There's no denying that as of 2025, Avid's venerable DAW program Pro Tools remains the de facto industry standard for professional audio productions. Increasingly, it has also become a popular choice for amateurs and small projects as well. With a wide range of project sizes, types, and channel counts being needed by engineers and producers big and small, it can be hard to determine which version of Pro Tools will best serve your needs.
That's where B&H comes in. In this article we will review the features and functions offered by each of the three primary Pro Tools subscription models: Artist, Studio, and Ultimate. And without further ado, let's begin!
Step#1: Consider Your Requirements
Before we start breaking down each version of ProTools, it's important to first consider what types of projects you are expecting to handle and how many tracks you typically work with. Are you working in music production, audio for video, or voiceover postproduction? Are you principally recording, mixing, mastering, editing, or a combination? Do you work in stereo with only a few tracks or perhaps surround sound with the need to support standards like Dolby Atmos?
Understanding the full breadth of your specific needs (to your best ability) is key to successfully sifting through the various features of each version of Pro Tools to find the version that is ideal for your work. It's also worth noting that every paid version of Pro Tools provides users with top-notch audio resolution, supporting up to 32-bit float / 192 kHz.
Pro Tools Artist
The cheapest and lowest tier version available from Avid is Pro Tools Artist. Designed to provide nearly everything you need to start making music, this version is ideal for burgeoning bedroom producers, solo music creators, and engineers looking to get into audio production for relatively small projects.
Pro Tools Artist includes numerous third-party software programs, including Acon Digital Acoustica Essentials, Celemony Melodyne 5 Essential, iZotope RX 11 Spectral Editor, Native Instruments Kontakt 8 Player, Steinberg SpectraLayers Go and WaveLab Go, and Synchro Arts RePitch Elements. The included software provides a large toolset for editing and mixing audio, including pitch correction, equalization, audio restoration, audio enhancement, and mastering.
Pro Tools Artist also comes with an impressive list of over 110 plug-ins for use directly in the DAW. These high-quality plug-ins offer everything needed to refine your audio and music, including compressors, expanders, de-essers, channel strips, a wide range of FX filters, and emulators, reverbs and delays, stompbox simulations, virtual instruments, MIDI editors, and much more. You also get special rewards for this purchase from Avid, including Inner Circle rewards, which offer a curated collection of free plug-ins, music/sound libraries, and training resources, as well as Sonic Drop content and access to mobile app control.
Some hard specs for Pro Tools Artist include:
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16 simultaneous recording inputs
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4 aux inputs and 4 aux outputs
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Up to 32 mono or stereo tracks
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64 MIDI tracks and 32 instrument tracks
Pro Tools Studio
Billed as the ideal version for serious music artists, producers, and engineers, Pro Tools Studio is aimed at professionals and provides significantly more in the way of I/O, simultaneous tracks, and routing. Studio also enable support for more advanced functionality such as surround sound configurations, ambisonics, and video support. This makes Studio an ideal choice for working pros dealing with a diversity of projects.
Pro Tools Studio includes all the third-party software, Inner Circle rewards, and Sonic Drop content that comes with Artist, as well as SoundFlow Cloud Avid Edition, an advanced workflow automation platform that saves you time and clicks by providing access to powerful macros to perform complicated tasks incredibly quickly. Over 1,600 prebuilt macros and commands can be custom assigned and triggered by keyboard shortcuts, MIDI controllers, HID devices, and OSC-enabled controllers.
Going further into technical features, Pro Tools Studio offers numerous functions which are not present in Artist. This includes support for AAX DSP and external Carbon interface hardware, advanced metering with gain reduction, VCA mixing, solo bus AFL and PFL, an integrated Atmos renderer with Atmos mixing and surround mixing support, ADM exporter, ambisonics VR mixing, advanced automation functions, and single-file multi-stem bouncing. Also useful are the AAF/OMF/MXF file interchange functions, batch renaming, and extended RAM and disk cache support.
Pro Tools Studio includes over 130 plug-ins, up from the 110 offered with Artist. It is compatible with the Satellite Link Remote (1 per Satellite network). Finally, this version of Pro Tools allows for one video track with support for video up to 4K/UHD, making it a viable choice for editing audio for video like films, documentaries, commercial spots, and more.
Further technical specs include:
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64 simultaneous recording inputs
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Unlimited aux inputs and up to 32 aux outputs
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Up to 512 audio tracks (mono, stereo, or surround)
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1,024 MIDI tracks and 512 instrument tracks
Pro Tools Ultimate
For those that simply cannot compromise and need the most that Avid's technology can provide them, Pro Tools Ultimate offers everything present in Studio but takes it to the next level with up to 2,048 audio tracks and up to 256 simultaneous recording inputs. This means Ultimate is the obvious choice when handling massive audio projects that simply cannot be scaled down to Pro Tools Studio or lower.
Perhaps the biggest feature of Ultimate, when compared to the very capable Pro Tools Studio, is the huge upgrade for video support. With support for up to 64 individual video tracks, Pro Tools Ultimate is an ideal choice for postproduction work in film production houses. Along with the ability to run 64 UHD video tracks, you gain access to advanced video editing capabilities, providing an essential boon to postproduction workflows in video-heavy audio editing applications.
Ultimate is also the only version of Pro Tools with compatibility for the HDX PCIe cards. HDX cards provide users with massively expandable I/O (up to 192 channels), making HDX a major boon for huge recording projects (such as capturing orchestras or convolution-based virtual spaces). HDX cards also deliver ultralow-latency monitoring via DSP, allowing you to easily create individual monitor mixes for every member of an orchestra. And with potent onboard DSP, you can save your CPU from being bogged down by your intense projects, greatly improving computer and DAW performance. Pro Tools Ultimate also supports the Pro Tools HD Native, HD I/O, Sync X, and MTRX hardware.
Finally, for Satellite Link Remote users, Pro Tools Ultimate enables up to two Link Remotes per Satellite network without Pro Tools HD hardware. With HD hardware, you can support up to 12 remotes per Satellite network with Pro Tools.
Noteworthy technical specs include:
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Up to 256 simultaneous recording inputs
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Unlimited aux inputs and outputs
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Up to 2,048 audio tracks (mono, stereo, or surround)
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1,024 MIDI tracks and 512 instrument tracks
For more information about the Avid Pro Tools, including additional features, specs, and highlights, be sure to check out the detailed product page for each version. Or drop us a line below, and we'll do our best to answer all your comments and questions.
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