Bolt.new is StackBlitz’s AI app builder: you describe a website or web app in plain English and it writes, runs and hosts the code in your browser, and it suits marketers, founders and freelancers who need landing pages or prototypes without hiring a developer. It has a free plan with 1 million tokens a month, Pro costs $25 a month or $18 a month billed yearly (checked 22 October 2026), and I score it 6.0 out of 10. My angle is the fine print that changed in the last five weeks: an AI-training setting switched on by default, a $9 plan that closed to newcomers, and tokens you lose when you cancel.
Disclosure: I don’t earn anything from Bolt.new. Its help center says Bolt doesn’t currently run an affiliate or sponsorship program, so every Bolt link on this page is a plain link.
Read this before your first prompt
Bolt.new on one receipt
| Line | What it comes to |
|---|---|
| Time | Minutes for a simple page; far longer once logins and payments come in |
| Cost | Free for 1M tokens a month; Pro $25 a month or $216 a year for 10M tokens |
| Output | Hosted web apps and sites with code you can export |
| Real earning path | Landing pages and small web apps for clients |
| Overall | 6.0/10 |
Who gets their money’s worth
Worth paying for if you need a landing page, waitlist or clickable prototype this week and can describe it clearly. Yearly Pro is the cheapest way to buy tokens.
Give it a miss if you’re planning a complex app with accounts and payments and nobody can read the code, or you can’t afford to lose a month’s fee to a fixing loop. Nothing is refundable.
How I checked Bolt.new, and how the score adds up
I haven’t built paid client work in Bolt.new, so this is a research review, not a hands-on test. On 22 October 2026 I read Bolt’s pricing page, help-center articles and release notes, StackBlitz’s Terms of Service (updated 22 September 2026), Trustpilot, G2 and Capterra, an r/nocode thread, Sacra’s company profile and three rivals’ pricing pages.
| Area | Score | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Ease of use | 8/10 | Plain-English prompts, free visual edits, one-click publishing |
| Output quality | 6/10 | Quick at simple sites; users report fixing loops and broken exports |
| Value for money | 6/10 | Fair yearly price; tokens expire and aren’t refundable |
| Trust and support | 4/10 | Trustpilot 1.6, few replies, training on by default |
| Overall | 6.0/10 | Average of the four |
If a price or rule here has changed, tell me through the contact page and I’ll fix it.
What is Bolt.new, and who is behind it?
It is a browser-based AI builder from StackBlitz, a San Francisco company whose first product (2017) ran full-stack web code in the browser. Bolt.new launched in 2024. Research firm Sacra estimates about $40 million in annual recurring revenue by March 2025, a $105.5 million Series B in January 2025 and over 7 million users by December 2025.
Bolt Cloud covers hosting on a bolt.host address, databases, sign-in (including Google), file storage, server functions and Stripe payments. Recent additions include visual edits in the preview, a token-free security audit on paid plans and Bolt Slides for decks.
Is Bolt.new free?
Yes. The Free plan needs no card and gives you 1 million tokens a month, but no more than 300,000 a day. Free projects carry Bolt branding, can’t use a custom domain, and their tokens don’t roll over. At the daily cap you can still edit code by hand in Code view for free.
How much does Bolt.new cost per month?
Pro costs $25 a month on monthly billing, or $18 a month if you pay $216 for the year, and both include 10 million tokens a month. The full list:
| Plan | Price | Tokens | Notable limits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 1M a month, 300K a day | No rollover, Bolt branding, no custom domain, 10MB uploads |
| Pro | $25 monthly, or $216 a year ($18 a month) | 10M a month, no daily cap | Rollover, custom domain, no branding, 100MB uploads, email support |
| Pro, larger tiers | $50 or $100 monthly; $540 a year for 26M | Larger allowances | Pro features, more tokens |
| Teams | $324 a year per member ($27 a month) | From 10M per member | SSO, admin controls, priority support |
Paying yearly saves $84, the 28% the pricing page advertises. The billing article doesn’t say how many tokens the $50 and $100 tiers include, so check your Subscription page first.
What does a million Bolt tokens really cost?
Between about $1.73 and $2.50 per million on Pro, depending on how you pay. There’s no per-prompt price, because most tokens go on Bolt reading your project files, so bigger projects cost more per message. My arithmetic:
| Way of buying | Monthly cost | Tokens | Cost per million |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pro, monthly | $25 | 10M | $2.50 |
| Token reload | $20 | 10M | $2.00 |
| Pro, yearly | $18 | 10M | $1.80 |
| Pro 26M, yearly | $45 | 26M | $1.73 |
Rollover is shorter than it sounds: paid tokens last two months from the start of the cycle they arrived in. Cancel and you lose them all at the end of the cycle, unless you resubscribe before they expire.
Can you still get Bolt Lite for $9 a month?
No, not if you weren’t already in. Lite ran only on Bolt Forge, a set of open-source models such as GLM 5.3 and Kimi K3 that Bolt says give up to 50 times more usage than its Standard agent. Sign-ups closed on 14 October 2026, as did free Forge use on Pro; existing Lite subscribers keep paying $9. Pricing guides written before mid-October still list Lite as the cheap way in, so treat any “$9 Bolt” claim as out of date.
Lite had another price too: Forge requires you to let Bolt’s partners train open-source models on your de-identified prompts, code and project files.
Does Bolt.new train AI on your projects?
Yes, by default, unless you opt out. Section 3.5 of the Terms, in force for existing accounts from 7 October 2026, lets StackBlitz train on content created from that date and license datasets to third parties “including for compensation”. You can opt out free on any plan. EEA, UK, Swiss, Teams and Enterprise accounts are excluded, and opting out doesn’t pull back data already used.
Most reviews haven’t caught up with this. If you build for clients, turn it off before your first prompt.
Why do Bolt tokens run out so fast?
Fixing loops and project size. Each “Attempt fix” click spends tokens re-reading your project. Bolt’s own advice: plan first, discuss in Plan mode (cheaper than Build mode), add features one at a time, roll back with Version history instead of asking for a fix, and only enable connectors you need. Visual edits are free until you save, and publishing and Code view edits cost nothing.
Do you own the code Bolt.new writes?
Yes. Bolt’s help center says your code can be used “for any legal purpose including commercial purposes”, and section 3.3 of the Terms assigns AI output rights to you as far as the law allows, with no promise it’s non-infringing.
Accounts are for “a single, named individual user” (2.1), StackBlitz can end an account “for any reason” and tells you to keep backups (1.2), and a site that uses up its hosting allowance goes offline until the next billing cycle.
Does Bolt.new give refunds?
No. The billing article says subscriptions are non-refundable, and section 1.4 of the Terms adds that consumed usage isn’t refunded either, except where the law requires it. Bolt takes only cards for Pro and Teams.
What do users say about Bolt.new?
Trustpilot reviewers are unhappy; business reviewers less so. On 22 October 2026 Trustpilot showed 1.6 out of 5 from 203 reviews, 82% of them one-star, with Bolt replying to 8% of negative reviews. Complaints from July to October 2026 centre on tokens drained by the AI fixing its own errors, crashes, broken exports and slow support; the praise is for how fast it builds simple sites. G2 showed 4.3 from 96 reviews; Capterra had no reviews yet.
An r/nocode Bolt-versus-Lovable thread (60 comments, December 2024) says the same: easy deployment and Stripe setup, and tokens burned on the AI’s own errors.
Strong points and weak points
Strong points
- Hosting, database, sign-in and Stripe in one place
- You own the code and can export it
- Free plan with a real monthly allowance
- Free visual edits, rollbacks and Code view edits
- Training opt-out is free on every plan
Weak points
- Fixing loops eat tokens, and Bolt keeps the money
- No refunds on subscriptions or used tokens
- Rollover lasts two months and vanishes on cancel
- AI training is on by default outside Europe
- Trustpilot 1.6, few replies to complaints
Is Lovable or Replit cheaper than Bolt.new?
Not by much at entry level; they mostly differ in how they meter usage.
| Tool | Entry paid price | How usage is counted | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bolt.new Pro | $25 monthly, $18 a month yearly | 10M tokens a month | Fast sites and prototypes with built-in hosting |
| Lovable Pro | $25 monthly, $21 a month yearly | 100 credits a month plus 5 a day | Similar prompt-to-app builds with Supabase |
| Replit Core | $20, or $18 a month yearly | $20 of usage credits a month | People who want a fuller coding workspace |
| Systeme.io | Free plan | Contacts and funnels | Sales pages and funnels with no code at all |
For a plain website, my Canva review may be enough. For decks, compare Bolt Slides with my Beautiful.ai review, and for back-office automations see the n8n review.
Should you pay for Bolt.new?
Pay for yearly Pro if you build simple sites or prototypes every month. Start on Free and switch off the training setting on day one. Hold off if your project is complex and you can’t read code: most of the complaints come from long fixing sessions on bigger apps, and Bolt won’t refund the tokens.
Can you make money building with Bolt.new?
Yes, mostly by building landing pages for clients. My earning guide has real Fiverr and Upwork rates, a worked month and the account rules to check first.
Bolt.new questions people ask
Is Bolt.new free?
Yes. It gives you 1 million tokens a month, capped at 300,000 a day, with Bolt branding and no custom domain.
How much does Bolt.new cost per month?
Pro costs $25 a month, or $18 a month billed yearly ($216), for 10 million tokens a month.
Can I still get Bolt Lite for $9?
No. Lite sign-ups closed on 14 October 2026; existing subscribers keep their $9 price.
Do Bolt.new tokens roll over?
Yes, on paid plans, for two months. Free tokens don’t roll over, and cancelling forfeits them.
Does Bolt.new use my code to train AI?
Yes, by default, on individual accounts outside the EEA, UK and Switzerland, for content from 7 October 2026. You can opt out free in account settings.
Do I own the code Bolt.new builds?
Yes. Bolt says the code is yours for any legal purpose, including commercial use.
Can I get a refund from Bolt.new?
No. Subscriptions and used tokens are non-refundable unless the law requires otherwise.
Update log: 22 October 2026: first published, with prices checked that day.
Sources
- Bolt.new pricing
- Bolt help: tokens
- Bolt help: billing
- Bolt help: Bolt Forge
- Bolt Lite page
- Bolt release notes
- Bolt help: Bolt Cloud
- Bolt help: corporate and commercial use
- Bolt help: maximizing token efficiency
- StackBlitz Terms of Service (last updated 22 September 2026)
- Sacra: Bolt.new company profile
- NoCode MBA: Bolt pricing 2026 (9 October 2026)
- Trustpilot: Bolt.new reviews
- G2: Bolt.new reviews
- Capterra: Bolt.new
- r/nocode: Lovable vs Bolt.new thread (December 2024)
- Banani: Lovable pricing and credits (April 2026)
- Lovable docs: plans and credits
- Replit pricing
- v0 pricing
- Bolt onboarding playlist on YouTube
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