Pricing
Is Lovable Free? What the Free Plan's Credits Actually Build
Lovable has a free plan, but credits run out fast on real projects. What's free, what the daily and monthly caps are, and when the paid plan pays off.
8 min read
Lovable’s pricing page, students page and docs checked Oct 25, 2026 on lovable.dev/pricing, lovable.dev/students, Lovable’s credits docs and subscription-plans docs. All are linked under Sources. This page has no affiliate links (how we work).
Short answer: yes, Lovable is free to start, and free to publish. The Free plan gives you 5 build credits a day, capped at 30 a month, plus a daily chat allowance and small monthly grants for hosting and AI features. You can publish your app to a lovable.app address on Free. What you can’t do on Free is use your own domain, remove the “Edit with Lovable” badge, or edit and download the code inside Lovable.
The real catch is the monthly cap. Lovable’s own docs spell it out: “on Free, you receive daily build credits for the first 6 days each month (6 × 5 = 30), then none until the next month starts” (Lovable docs, checked Oct 25, 2026). Use them every day and your free month ends on the 6th.
We haven’t tested Lovable. Everything below comes from Lovable’s own pricing page and docs.
What Lovable Free includes, dated
From Lovable’s credits and plans docs (checked Oct 25, 2026):
- Build credits: “5 per day, up to 30 per month”. They refresh at 00:00 UTC and expire at the end of the day, so you can’t bank them.
- Daily chat allowance: included on Free. Pro and Business get a “larger than Free” allowance. Lovable doesn’t publish the size.
- Monthly grants: 20 Cloud credits (hosting and backend), 4 AI credits (AI features inside your app) and 1 connector credit. On Free these refresh on the 1st at 00:00 UTC.
- No top-ups, no rollover. On-demand top-ups, auto top-up and rollover are Pro and Business only.
- Out of credits: “building stops, AI features in deployed apps stop working, and apps that use the built-in backend (Cloud) pause.”
That last line matters if you publish something people use. A free app with a backend can pause when the month’s Cloud grant runs dry. For most small apps, Lovable says hosting “does not cost anything” and is “fully covered by the included grant” (lovable.dev/pricing, checked Oct 25, 2026), but heavy traffic eats into credits.
What 30 credits actually build
Lovable doesn’t price per message in Build mode. “Cost depends on the complexity of the request and the work completed”. It does publish examples (Lovable docs, checked Oct 25, 2026):
| Prompt | Credits |
|---|---|
| Make the button gray | 0.50 |
| Remove the footer | 0.90 |
| Add authentication | 1.20 |
| Landing page + images | 2.00 |
Plan mode, which thinks before it codes, is “1 credit per message, plus the cost of any subagent research”. Lovable warns that “Actual credits used vary”.
One oddity: the pricing page FAQ lists its landing-page example at 1.70 credits, while the docs say 2.00 for a similar prompt (both checked Oct 25, 2026). Same company, two numbers. Plan for the higher one.
Rough maths, using only Lovable’s own examples: 30 credits is about fifteen landing-page-sized builds, or around 60 tiny tweaks like the gray button. A real app with sign-in, a database and a few rounds of fixes will use a lot of that in one session. So Free is enough to build a landing page, a portfolio or a class project. It’s tight for anything you plan to keep changing.
Tip that saves credits: check the cost of each message. Lovable says you can open the menu under any reply and see “Credits used”. If one kind of request keeps costing 2+ credits, break it into smaller ones.
Can you publish a Lovable site for free?
Yes. Lovable’s quick start says your app goes “live at your own lovable.app URL, free on every plan” (Lovable docs, checked Oct 25, 2026). Here’s the Free vs paid split on publishing and code (subscription-plans docs, checked Oct 25, 2026):
- On Free: publish to a
lovable.appsubdomain, workspace-private projects, publish to invited people only (up to 10 per project), and Git sync with GitHub, GitLab and Bitbucket. - Pro and up only: custom domains, removing the “Edit with Lovable” badge, editing code in Lovable, downloading code, and design systems.
Git sync on Free is the quiet win. Your code can live in your own repo even if you never pay. You just can’t edit it inside Lovable without Pro.
The temporary chat pricing (ends Oct 31, 2026)
Chat is billed separately from building. Messages in Chats, Chat mode, and Lovable in Slack or Telegram are priced per message, “typically a fraction of a credit”, and come out of the daily chat allowance first, then daily build credits, then general credits.
Here’s the date to know. Lovable says “The current chat pricing model, including the per-message price and the daily chat allowance, applies through October 31, 2026.” It also calls it a “Temporary offering, subject to change” (Lovable docs, checked Oct 25, 2026).
What happens on November 1? Not published as of Oct 25, 2026. The monthly Cloud, AI and connector grants carry the same “temporary offering and subject to change” label, though with no end date.
Putting an end date on the free chat allowance without saying what replaces it leaves free users guessing a week out. If chat starts eating build credits in November, Free’s 30 a month gets even thinner. A one-line “here’s what’s next” would cost Lovable nothing.
Lovable Free vs Pro vs Business
USD, 100-credit tiers. Prices from Lovable’s subscription-plans docs, checked Oct 25, 2026.
| Plan | Price | Credits | Own domain | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 5/day, max 30/mo | No | Docs |
| Pro | $25/mo ($21/mo yearly) | 100/mo + 5/day | Yes | Docs |
| Business | $50/mo ($42/mo yearly) | 100/mo + 5/day | Yes | Docs |
Yearly is $250 for Pro and $500 for Business, which Lovable describes as “two months free”. Pro and Business both scale up to 10,000 credits a month; Pro 200 is $50, Pro 400 is $100.
Two things Pro changes beyond the 100 credits. First, the 5 daily credits keep coming all month, “with no monthly cap”. Second, unused monthly credits roll over and expire “2 months from issue date” on monthly plans. Business costs twice as much for the same 100 credits; you’re paying for SSO, role-based access and other team controls, not more building.
When does Pro pay off? When the 6th-of-the-month wall keeps stopping you, or the moment you want your own domain. Before that, Free is a real plan, not a demo.
Is Lovable free for students?
Not free, but half price. As of Oct 25, 2026, Lovable publishes a student discount: “Students and teachers at universities, colleges, and schools get 50% off for up to 12 months on the Pro plan with 100 credits per month, billed monthly” (subscription-plans docs). Its students page puts it as Pro dropping “from $25 to $12.50 a month” (lovable.dev/students).
The rules, from the docs:
- Verify at lovable.dev/students with an account registered to your school email. The students page adds that personal addresses like Gmail “can’t be verified”.
- “Verification is available only to workspaces on the Free plan, and each person can use the discount once.”
- Only Pro 100 billed monthly. “Higher Pro credit tiers, annual billing, and other plans are not available with the discount.” Top-ups are full price.
- Cancel and it’s gone: “Lovable does not offer the discount again after you cancel.”
One wrinkle: the students page FAQ also mentions “a discount of $12.50/month on all other plans”, which the docs contradict. Go by the docs and confirm the price at checkout.
Comparing student deals across tools? See Bolt.new student discount.
Here’s what I’d do
Build on Free first, and connect GitHub on day one. Git sync is free, so your code stays yours.
Spend Plan mode credits carefully. At 1 credit a message, planning chats can eat a free month fast. Plan once, then build.
Use the daily chat allowance for questions before Oct 31. After that, Lovable hasn’t published the chat pricing.
Upgrade to Pro when you need a custom domain or hit the cap twice. Yearly ($250) beats monthly if you’re sure.
Student or teacher? Verify while you’re still on Free, then take Pro 100 at $12.50 a month. Don’t upgrade to regular Pro first, or you lose the chance.
Still shopping? Lovable vs Bolt, Lovable vs Replit, Lovable alternatives, or the whole field in AI coding tools compared.
Comparing free plans? Is v0 free? covers Vercel’s v0 free credits and student offer.
If you’ve outgrown Free, Lovable Pro vs Business compares the two paid tiers.
FAQ
Is Lovable free? Yes, Lovable has a Free plan with 5 build credits a day, capped at 30 a month, plus a daily chat allowance and small monthly hosting and AI grants.
Is Lovable free to publish a website? Yes, Free apps publish to a lovable.app address, but custom domains and badge removal need Pro or higher.
Is Lovable free for students? No, but verified students and teachers get 50% off Pro 100 billed monthly, $12.50 a month for up to 12 months.
How many free credits does Lovable give? 5 build credits a day up to 30 a month, plus 20 Cloud, 4 AI and 1 connector credit a month.
What is the cheapest paid Lovable plan? Pro with 100 credits at $25 a month, or $250 a year (about $21 a month).
Sources
- Lovable credits and usage docs (Free grants, 30-credit cap, Build/Plan costs and examples, chat pricing through Oct 31, 2026, out-of-credit rules, rollover): https://docs.lovable.dev/introduction/plans-and-credits (verified 2026-10-25)
- Lovable subscription plans docs (plan features, publishing and code by plan, Pro/Business tiers and annual prices, student and teacher discount rules): https://docs.lovable.dev/introduction/subscription-plans (verified 2026-10-25)
- Lovable pricing page FAQ (hosting cost, 1.70-credit landing-page example, student discount link): https://lovable.dev/pricing (verified 2026-10-25)
- Lovable students page (50% off, $12.50/month, 12 months, Free-plan users only): https://lovable.dev/students (verified 2026-10-25)
- Lovable quick start (lovable.app URL free on every plan): https://docs.lovable.dev/introduction/getting-started (verified 2026-10-25)
- Lovable project settings (custom domains on paid plans, badge removal on Pro and above): https://docs.lovable.dev/features/projects/settings (verified 2026-10-25)