

Slack shows the full price struck through next to the intro price

Slack · Pricing · $ as captured

notion.com

Notion Pricing screenshot, captured 16 Oct 2026

AuthorityConditional

Notion labels one plan "Recommended" and leads with logos

Notion · Pricing · $ as captured

5 new nudges, every Friday

Five real product and marketing moments, the psychology behind each, and one thing to try. Weekly issues start soon. Your email is stored with our email provider (Resend) and used only for this newsletter.