Which AI to use to make games: the options compared

What types of AI go into a game?

Four types: the one that writes the code, the one that draws, the one that makes the sound and the one that tries to build the whole game by itself, on a website. Each one handles a part of the work that used to take a different person on the team.

The confusion starts because they are all called "AI." Anyone who searches for "which AI to use to make games" finds a mix of chat programs, image generators, music generators and websites that promise a finished game from a single sentence. They don't compete with each other. One game can use one of each.

The order of the table is the order of importance, in our reading. Without the coding AI, there is no game. Without the image AI, the game can still exist with simple shapes, the way many famous games started (see famous games that started small). Sound can come later.

This page compares the options by the same yardstick: the price of the entry plan, what each one does, the limit and who it suits. Prices were read on the official pages on October 14, 2026, and they change often.

Which AI writes the game's code?

Four examples are Claude Code, from Anthropic, Codex, from OpenAI, Cursor and GitHub Copilot. All four have a mode where the AI works inside the project, not just in a chat window¹³⁴⁵. In the industry, this kind of AI is called an agent.

Claude Code's own documentation describes the tool like this: it reads the project, edits files, runs commands and works in the terminal, in code editors, in a desktop app and in the browser¹. You describe what you want in plain language, and it plans, writes the code across several files and checks that it works¹.

What changes among the four is where they run, how much they cost and how they measure usage.

All prices are in US dollars, before tax, and come from the official pages as of October 2026. Anthropic and Cursor note on their own pages that the price does not include tax²⁴.

How do you read this table without being misled?

Compare the limit, not just the price. The four companies measure usage in different ways: Claude by five-hour windows and by week, Codex by estimated messages, Cursor by weekly quota and Copilot by credits, where each credit is worth one US cent²³⁴⁵. That is why you can't tell, from the page alone, which $20 plan gives you more hours of work on a game.

One Cursor detail deserves attention: the cheapest plan, at $8, only uses Grok models, and Premium charges for other models separately, at each model's list price⁴. If you pick Cursor with a specific model in mind, check this first.

On Claude, the free plan works for chatting but does not unlock Claude Code: it only comes with paid plans, starting with Pro².

What is the difference between the free and paid plans?

The free plan is for trying things out; the paid plan is for working on a project for weeks. That is the general rule for all four coding AIs, and it applies to art and sound too.

Among the coding AIs, the most generous free plan by published numbers is GitHub Copilot's: 2,000 suggestions and 50 chat requests a month, with agent mode included⁵. Fifty requests are enough to get to know the tool, and they run out before a small game is finished (our take).

Codex even shows up in ChatGPT's free plan, which the page describes as a way to explore Codex on quick tasks³. The page does not publish the limit for the free plan or for Go³.

On paid plans, the jump is in quantity. Claude's Max plan starts at $100 a month and offers five or twenty times the usage of Pro². ChatGPT Pro starts at $100, and the page says it does not have the five-hour limit³. Cursor goes up to $200 a month⁴.

In practice, the limit works like your phone battery. When it runs out, you wait for the next window or the next week to keep going. The game isn't lost; it just takes longer.

Which AI makes the game's art?

For a game's drawings, which in the industry are called sprites, there are AIs built for the job, and the two we looked at here have different focuses: PixelLab specializes in pixel art, Scenario in keeping the same art style across a whole project.

PixelLab describes itself as a tool for creating pixel art for games⁶. The page lists character animation from text or from a skeleton, sheets with every pose of the character walking, running and attacking (sprite sheets), the same character seen from four or eight directions, backgrounds and buttons⁶. The free trial does not ask for a card⁶. On commercial use, the FAQ says it is allowed and only asks that you don't use the images to train other AI models⁷.

Scenario has a Starter plan at $15 a month, with 1,500 credits⁸. The page says all paid plans come with a full commercial license and that what comes out of the free plan is for personal use and evaluation only⁸. The same page mentions 50 free credits per day in one place and 50 credits in total in another, so it is worth checking when you create your account⁸.

What about ChatGPT? It also generates images, but OpenAI's page says image generation is not part of the free plan³. For a one-off image, like the game's icon, that may be enough. For dozens of drawings with the same character, tools built for games tend to mean less rework (our take).

If you have never drawn, that doesn't stop you from starting. See do I need to know how to draw to make a game.

Which AI makes the sound and music?

For sound effects and voices, one example is ElevenLabs; for music with or without lyrics, Suno. Both have free plans, and on both, commercial use comes with the paid plans.

ElevenLabs has a free plan with 10,000 credits a month and a Starter plan that, according to the FAQ on its own page, costs $6 a month, with 30,000 credits⁹. In October 2026 there was a $1 first-month promotion, valid until October 18⁹. The commercial license appears in the Starter list, not in the free one⁹.

Suno has a free plan with 50 credits a day, no monthly music downloads and, in the page's words, no commercial rights¹⁰. Pro costs $8 a month, with 2,500 credits and 20 music downloads a month, and includes commercial use rights¹⁰. Credits don't roll over from one month to the next¹⁰.

A small game doesn't need both right away. You can start with free sounds and only subscribe when the game is close to going to the store (our take).

What about websites that build the whole game?

They exist and do something impressive: you describe the game and play it right after, in the browser. The problem shows up later, when you want to take the game to a store.

Rosebud has a free plan with 8,000 credits a week and paid plans from $15 to $100 a month¹¹. According to its FAQ, full commercial rights start on the $30 plan, and downloading the project's code and building a Windows version that can go to Steam only start on the $50 plan¹¹.

Playground, launched by Google on October 7, 2026, creates games through conversation, but only for people over 18 in the United States¹². The announcement talks about keeping the game private, sharing it by link or publishing it in the platform's gallery, and says nothing about exporting or selling¹².

These websites have a page of their own: websites that make a game from one sentence.

Which should you choose, based on what you want?

It depends on three things: how much you want to spend each month, whether the game is going to a store and whether you prefer to chat or to see the files on a screen. The table below is our take, based on the official pages, and not the result of a test with the same task on all four AIs.

The program where the game is put together, which in the industry is called a game engine, is a separate choice, and there is a free option. Godot, for example, is free and open source, and the game made with it belongs to whoever made it¹⁵. To see everything that goes into the budget, read how much it costs to make a game with AI.

What do we use on the portal's games?

On the six games we made with AI, which the portal covers behind the scenes, the AI that wrote the code was Claude Code, and not a single line was written by hand. The program where the games are put together is free. None of the six has been published yet.

That is experience, not a rule. Daniel, who writes here, uses Claude's highest plan, because he makes several large games at the same time. The entry plan works for getting started, at a different pace: when the limit runs out, you wait for the next window. Someone else, with a different game and a different budget, may do better with Codex, Cursor or Copilot.

The other side

None of these AIs makes the game by itself. In a 2026 academic benchmark with 333 game-making tasks, the best AI solved 53.8% of them on its own¹³. Prices and limits change almost every month, and each company measures usage its own way, so the comparison on this page holds for October 2026. Art and music made by AI also have rules: commercial use usually requires a paid plan, and Steam, the biggest store for PC games, asks you to disclose in its content survey what was generated by AI¹⁴. Choosing the right tool helps, but it doesn't replace deciding what the game is and testing it.

What should you check before subscribing?

Three things, in this order: the plan's limit, what the plan lets you do with the result and how much the bill really comes to in your own currency.

• The limit. Read on the official page how usage is measured (hours, messages, credits) and what happens when it runs out.
• Commercial use. For art and sound, check whether the plan you choose lets you sell the game. In the cases on this page, the free plan either doesn't allow it or doesn't say it does⁸⁹¹⁰.
• Tax. Dollar prices don't include tax, and a card billed in another currency, such as Brazilian reais, ends up above the price on the page²⁴.

And start with the part that matters most: the game idea in three sentences. The right tool depends on which game you want to make.

Your action plan

Check off what you've done. It's saved on this device, so you can pick up where you left off.

1. Write in three sentences the game you want to make: what the player does, how they win and why they would play again.
2. Decide whether the game is for testing an idea or for putting in a store.
3. Pick a coding AI and read the entry plan's limit on the official page.
4. Try that AI on the free plan, if there is one, before paying.
5. Note which parts of the game will need their own art and sound.
6. Check, on the image and sound AIs, whether the plan you will use allows commercial use.
7. Read how much it costs to put the game in a store before subscribing to anything.