Lovable Pricing Explained: Plans, Credits, and What You Really Pay

Build with AI · Pricing guide

Lovable pricing looks simple until you hit credits. Here is every plan, every credit rule, and how to keep your bill low.

My own software, MakerAI, lives in Lovable. So I watch Lovable's pricing closely, because every change hits my own bill.

The plan prices are easy. The credits are where people get confused. In this guide I break down each plan, how credits are spent, what rolls over, and the simple habits that keep your costs down. Every number here was checked on Lovable's pricing page and help docs on October 18, 2026.

Lovable plans at a glance

Source: lovable.dev/pricing and docs.lovable.dev, checked October 18, 2026. Prices can change.

Is Lovable free?

Yes. The Free plan is $0, and the pricing page says "No credit card needed." Here is what you get:

• 5 daily build credits, capped at 30 a month
• A daily chat allowance for Chat mode
• Small monthly grants for Cloud (20 credits), AI (4 credits), and connectors (1 credit)
• 5 lovable.app domains and unlimited collaborators

What Free does not give you: custom domains, editing the code in Lovable, or downloading your code. You also cannot buy top-up credits on Free. For those, you need a paid plan.

Lovable Pro and Business tiers

Pro and Business are not one price. You pick how many monthly credits you want, and the price scales up. Here are a few steps from Lovable's docs:

Source: docs.lovable.dev Subscription plans, Pro tiers and Business tiers, checked October 18, 2026. More steps exist between 800 and 10,000 credits.

What Pro adds over Free: credit rollovers, on-demand top-ups, unlimited lovable.app domains, custom domains, user roles, per-member credit limits, removing the Lovable badge, and email support.

What Business adds over Pro: a team workspace, role-based access, internal publish, personal projects, SSO, a security center, design templates, and priority support.

For most solo builders, Pro is the right plan. Business is for teams that need SSO and tighter control.

How Lovable credits work

Lovable splits usage into a few buckets, per its Credits and usage docs:

• Build mode is usage based. Small edits cost less. Big changes cost more.
• Plan mode costs 1 credit per message, plus any research it runs. It never changes your code.
• Chat mode uses a daily chat allowance first. Lovable says this chat pricing is temporary and applies through October 31, 2026.

Lovable gives these sample Build mode costs, and says they are only examples:

Source: docs.lovable.dev Credits and usage and lovable.dev/pricing, checked October 18, 2026.

So 100 credits can go a long way if your prompts are small and clear. They go fast if you ask for big rebuilds over and over.

Do Lovable credits roll over?

Yes, on paid plans. Lovable's docs say: "All unused monthly plan credits automatically roll over at the end of each billing cycle, as long as your subscription remains active." But they do not last forever. On monthly plans, rollover credits expire 2 months after they were issued. Top-up credits expire 12 months after you buy them.

The free grants (daily build credits and the Cloud and AI grants) do not roll over.

What happens when you run out of credits

This is the part that can hurt a live app. Per Lovable's docs:

• Building stops until you add credits.
• AI features inside your live app stop working.
• Built-in back end services, like your database and logins, pause shortly after you run out.
• Your data stays safe while paused, but you cannot reach it until the services run again.

Discounts: yearly and student

• Yearly billing: the pricing page says "2 months free." Pro with 100 credits is $250 a year instead of $300.
• Students and teachers: Lovable's docs say you get "50% off for up to 12 months on the Pro plan with 100 credits per month, billed monthly." You verify with your school email.

7 ways to keep your Lovable bill low

1. Plan before you build. Write a short brief so your first prompt is clear.
2. Use Plan mode for big ideas. It costs 1 credit a message and never changes code, so you think before you spend.
3. Make small asks. "Make the button gray" costs a fraction of a big rebuild.
4. Stop early if it goes wrong. Lovable says a request you stop before it changes anything is not charged.
5. Check the cost of each message. The menu under each reply shows the exact credits used.
6. Pause projects you do not use. Lovable suggests this to cut back end costs.
7. Set usage alerts and limits. Owners can set hard limits in workspace settings.

I made a video on why most Lovable apps never get users. Saving credits is good, but building the right thing matters more.

Which Lovable plan should you pick?

My advice is simple. Start on Free. Move to Pro only when you hit a real limit, like needing your own domain. Then watch the credits used under each reply for two weeks. That tells you which tier you really need, so you do not pay for credits that expire.

Is Lovable worth the price?

For me, yes. It is where my own software lives. But it is not the only choice. If you want to compare costs, note that Base44 starts at $20 a month on its pricing page, checked October 18, 2026. Then read my Overskill vs Lovable breakdown. My Lovable vs Replit vs Bolt vs Cursor guide covers the rest.

If you want a builder made for selling apps with built-in checkout, take a look at Overskill (I earn a commission if you buy through this link.).