Bolt.new: what it is, what it builds and what it costs

What is Bolt?

Bolt, often searched by its address, bolt.new, or as “Bolt AI”, is an online service that builds a website or an app from instructions written in plain language. An AI agent reads your request, draws up a plan and writes the code. Building software by conversation has a name: vibe coding.

One specific point from the help center: Bolt runs in the browser thanks to StackBlitz’s WebContainers, with no installation. The vendor is StackBlitz, Inc., in the United States.

What Bolt builds and hosts

The hosted services are grouped under the name “Bolt Cloud”: hosting, domains, database, authentication, file storage, server functions and payments through Stripe.

• App type. Websites, web apps, and prototypes; iPhone and Android mobile apps with Expo. source Expo is a mobile app development tool: the same code serves iPhone and Android, but you have to ask for it in the very first prompt. Publishing to the App Store and Google Play is done with Expo’s EAS commands and paid Apple and Google developer accounts.
• Database and user accounts. Each project can have its own built-in database, with no limit on the number, on every plan. It comes with authentication (email sign-in, password reset, Google sign-in), storage and server functions. On Pro and Teams, Supabase can replace it, and a Bolt database can be transferred to your own Supabase account.
• Hosting. Free bolt.host address on all plans; publishing to Netlify is possible instead. source Netlify is a web host independent of Bolt. Visit statistics are reserved for paid plans.
• Domain name. Your own address requires a paid plan: buy it inside Bolt or connect a domain you already own.
• Code. The project downloads as a zip file from the project title, on a computer only, and runs locally with npm install && npm run dev. GitHub sync (GitHub is a code hosting service) creates a commit, meaning a dated snapshot, on every change that does not break the project, and pulls changes made outside Bolt every 30 seconds. It covers the main branch only, and disconnecting is permanent unless you go through support.

The help center states that the code you create with Bolt is yours and can be used commercially. The terms of service, however, grant StackBlitz model-development licenses over Bolt content, unless you opt out.

What Bolt bills: tokens

A token is a small piece of text, the unit an AI model reads and writes in. Bolt consumes tokens when it reads your instructions and the project files, when it draws up a plan and when it writes code. Most of it goes into reading and syncing files. The direct consequence: the same request costs more on a big project than on a small one.

No average cost per message is published in the pages recorded. What can be calculated is the ceilings:

• Free plan: 1,000,000 tokens per month, at most 300,000 per day. Three full days and a third are enough to empty the month.
• Pro plan: 10,000,000 tokens per month for $25 per month, ten times the free volume, with no daily limit. Spread over 30 days, that is about 333,000 tokens a day: roughly the free plan’s daily cap, but available every day.

Tiers, rollover and reloads are covered on the Bolt pricing page.

When tokens run out

On the free plan, you wait for the daily or monthly reset, or move to a paid plan; manual code changes remain possible. On a paid plan, unused tokens stay valid for two months, and reloads exist, but only on the highest monthly Pro tier or on an annual Pro plan.

The help center does not describe what happens when the tokens of a paid plan are used up and no reload is available (Bolt help center, tokens page (accessed November 11, 2026)).

Hosting and data

Hosting has its own limits, separate from tokens. On the free plan it is included up to 333,000 requests and 10 GB of bandwidth per month; beyond that, the site is offline until the next cycle. On Pro, the limit rises to 1 million requests and 30 GB per month, extendable on a pay-as-you-go basis up to a cap you set.

Two points are not recorded: where data is hosted, and whether the tool can be installed on your own servers. What is documented is the way out: the project can be downloaded, run locally and published to Netlify instead of Bolt.

Prices are in dollars by default, and the applicable sales tax or VAT has been added on top of the displayed price since November 1, 2026.

AI: what is documented

On AI features, the database holds a single item: AI image editing from the Pro plan up, according to the pricing page. source No separate AI pricing for the apps you build is recorded.

Who it suits, who it does not

This assessment rests on the vendor’s public documents; no real trial took place.

• If you want a mobile app, Bolt is one of the builders in the database whose documentation covers iPhone and Android. Still plan for the Apple and Google developer accounts, and for commands to run at publishing time.
• If you can read a little code, manual edits that cost no tokens change the math: the agent is only needed for requests that are worth it.
• If you work as a team, the Teams plan is priced per member and tokens are not shared. Lovable bills by credits, with unlimited members: see Lovable vs Bolt.
• If your budget has to be predictable, keep in mind that the cost of a request grows with the size of the project and that no per-message rate is published.

Bolt alternatives

The other app builders in the database count differently. Lovable bills credits per message, at a cost that varies with the task. Base44 separates message credits from integration credits. Replit includes a monthly amount of credits expressed in dollars and bills its agent by effort.

The AI app builders comparison starts from the need, and the Lovable alternatives comparison puts the four tools in one table.