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Choose a modeThe project chat has three modes:
  • Chat mode → discuss your app and possible changes, without a plan or code changes
  • Plan mode → investigate and write a plan you edit and approve before building
  • Build mode → implement changes and verify the outcome
Chat mode helps you decide what you want. Plan mode defines how to build it. Build mode changes the app. You can switch between them at any time, and the conversation carries across all three.
This page is about Chat mode, the Chat option in the project chat. To chat with Lovable outside a project, use Chats.

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Overview

Chat mode is Lovable’s conversation mode, designed for discussing your project without changing its code. It is the Chat option in the project chat, described in the mode picker as Ask anything, explore ideas. Lovable starts with the project you have open and reads its code, files, and data to answer. You can ask how the app works, talk through a change, compare options, or ask Lovable to outline an approach in prose. Nothing you discuss changes your code. Each Chat mode message is priced as a chat message, on the work Lovable does to answer it, typically a fraction of a credit. Your workspace’s daily chat allowance covers it first. See How Chat mode messages are priced.

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What Chat mode is for

Use Chat mode to talk through your project before you decide what to build:
  • Ask how a part of your app works before you change it
  • Talk through a feature idea and decide whether it is worth building
  • Investigate an error or unexpected behavior and find the cause
  • Compare two approaches and understand what each one involves
  • Get a second opinion on a design, a flow, or a piece of copy
  • Ask a general question about building with Lovable while you work
  • Check a fact in your app’s data, such as whether an order was recorded
Many Chat mode conversations end with an answer or a decision. When you decide on a change, switch to Plan or Build.

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How to use Chat mode

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Activate Chat mode

Open the mode picker next to the chat input, which shows the current mode, and select Chat. You can also cycle through Build, Chat, and Plan with Option+P (Mac) or Alt+P (Windows/Linux). Then write what you want to discuss. Lovable may ask a clarifying question when your message could mean several things. Ask about your app
Explore an idea
Investigate a problem
Get a second opinion

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Work with project context

Lovable answers from your project, so you do not need to describe your app before you ask about it. In Chat mode, Lovable can read:
  • Your project’s code and files
  • Your app’s data, when Lovable Cloud is connected
  • The conversation so far, including changes made in Build mode
  • Other projects in your workspace that you reference
  • Your connected tools, such as Slack, Notion, or Linear
To reference a specific file, type @ and select it, or use Reference file in chat in the code editor. To add another project as context, type @ and select it, or ask for it by name. Cross-project referencing is read-only and follows your workspace permissions. Connectors work in Chat mode as they do in Build mode. Lovable reads from a connected tool without asking, and asks for your approval before it creates, sends, or changes anything through the tool, unless you saved an Always allow answer for that tool.

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What Chat mode does not do

Chat mode never changes your project’s code or data. While Chat mode is active, Lovable does not:
  • Create or edit project files
  • Change data in your app’s database or run database migrations
  • Generate or edit images and videos
  • Enable Lovable Cloud, user authentication, or email sending for your project
  • Publish your app
  • Create a plan in the Plan view
Chat mode can outline an approach in the conversation, with the steps in build order, the parts of the app involved, and the trade-offs, but it does not create an editable plan in the Plan view. Switch to Plan mode when you want a structured plan to review and approve. For the other actions, Lovable proposes switching to Build mode. See Switch to Plan or Build.
Read-only for your project, not for connected tools. Chat mode does not change your project’s code, files, or database. Actions through a connected tool, such as posting a message to Slack or creating a Linear issue, do run in Chat mode. Lovable asks for your approval before it creates, sends, or changes anything through a tool, unless you saved an Always allow answer for that tool.

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Switch to Plan or Build

When you ask Lovable to build, fix, or change something, to generate an image or a video, or to publish, it shows a Start building card marked (Uses credits):
  • Select Build and Lovable switches to Build mode and makes the change. The card then reads Switched to Build mode. Your workspace needs available build credits for this step. The daily chat allowance does not cover the build.
  • Select Skip to stay in Chat mode. The card reads Kept Chat mode, and nothing changes in your project. Lovable describes the change instead.
Lovable shows the card only when you ask for the change. When you describe a problem, share an idea, or ask whether something is possible, the conversation stays in Chat mode. You can also switch modes yourself in the picker at any time:
  • Select Build when you know what you want built.
  • Select Plan when you want a structured plan to review, edit, and approve before anything is built. See Plan mode.
Everything you discussed in Chat mode stays in the conversation, so Lovable starts the plan or the build with that context. For how pricing changes after you switch, see How Chat mode messages are priced.

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How Chat mode messages are priced

Chat usage follows its own pricing model, including a per-message price and a daily chat allowance. A chat message is priced on the work Lovable does to answer it, typically a fraction of a credit. Free, Pro, and Business workspaces include a daily chat allowance that covers chat messages first. The allowance belongs to the workspace, so everyone’s chat messages draw on the same daily pool. When the day’s allowance is used up, chat messages keep the same per-message price and draw on your daily build credits, then your general credits. The allowance resets every day at 00:00 UTC and does not roll over. Enterprise plans do not include a daily chat allowance. See Chat costs for the full rules.
Temporary offering, subject to change. The current chat pricing model, including the per-message price and the daily chat allowance, applies through October 31, 2026. Pro and Business workspaces receive a larger daily chat allowance than Free workspaces. This pricing applies to messages in Chats and Chat mode, including messages sent through Slack or Telegram and requests made by voice.Build mode, Plan mode, image and video generation, and Cloud and AI usage follow their standard pricing and are not part of this offer.
The Chat option in the mode picker shows a Free badge while today’s allowance lasts. The More options menu on Lovable’s response shows Credits used, which reads Free when the allowance covered the message. Messages you send in Chat mode are priced as chat messages. After you select Build, on the Start building card or in the picker, Lovable’s work is priced as usage-based Build mode work. This includes the change Lovable makes right after you approve the card. After you switch to Plan, the messages that follow are priced as Plan mode messages.

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FAQ

No. Chat mode reads your project and discusses it. Changes begin only after the conversation moves to Build mode, either because you select Build on the Start building card or because you select Build in the mode picker yourself.
A Chat mode message is priced on the work Lovable does to answer it, typically a fraction of a credit. Your workspace’s daily chat allowance covers it first. When the allowance is used up for the day, the message draws on your daily build credits, then your general credits, at the same per-message price. Messages you send after switching to Plan or Build use that mode’s pricing. See Chat costs.
Use Chat mode for the conversation and Plan mode for the plan.In Chat mode, Lovable answers in the chat: how something works, whether an idea is worth building, or what caused an error. It can outline steps in prose, but it does not create a plan you can approve. Each message is a chat message, typically a fraction of a credit, and your workspace’s daily chat allowance covers it first.In Plan mode, Lovable investigates your project and writes a structured plan in the Plan view. You edit and approve it, and Lovable builds from it. Each message costs one credit, plus any subagent research.Start in Chat mode. Switch to Plan mode when you have decided what to change and want a plan to approve.
Chat mode is inside a project chat. Lovable starts with that project, everyone with access to the project sees the conversation, and a change starts through the Start building card.Chats lives outside your projects at lovable.dev/chats. Lovable starts with your workspace and connected tools, each chat is private to you, and a change is sent to a project as a build instruction.They share the same per-message pricing and the same daily chat allowance.