How do Lovable credits work?

01The kinds of credits

Lovable has more than one credit pool, which is the source of much confusion. As of October 2026, its credits documentation describes these:

02What a message costs

In the default mode, Lovable charges according to how much work a request takes. Its pricing page gives examples: changing a button color costs about 0.5 credits, removing a footer 0.9, adding authentication 1.2 and building a landing page with generated images 1.7. You can see the exact cost of any message by hovering over the menu on that message.

Plan Mode is different: it costs a flat 1 credit per message and does not change your code. It is for thinking through a change before building it, which often saves credits overall.

03Rollover and expiry rules

Unused monthly plan credits carry over to the next billing cycle while your subscription is active, but on monthly plans each batch expires two months after it was issued. On annual plans, credits expire one month after the annual period ends. Lovable spends the credits closest to expiry first. Daily credits never roll over, and credits are not refundable.

The practical result: you cannot bank a big pile of credits on a monthly plan. Use them or lose them within about two months.

If you work in bursts, an annual plan or occasional top-up credits, which last 12 months, can suit you better than a monthly plan whose credits expire quickly.

04How to make credits last longer

The habits that save the most credits are the same ones that make projects more stable.

• Avoid "make it better" prompts; they invite broad, expensive rewrites.
• Describe the bug you see, not the fix you imagine.
• Batch purely visual changes into one clear request.

1. 1Plan firstUse Plan Mode (1 credit) to agree the approach before a big change.
2. 2One change per messageSmall, specific requests cost less and break less.
3. 3Revert instead of re-fixingRestoring an earlier version is cheaper than three rounds of fixes.
4. 4Edit text yourselfOn paid plans, editing copy or small code directly costs nothing.
5. 5Spend daily credits firstThey expire each day, so use them on small tweaks before touching the monthly pool.

05Is the credit system fair?

Credit pricing reflects a real cost: every message runs expensive AI models and, for hosted apps, servers. The complaint is less about price than predictability. You cannot know in advance how many messages a feature will take, and you pay for the AI's mistakes as well as its successes. Bolt has a similar model with tokens; v0 bills credits metered by tokens. Is Lovable free? covers what the free tier can realistically build, and is Bolt.new free? compares Bolt's allowance.

Flat-price alternatives exist, but they usually limit messages instead. Whichever you choose, set a monthly budget and watch the first project closely.