Is Lovable free?
The short answer
Yes, Lovable has a real free tier: 5 build credits per day (capped at 30 per month) plus 20 Cloud credits and 4 AI credits each month, enough to build and publish a working app on a lovable.app address. The catches are no custom domain, and daily credits that expire at midnight. Paid starts at $25 a month for Pro with 100 credits (about $21 a month on annual billing). Business starts at $50.
Lovable plans at a glance (2026)
| Plan | Price | Credits | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 5 build credits/day (max 30/mo) + 20 Cloud credits/mo | Full builder, private projects, publishes to a lovable.app address |
| Pro | from $25/mo ($21/mo annual) | 100/mo, scales to 10,000/mo | Custom domain, badge removal, Code Mode, credits roll over |
| Business | from $50/mo | 100/mo plus team controls | SSO, data-training opt-out, per-user credit limits |
| Enterprise | custom | custom | Dedicated support, SCIM, audit logs |
In detail
The free plan is a real product, not a demo. You get the full prompt-to-app builder, private projects, and publishing to a yourapp.lovable.app address. The allowance: 5 build credits per day (unused ones expire at midnight, capped at 30 per month), plus monthly grants of 20 Cloud credits for the hosted backend (database, logins, storage) and 4 AI credits for AI features inside your app.
Here is what a credit buys. A simple edit costs about 0.5 credits, a moderate change 0.9 to 1.2, a complex feature about 1.7. Five daily credits is roughly 3 to 8 meaningful prompts a day, fine for learning the tool or a weekend prototype.
Where free stops: the moment a project gets serious. A real MVP burns far more than 30 credits in its first week, daily credits do not roll over, and you cannot connect your own domain, so anything customer-facing carries the lovable.app address. The Cloud grant is the quieter limit, and 20 credits covers a lightly used backend, not real traffic. Treat free as an honest, open-ended trial, enough to know whether prompt-to-app building suits you before paying.
The paid ladder is usage-based. Pro starts at $25 a month for 100 monthly credits and scales inside the same plan (200 credits for $50, 400 for $100, up to 10,000 for $2,250), with annual billing about 16% cheaper, which drops the entry tier to $21 a month. Pro is where the practical features live, namely custom domains, badge removal, Code Mode, and monthly credits that roll over instead of expiring.
Running low mid-month costs $15 per 50 extra credits. Business starts at $50 a month and adds SSO, a data-training opt-out, and per-user credit limits. Enterprise is custom.
The buying advice follows from the meter. Building actual software (a portal, a booking tool, an app with logins)? Lovable free is the best trial in the category. Start there, and upgrade to Pro the week the credits start deciding what you build. Just need a marketing site? A per-credit app builder is the expensive way to get one: 10Web generates a real WordPress site on flat pricing, and Webflow gives design control without a meter. Match the tool to the job before the credits match it for you.