Bolt vs Lovable: Price, Usage, and Which to Pick

Build with AI · Comparison

Both tools build apps from a chat. Both start at $25 a month. The real difference is how they count your usage.

Bolt and Lovable are two AI app builders. You type what you want, and they build a working website or web app. On paper they look close. Both have a free plan, and both Pro plans start at $25 per month billed monthly.

On October 22, 2026, I went through both pricing pages, including the FAQs. Here is how they compare on price, on how usage is counted, and on teams, plus how to choose.

Bolt vs Lovable at a glance

All prices below are from bolt.new/pricing and lovable.dev/pricing, checked October 22, 2026. Bolt notes its prices are plus applicable taxes.

Bolt pricing

• Free: $0 per month. 1M tokens a month to try Bolt, with a daily limit of 300K tokens. Bolt branding on your sites.
• Pro: $25 per month billed monthly, or $18 per month billed yearly ($216 a year). 10M tokens a month with rollover, your own domain, and no Bolt branding.
• Teams: $30 per member per month billed monthly, or $27 per member per month billed yearly ($324 a year). Central billing, admin controls, and priority support.
• Enterprise: custom contract, billed by use.

Bolt says, "the larger the project, the more tokens used per message." That is because Bolt syncs your project files to the AI each time. So token use grows as your app grows.

Lovable pricing

• Free: $0 per month. 5 build credits a day, up to 30 a month, plus 20 Cloud credits a month.
• Pro: $25 per month billed monthly, or $21 per month billed yearly. Starts at 100 credits a month, plus custom domains and badge removal.
• Business: $50 per month billed monthly, or $42 per month billed yearly. Starts at 100 credits a month, plus SSO, a team workspace, and role based access.
• Enterprise: volume based pricing.

Paid plans also get daily grants of 5 build credits and a monthly grant of 20 Cloud credits on top of the plan credits.

How far the free plans go

Both free plans are good enough to test a real idea. Bolt Free gives you a monthly pool of 1M tokens, but you can only use 300K in a day. Lovable Free gives you 5 build credits a day, up to 30 a month. In both cases, you can't burn through the whole month in one sitting.

My tip: plan your test before you start. Write down the three screens your app needs. Then build them one at a time on each tool, and compare what you have at the end of the day.

Tokens vs credits: the real difference

This is where the two tools differ most.

Bolt counts tokens

Tokens are small chunks of text the AI reads and writes. Pro gives you 10M a month. Each message uses tokens based on the size of your project, since Bolt sends your files to the AI. Small projects stretch the pool far. Big projects use it faster.

Lovable counts credits

Lovable charges credits per message, and you can see the cost in your history. In Plan Mode it is 1 credit per message. In Default Mode it depends on the task. Lovable shows these examples:

• "Make the button gray": 0.50 credits.
• "Remove the footer": 0.90 credits.
• "Add authentication with sign up and login": 1.20 credits.
• "Build me a landing page, use images": 1.70 credits.

So with 100 credits, simple edits go a long way. Big features cost more each.

The two systems are hard to compare one to one. A token is not a credit. The best test is to build the same small app on both free plans and see how far each gets you.

Do leftovers roll over?

• Bolt: unused tokens roll over on Pro, Teams, and Enterprise. Not on Free.
• Lovable: monthly plan credits expire two months after they are issued. Annual plan credits expire one month after your annual period ends. Top up credits last 12 months. Daily build credits expire at the end of each day.

Lovable also says credits "aren't refundable or redeemable for cash."

Team costs

This is a big difference if you build with others.

• Bolt Teams charges per member. Each member's plan starts at 10M tokens.
• Lovable does not charge per seat. Its FAQ says, "Workspaces support unlimited members on all plans, and plans are priced by the credits they include, not by seats." Everyone shares one credit pool. Owners can set limits per member.

Plan cost math for a team of 3

• Bolt Teams, monthly: 3 × $30 = $90 per month.
• Bolt Teams, yearly: 3 × $324 = $972 a year.
• Lovable Pro, monthly: $25 per month for the whole workspace at the starting credit level.
• Lovable Business, monthly: $50 per month for the whole workspace.

Keep in mind that three people on Lovable share 100 credits. You may need a higher credit level, which costs more. These are plan list prices only.

Hosting your app

Both include hosting. Bolt lists website hosting and unlimited databases even on Free. Lovable says that for most smaller or new apps, hosting costs are "fully covered by the included grant." Apps with a lot of traffic may start using credits.

Features you get on each paid plan

Price is only part of it. Here is what the Pro plans add, from each pricing page:

Bolt Pro

• Your own domain and no Bolt branding.
• Expanded database capacity and a choice of database provider.
• Access to the newest AI models.
• Connectors and MCPs, which link your app to other tools.
• SEO boosting and a 100MB file upload limit, up from 10MB on Free.

Lovable Pro

• Custom domains and unlimited lovable.app domains.
• Remove the Lovable badge.
• User roles, permissions, and per member credit limits.
• On demand credit top ups and credit rollovers.
• Design systems and email support.

Both cover what most first apps need: a custom domain, no branding, and hosting.

Common mistakes when choosing

1. Comparing tokens to credits. They measure different things. Test real work instead.
2. Ignoring project size. On Bolt, each message costs more as your app grows.
3. Forgetting expiry. Lovable monthly credits don't last forever. Use them or lose them.
4. Paying yearly too soon. Try a month first. Switch to yearly once you know you will stay.
5. Adding team seats you don't need. On Bolt, every member adds to the bill.

Which should you pick?

Here is my simple take:

• Pick Bolt if you are one person, want the lowest yearly Pro price ($18 per month), and like a big token pool that rolls over.
• Pick Lovable if you build with a team, a class, or a community, since you don't pay per seat. Also pick it if you like seeing the credit cost of each message.
• Not sure? Try both free plans with the same small app idea. Pick the one whose results you like more.

Both tools are great for first versions. Many people hit a wall when the app gets bigger and each fix starts costing more. If you want to move a project off Bolt or Lovable later, I wrote a guide on moving to Overskill. If you want to try it, take a look at Overskill (I earn a commission if you buy through this link).

For more detail, see my Lovable pricing guide, my Bolt review, and my bigger comparison of Lovable vs Replit vs Bolt vs Cursor.