Lovable vs Bolt vs v0: AI app builders compared (prices and limits)
Short answer
Lovable Pro and Bolt Pro both start at $25 a month, Vercel v0's main paid plan (Plus) is $30 per user, and Replit Core is about $20. Lovable gives 100 credits a month on Pro, Bolt gives 10 million tokens, and v0 and Replit give a dollar balance ($30 and $20) that is spent as you prompt. Lovable suits non-developers building full apps, Bolt suits people who want to see and edit the code, and v0 is strongest for React and Next.js front ends that deploy to Vercel.
Lovable, Bolt.new and Vercel's v0 all turn a text prompt into a working web app, and Replit Agent does much the same inside Replit's coding environment. They charge in different units, though: credits, tokens or a dollar balance. This guide compares their plans using each vendor's pricing pages and help docs plus public user reviews, checked on the date above. All four change pricing often, so confirm on the linked page before paying.
Price comparison
| Tool | Free plan | Main paid plan | What you get on it | Next tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lovable | 5 credits a day, max 30 a month | Pro $25/mo (two months free if billed yearly) | 100 credits a month | Business $50/mo, 100 credits |
| Bolt.new | 1M tokens a month, 300K a day | Pro $25/mo (up to 28% off yearly) | 10M tokens a month, no daily cap | Teams $30 per member |
| v0 | $5 of credits | Plus $30 per user/mo | $30 of credits a month plus $2 daily login credit | Business $100 per user/mo |
| Replit | Daily Agent credits, 1 published app | Core about $20/mo | $20 of usage a month | Pro $100/mo, $100 of usage |
Lovable and Bolt both offer larger Pro tiers with more credits or tokens at higher prices. Bolt also sells a separate Bolt Lite plan at $9 a month that uses open-source models through its Forge feature. Replit's own pages showed slightly different annual prices for Core and Pro at different times, so treat its figures as approximate.
What the limits mean in practice
The headline numbers are hard to compare because each unit gets used up differently.
Lovable: credits per message
According to Lovable's credits and usage docs, a message in Plan mode costs 1 credit, while a Build mode request costs more or less depending on how complex the change is. Since a 2026 billing change, one credit balance also covers Lovable Cloud hosting and the AI features inside apps you deploy. Monthly plan credits expire two months after they are issued; top-up credits bought separately last 12 months and cost $0.30 each on Pro or $0.60 on Business.
In plain terms, 100 Pro credits is a fixed number of requests. Small edits cost little, but large feature requests and repeated "fix this error" loops use credits quickly. Planning a change in Plan mode first, then building it in one request, is the usual advice for making credits last.
Bolt: tokens grow with your project
Bolt's token help page explains that most token usage comes from syncing your project's files to the AI. That means each message costs more as the project gets bigger, so 10 million tokens covers far more messages on a small landing page than on a large app. Free plan tokens have a 300K daily cap that does not build up: if you skip a day, you still start the next day at 300K. Pro tokens stay valid for two months. When you hit a limit you can still edit the code directly in Code view without spending tokens, which is useful if you can fix small things yourself.
v0: a dollar balance
v0 shows your allowance as dollars of credit rather than a message count. Its pricing docs say unused monthly credits roll over and expire after 65 days, purchased credits last a year, and generation pauses when the balance hits zero. The older $20 Premium plan is being phased out and is no longer open to new users, so new subscribers start on Plus at $30 per user. New free accounts get a one-time $5 credit, while existing free users keep a $5 monthly allowance. Users on the Vercel community forum report that credits can run down quickly on complex prompts, but that is anecdotal.
Replit Agent: effort-based usage
Replit bills Agent work by effort, deducting from the included $20 (Core) or $100 (Pro) of monthly usage, then charging for extra usage or credit packs. Its pricing docs say Core and Pro allowances reset every five hours and also have weekly limits. The free Starter plan includes daily Agent credits and one published app, which goes offline after 30 days according to Replit's Starter plan docs. Core credits do not roll over.
How they differ beyond price
- Lovable is aimed at people who don't code. It handles the database, sign-in and hosting through Lovable Cloud and can sync the code to GitHub.
- Bolt.new runs a full development environment in the browser, so you see the files and can edit them yourself. It suits people with some coding knowledge who want more control.
- v0 comes from Vercel, the company behind Next.js. It is strongest at React and Next.js interfaces and deploys straight to Vercel hosting.
- Replit is a full cloud coding platform with the Agent on top. It handles back-end code, databases and hosting, and suits people who expect to keep working on the code later.
What users praise and complain about
Across public reviews and forum posts, the common praise for all four is how fast they produce a working first version. The common complaints are also shared: credits or tokens spent on the AI fixing its own errors, results that get harder to change as the app grows, and costs that are hard to predict month to month. These tools are good for prototypes, internal tools and simple apps. For anything handling payments or personal data, plan on having a developer review the code.
Who should pick which
- Pick Lovable if you don't code and want a full app with a database and sign-in from a description. Start on the free plan, then Pro at $25.
- Pick Bolt.new if you want to see and edit the code and like having a large token allowance. Pro at $25 is the usual starting point; the $9 Lite plan is a cheap way to try paid features with open-source models.
- Pick v0 if you build in React or Next.js, or already host on Vercel, and mainly need polished front ends. Budget $30 per user on Plus.
- Pick Replit if you want a full coding environment with an agent, back-end support and hosting in one place, starting at about $20 a month on Core.
If you're new to prompting, the tips in how to write better AI prompts apply here too: clear, specific requests waste fewer credits. For other subscriptions worth comparing, see AI chatbot prices compared and free AI tools that are actually useful.
Frequently asked questions
Is Lovable free?
Yes, with a small allowance. Lovable's free plan gives 5 build credits a day, capped at 30 a month, according to its subscription plans documentation. That is enough to try it on a small project, not to build a full app. Paid plans start at $25 a month for 100 credits.
Which is cheapest, Lovable, Bolt or v0?
On entry price, Bolt's $9 Lite plan is the cheapest paid option, though it runs on open-source models through Bolt Forge. Among the main plans, Lovable Pro and Bolt Pro are both $25 a month and v0 Plus is $30 per user. Which is cheapest in practice depends on how many prompts and fixes your project needs.
What happens when I run out of credits or tokens?
On Lovable you can buy top-up credits ($0.30 each on Pro). On v0, generation pauses until you buy more credits or your monthly credits renew. On Bolt's free plan you wait for the daily or monthly reset, but you can still edit code by hand in Code view without using tokens.
Do unused credits roll over?
Mostly, for a limited time. Lovable's monthly plan credits expire two months after they are issued, Bolt Pro tokens stay valid for two months, and v0's monthly credits expire after 65 days. Replit Core credits reset each billing cycle and do not roll over.