How AI app builder credits work: Lovable, Base44 and Bolt explained (2026)

Short answer. The three tools meter usage in three different ways. Lovable charges credits per action, so a small edit costs less than a big one. Base44 gives you two monthly allowances, message credits and integration credits. Bolt measures work in tokens. You can’t compare plans by the headline number alone: 100 Lovable credits, 100 Base44 message credits and 10 million Bolt tokens are not the same amount of work. Rollover rules also differ, and each vendor leaves some things unstated.

AI app builders turn a prompt into a working app, and every prompt costs the vendor compute. Credits and tokens are how that cost is passed on to you. This guide explains what each unit means on Lovable, Base44 and Bolt, using each company’s official pages, checked on November 11, 2026.

At a glance

	Lovable	Base44	Bolt
Unit	Credits	Message credits + integration credits	Tokens
What drives usage	Complexity of each request	“Action and the selected AI model”	Reading prompts and files, planning, writing code
Free plan	5 build credits/day, up to 30/month	25 message + 100 integration credits/month	1M tokens/month, 300K/day
Entry paid plan	Pro, from $25/mo ($21 annual), 100 credits	Starter, $16/mo billed annually: 100 message + 2,000 integration	Pro, $25/mo: from 10M tokens
Unused allowance	Rolls over while subscribed; expires 2 months after issue (monthly plans)	Not stated	Paid: stays up to 2 months; Free: no rollover
Top-ups	Pro and Business only; valid 12 months	Not stated	Not stated

Lovable: credits scale with the work

Lovable’s docs say build-mode requests cost credits according to complexity and the work done. The examples it gives are about 0.50 credits for a gray button, 0.90 for removing a footer, 1.20 for adding authentication and 2.00 for a landing page with images, and it notes actual costs vary. In plan mode the docs say it is “1 credit per message, plus the cost of any subagent research.”

Beyond building, the same credit balance also covers some other things, per the docs:

• Cloud (database, storage, compute) is priced on server size and runtime, storage, network and similar usage.
• AI features inside your deployed app are priced on model choice, tokens, call volume and media length.
• Connectors such as Perplexity or Firecrawl are charged per request when you use the “Managed by Lovable” option.

Some Lovable allowances are separate from the main balance and don’t roll over: daily build credits (5/day, 30/month cap on Free) and small monthly grants for Cloud (20), AI (4) and connectors (1). The main plan credits roll over while you stay subscribed, and expire 2 months after issue on monthly plans. Top-up credits, available on Pro and Business, expire 12 months after purchase. The price per top-up credit is not stated in the docs.

One caveat: Lovable’s docs say chat-style messages are temporarily priced at “typically a fraction of a credit” through October 31, 2026. That date has passed, so check the current chat pricing before relying on this.

Base44: two kinds of credit

Base44’s pricing page says credits are “your monthly usage allowance for AI messages and integration actions,” and that exact usage “varies based on the action and the selected AI model.” It lists the allowances per plan (prices are billed annually):

Plan	Price	Message credits/mo	Integration credits/mo
Free	$0	25	100
Starter	$16/mo	100	2,000
Builder	$40/mo	250	10,000
Pro	$80/mo	500	20,000
Elite	$160/mo	1,200	50,000

The page does not spell out which actions use which credit type, though the names suggest message credits go to AI messages and integration credits to integration actions (our reading, not a stated rule). Not stated on the page: what happens when you run out beyond upgrading, whether credits roll over, whether top-ups exist, and monthly-billing prices. The FAQ says annual billing “saves 20% on every paid plan.”

Bolt: a token allowance

Bolt says tokens are “how Bolt measures the work it does on your project,” used when it reads prompts and project files, makes a plan or writes code. Published limits:

• Free: 1M tokens per month and 300K per day, with no rollover.
• Pro: $25/month, “start at 10M tokens per month,” no daily limit. Unused tokens “stay in your balance for up to two months” while the subscription is active.
• Teams: $30 per member per month; each paid member has their own allowance and tokens are not shared. The exact amount is not stated.

Top-ups and annual dollar prices are not stated. The page says annual billing can “save up to 28%.”

How to compare plans fairly

1. Check the unit. A credit, a message credit and a token are different measures. The pages we checked do not convert between them, so don’t compare headline numbers across tools.
2. Look at the free cap. Lovable’s 30-credit monthly cap and Bolt’s 300K daily limit decide how far a free test goes in a single day or month.
3. Check what else draws on the balance. On Lovable, hosting and in-app AI use the same credits as building.
4. Check rollover. Lovable and Bolt state expiry windows; Base44’s page does not.
5. Look for stated top-ups. If you may run out mid-month, Lovable documents top-ups for paid plans; the others do not on the pages checked.

For a side-by-side of two of these tools, see Lovable vs Base44, and for a wider list, best AI app builders for non-developers.

What we couldn’t verify

• How many Lovable credits a typical full app costs. The docs give examples per action but no total.
• Which Base44 actions consume message credits and which consume integration credits.
• Top-up prices on all three tools, and Base44’s behavior when credits run out.
• Current Lovable chat-message pricing now that the stated temporary period has ended.

Credit systems change often. Check each vendor’s page before you buy.

FAQ

Do unused credits roll over? On Lovable, main plan credits roll over while you stay subscribed and expire 2 months after issue on monthly plans. On Bolt, paid plans keep unused tokens for up to two months and Free does not roll over. Base44’s pricing page does not say.

Which tool has the biggest free allowance? By the published numbers, Bolt’s free plan is 1M tokens a month with a 300K daily limit, Lovable’s is 5 build credits a day up to 30 a month, and Base44’s is 25 message and 100 integration credits a month. The units differ, so these can’t be ranked directly.

Can I buy extra credits? Lovable documents top-ups on Pro and Business, valid for 12 months. Base44 and Bolt do not state top-ups on the pages we checked.