01What Bolt's free plan includes
As of October 2026, Bolt's pricing page lists the free plan as:
- 1 million tokens a month, with a 300,000 daily limit.
- Website hosting included, with about 333,000 web requests a month.
- Unlimited databases.
- 10MB file uploads and community support.
- Bolt branding on sites; no custom domain; no token rollover.
02How far a million tokens goes
Tokens are not messages. Bolt explains that most token usage comes from syncing your project's file system with the AI, so a message in a large project costs far more than the same message in a small one. In a tiny app, a day's 300,000 tokens can cover a productive session; in a big one, a few messages can use it up.
| Project | Fits? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A landing page or small site | Yes | Few files, cheap messages |
| A simple app with a database | Usually | Spread work across days |
| A growing app with many features | Struggles | Per-message cost rises with size |
| Debugging a large imported repo | Rarely | Syncing many files eats tokens fast |
03Free vs Pro: when to upgrade
| Free | Pro | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $0 | $25/mo monthly, $18/mo yearly |
| Tokens | 1M a month, 300K a day | 10M a month, no daily cap |
| Rollover | No | Yes |
| Custom domain | No | Yes |
| Branding | Bolt branding | Removed |
| Uploads | 10MB | 100MB |
04Tips to stretch free tokens
- 1Start small and stay smallEvery file in the project raises the cost of every message.
- 2Plan outside BoltDecide screens and data in a note, so prompts are precise.
- 3Avoid fix loopsIf a bug survives two attempts, roll back and describe it differently.
- 4Remove unused filesLeftover files and dependencies still get synced.
05How Bolt's free plan compares
Bolt's free plan is one of the more generous for actually hosting an app, since hosting and databases are included. Lovable's free plan gives 5 credits a day up to 30 a month; v0's gives 7 messages a day; Replit's free tier hosts one app. Is Lovable free? covers Lovable's plan in detail, and is Bolt.new worth it? covers whether Pro pays off.
For a website rather than an app, building a website with AI for free covers builders that publish without paying.
06What happens when you run out
When the daily limit is reached, building stops until the next day; when the monthly million is gone, it stops until the next month. Your project stays saved and your hosted site keeps running, so nothing is lost. The real cost is momentum: a bug half-fixed at the moment tokens run out has to wait.
Before you hit the cap, commit the last working version and write a short note of what you were doing. When tokens return, start from that note in a fresh, precise prompt rather than continuing a long conversation, which costs more tokens because the AI rereads context.
- 1Save a working versionCommit or download before a risky change, especially near the daily limit.
- 2Write the next step downA one-line note makes the first prompt of the next session cheap and accurate.
- 3Decide whether to upgradeIf you hit the cap three days running, Pro's 10M tokens and rollover will likely pay for themselves in time saved.
07Is the free plan enough for a real launch?
For a hobby project, yes. For anything with a brand, probably not: free sites carry Bolt branding and cannot use your own domain, which looks unfinished to customers. Free hosting is limited to roughly 333,000 web requests a month, which a small launch will not hit, but a viral one could.
If you do launch on the free plan, keep the code in GitHub, so moving to another host later is a deploy rather than a rebuild. How to deploy a website explains the options.
What people who tried it say
Hacker News threads about Bolt's free tier mostly concern running out of tokens partway through a project and the pricing changes after launch, with tips about planning first to waste fewer tokens.
- Show HN: Bolt.newHacker News
Developers react to the launch of an in-browser full-stack AI builder, discussing what it can build and how usage-based limits will work.
Looking for more first-hand opinions? Search Reddit for “is bolt.new free”. We link the live threads rather than summarizing them, so you read them in full.
Our take
Bolt's free plan is generous for small projects because hosting and databases are included. Use it to prove an idea, keep the project lean, and only pay when you need a custom domain or bigger builds.
Where this falls short
Token allowances and plan details have changed several times; these were checked in October 2026. How far tokens go depends heavily on project size and model, so treat the guidance above as a rough guide.
Sources
- 1.Bolt pricing · StackBlitz
- 2.Bolt Cloud · Bolt Support
Researched and written by the Orlume team · Updated October 2026
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