About free radio

With Google Play Music, you can listen to free, curated radio without a subscription. You can start radio stations based on an activity, your mood, or your favorite popular music.

To get started, make sure you're using the latest version of Google Play Music.


Free radio is currently available in the U.S., Canada, and India. You can access free radio on:

Explore free radio

To see the Google Play Music menu options:

  1. Open the Google Play Music web player or the Google Play Music app Play Music.
  2. Touch the Menu icon Google Play Music Menu icon. You'll see the menu options listed below.

Select a menu option for details


Find stations curated by our team of experts and music personalized for you based on what you listen to.

Top Charts

Select an available song to start a radio station with similar music.

New Releases


Browse stations

Find your recent radio stations and new stations based on your favorite genre, activity, mood, or decade.

Skip limits, ads & restrictions

Skip limits

When you're listening to free radio stations, you can skip up to 6 songs per hour.

When you're nearing your skip limit, you'll see a notification with the option to subscribe to Google Play Music. If you choose to subscribe, you'll get unlimited skips and ad-free access to over 30 million songs.


You may see video ads when you start new radio stations and banner ads across the bottom of your screen. These ads can't be closed, but you can let us know if you see an inappropriate ad.

Why are some songs greyed out?

With free radio, there will be some limitations to which songs you can play. For example, if you give a thumbs up rating to music from a free radio station, it will be grayed out in your Thumbs up playlist. You'll need to purchase the song or subscribe to Google Play Music to play this music in your Thumbs up playlist.

Why is my queue blank?

You'll only see uploaded or purchased music in your queue. When you're streaming free radio stations, you'll only see the song currently playing in your queue.

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