Credits and usage

Lovable uses one credit balance for building your app, chatting with Lovable, hosting your app and running its built-in backend (Cloud), and powering AI features in your deployed app. Use Settings → Plans & credit usage to understand your credit balance, track credit usage, add credits, and manage top-ups. For available plans, plan feature differences, subscription tiers, billing cycles, invoices, and cancellation, see Subscription plans.

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What is a credit?

A credit is the unit Lovable uses to measure and pay for usage across your workspace. Credits let you build apps, chat with Lovable, run deployed apps, and power AI features from one balance. Your credits cover five types of usage: In Usage details, build and chat usage appear together under Build credits, and Cloud, AI gateway, and connector usage under Run credits. These are reporting views, not separate credit balances.

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Where credits come from

Your workspace receives credits from two kinds of sources:

1. Usage-specific grants, which apply only to one type of usage.
2. General credits, which can be used to build your app, chat with Lovable, host your app and run its built-in backend (Cloud), and power AI features in deployed apps.

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Usage-specific grants

Usage-specific grants are included credits that apply to one type of usage. Each grant belongs to the workspace, so everyone in the workspace draws on the same pool. Lovable always uses them before general credits. For example, the daily chat allowance applies only to chat usage. Daily build credits cover build usage and, after the daily chat allowance is used up, chat usage. The monthly Cloud grant applies only to Cloud usage, and the monthly AI grant applies only to AI gateway usage. Usage-specific grants refresh automatically, but their refresh schedule depends on the grant and plan type. Unused usage-specific grants do not roll over. Usage-specific grants and general credits are not separate pools. When a grant runs out, the usage it covers draws from your general credits, so you can keep building, chatting, and running your deployed apps as long as your workspace has credits available. Included usage-specific grants by plan: To see what is left of your daily build credits, monthly Cloud grant, and monthly AI grant, hold the pointer over the info icon next to Free usage included above the credit bar. The daily chat allowance is not part of that breakdown or of the credit bar. The Daily chat credits row on the same page shows the percentage of today’s allowance left. See View your credit balance. For the full plan comparison and paid subscription tiers, see Subscription plans.

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General credits

General credits can be used after usage-specific grants run out to build your app, chat with Lovable, host your app and run its built-in backend (Cloud), and power AI features in deployed apps. You can see a breakdown of your general credit types and their expiry dates in the Credit balance dialog. All unused monthly plan credits automatically roll over at the end of each billing cycle, as long as your subscription remains active. Rollover credits still expire on the schedule in the table above: 2 months after they were issued on monthly plans, and 1 month after the annual billing period ends on annual plans.

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Usage costs

Credits are used across four areas: building your app, chatting with Lovable, hosting your app and running its built-in backend (Cloud), and powering AI features in deployed apps. Each area uses credits differently, based on the type of work performed or resources consumed. To see where your credits are going over time, use Usage details.

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Build costs

Build usage covers Plan mode and Build mode messages in the project chat, work a chat sends to a project, and the images and videos Lovable generates, in a project or in a chat. Messages in Chat mode, the third mode in the project chat, are chat usage and follow the chat pricing model. See Chat costs. Use Plan mode to think through an idea, investigate a problem, compare approaches, or create a plan before changing code. Plan mode never modifies your code. A Plan mode message costs 1 credit, plus the cost of any subagent research Lovable runs while planning, so a message that needs deep research costs more than 1 credit. See How Plan mode messages are priced. Use Build mode when you want Lovable to implement changes directly in your project. Build mode pricing is usage-based. Small, focused edits usually cost less than larger generations, multi-step changes, or requests that require more codebase exploration, verification, browser checks, web search, or image and video generation. Here are some illustrative Build mode examples: Open the More options menu below any Lovable response in the project chat to see its exact cost under Credits used. The menu is available while Lovable is still working as well as after it finishes, so you can follow the cost of a long message as it runs. Stopped Build mode requests are charged based on the work completed so far. A request you stop before Lovable has made any change to your project is not charged. To review build usage over time, go to Settings → Plans & credit usage → Usage details and select Build credits. You can filter by time range and view usage by project or person. The chart splits the view into four groups: Build for Plan mode and Build mode messages and other work in your projects, Chat for chat usage, and Image generation and Video generation for the images and videos Lovable generates while it works. See Reading the chart. For long-running Build mode messages, Lovable checks in when a single message crosses your credit check-in level, 20 credits by default. The run pauses with a card showing what the message has cost so far. Choose Continue to keep going, optionally typing a new check-in level first (it becomes your default), or Finish up to have Lovable finish the work in progress and stop. If the message keeps running after you continue, Lovable checks in again each time it costs another level’s worth of credits. A check-in is a notification threshold, not a hard cap: a run can go slightly past the level before pausing, and sending a new message resets the count. A single message can run for up to 10 hours, so a long run can check in several times along the way. Manage check-ins in account settings: set the level (a whole number between 20 and 100,000 credits, applied to your account in every workspace) or disable them, either with Don’t ask again on the check-in card or with the Long-running credit check-ins setting. Wrapping up itself uses credits like any other work. The feature is in beta. If your workspace balance reaches zero while Lovable is working, the message pauses regardless of your check-in settings, and you can add credits to resume or have Lovable wrap up. See What happens when you run out of credits. A Build mode message you set as a goal with the /goal command is also billed on the work Lovable does, but costs noticeably more: the same work uses more credits, and Lovable keeps working until the goal is achieved. Build costs are the same wherever you build. A Build mode message you send in a draft costs the same as one in the main version of your project, and creating, updating, accepting, and deleting a draft don’t use credits.

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Chat costs

Chat usage follows its own pricing model, including a per-message price and a daily chat allowance. It covers messages in Chats, in Chat mode inside a project, and to Lovable in Slack or Telegram, including each request you make in a voice conversation. Lovable prices each message on the work it does to answer, typically a fraction of a credit. Chat usage draws from the daily chat allowance first, then from your daily build credits, then from your general credits, at the same per-message price. Enterprise plans do not include a daily chat allowance, so chat usage in an Enterprise workspace uses the workspace’s credits from the first message. Work that starts in a chat but runs in a project is build usage. A project Lovable creates or edits from a chat, the messages you send after switching from Chat mode to Build mode, and images and videos Lovable generates in a chat all use build credits at standard pricing. Lovable shows a card before a chat edits or creates a project. See Chat pricing and daily chat allowance and How Chat mode messages are priced. To see what a message cost, open the More options menu on Lovable’s reply. The row reads Chat credits used in Chats and Credits used in Chat mode, and a Free badge replaces the amount when the daily chat allowance covered the message. To follow chat usage and the allowance:

• Chat usage over time: Go to Settings → Plans & credit usage → Usage details, select Build credits, and read the Chat group. See Reading the chart.
• Allowance left today: The Daily chat credits row on Plans & credit usage shows the percentage of today’s allowance left. See View your credit balance.
• Inside Chats: The mode picker, a chat’s title menu, and the menu on each reply also show the allowance state. See Track your allowance and usage for each place, with screenshots.

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Cloud costs

Cloud usage is measured based on the hosting and built-in backend resources your deployed app consumes. It draws from your available credits, starting with any monthly Cloud grant included in your plan. Cloud usage usually increases when more people visit your app, your app stores more data or files, users upload or download larger files, your app sends more API responses or media, your app runs more code behind the scenes, or Realtime features send more messages. For more information, see the built-in backend (Cloud). To reduce a project’s usage, work through the checklist in Reduce a project’s usage: pausing, right-sizing the instance, fixing slow queries, cleaning up storage, or removing the built-in backend entirely. To review Cloud usage, go to Settings → Plans & credit usage → Usage details, then select Run credits. You can filter by time range and view usage by project. The More → Cloud → Usage view inside a project shows the same breakdown, already filtered to that project, so you can see which categories drive its usage while you work on it. The Run credits view includes Cloud, AI gateway, and connector usage. The usage chart breaks Cloud usage into categories such as Database, Network, Storage, Compute, and Realtime. Database usage includes both database server and database storage.

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AI gateway costs

AI gateway usage is measured when AI features inside your deployed app make model calls. These requests are separate from the Lovable agent that helps you plan, build, and edit your project. The built-in AI connector runs on a usage-based pricing model, so credit usage scales with how much your app uses AI features. Each model call deducts credits based on the model used and the number of tokens processed. On Free, Pro, and Business plans, AI gateway usage draws from the monthly AI grant first. After that, it draws from general credits if available. AI gateway usage rates are based on the underlying provider model costs. To estimate relative model costs, refer to the official provider pricing sources linked from the supported model list. For more information, see AI features for your app. To review AI gateway usage, go to Settings → Plans & credit usage → Usage details and select Run credits. You can filter by time range and view usage by project. The Run credits view includes Cloud, AI gateway, and connector usage. The usage chart shows the top models used (see image in Cloud costs).

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Connector costs

Some connectors, such as Perplexity, Firecrawl, and Parallel, offer a Managed by Lovable option that bills usage through Lovable credits instead of a provider account. Lovable charges requests through such a connection to the workspace the connection belongs to, at the rate on the connector’s page. Connector usage draws from your general credits. The monthly Cloud and AI grants do not cover it. To review connector usage, go to Settings → Plans & credit usage → Usage details and select Run credits. The usage chart breaks connector usage down by connector.

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View your credit balance

You can check your credit balance from the dashboard, the project editor, or Settings → Plans & credit usage. You can also ask Lovable in the project chat. The credit bar shows your remaining daily build credits, monthly credits, personal credits, team credits, or commitment credits, depending on your plan. The filled part of the bar is what you have left, so the bar gets shorter as you use credits. The daily chat allowance is not part of the credit bar. On Plans & credit usage, the Daily chat credits row at the bottom of the credit balance panel shows the percentage of today’s allowance left, and its info tip shows when it resets. Once the allowance is used up, the row reads Used up for today. Chats now use your build credits., which means chat usage now draws on your daily build credits, then your general credits. The row can also note that no build credits are left or that a credit limit paused chats. The row does not appear on Enterprise plans. Workspace admins and owners on paid plans can also open the Credit balance dialog for a detailed view of workspace credits, including credit types, expiry dates, and recent credit activity. Select Details to open the Credit balance dialog. On Pro and Business plans, the dialog has two tabs: Breakdown and History. On Enterprise plans, the dialog is titled Credit history and shows the history only.

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Breakdown tab

Available on Pro and Business plans. Not shown for Enterprise. The Breakdown tab lists your general credit grants, including each grant’s type, expiry date, and remaining amount. Grants expiring soonest appear first. A note at the top of the tab confirms that Lovable uses the general credits closest to expiry first. *Not all credit types appear for every workspace.

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History tab

Available on Pro, Business, and Enterprise plans. The History tab shows credit activity for up to the past 12 months, sorted newest first. Each row shows the event type, date, and credit change. Positive values mean credits were added, and negative values mean credits were removed or expired.

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Tracking credit usage

Go to Settings → Plans & credit usage → Usage details to see a detailed breakdown of where your credits go across build, chat, Cloud, and AI gateway usage. The Usage card on the Plans & credit usage page shows recent usage at a glance. Select More usage details to open the full Usage details page.

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Usage visibility by role

Usage visibility depends on your workspace plan, workspace role, the usage type, and whether you have access to the project.

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Filters

Narrow the view with these filters:

• Credit type: switch between All credits, Build credits for build and chat usage, or Run credits for Cloud, AI gateway, and connector usage.
• Project: see usage per project across All credits, Build credits, or Run credits. Admins and owners see every project. Editors see the projects they own, or on Enterprise the projects they can edit. Selecting a project updates the chart to show that project’s usage for the selected credit type. Clear the selected project to return to the full view.
• People: see your own usage under Build credits, or, if you are an admin or owner, see it per workspace member. This filter is only available when viewing Build credits. Selecting a person updates the chart to show that person’s usage. Select View details to open User insights for that member. Clear the selected person to return to the full view.
• Group: admins and owners can see usage under Build credits per group. This filter is only available when viewing Build credits, and is available to Business and Enterprise workspaces. Selecting a group updates the chart to show that group’s usage. Clear the selected group to return to the full view.
• Time range: view the last 30 days, last 90 days, all time, or a custom range of up to 90 days.

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Reading the chart

The heading above the chart shows your total credits for the current filter and time range, such as 5,352 credits in last 30 days. The chart shows daily credit consumption. Hover over a bar to see the details for that day. Usage data may be up to a minute behind your most recent activity. New Run credit usage can take up to 24 hours to appear. Each bar breaks down by the credit type you selected:

• All credits shows usage under Build credits and Run credits.
• Build credits shows Build, which covers Plan mode and Build mode messages and other work in your projects, Chat, which covers chat usage, and Image generation and Video generation, which cover images and videos Lovable generates while it works. Chat usage covered entirely by the daily chat allowance or your daily build credits does not appear. Only chat usage that drew on your general credits counts. Images and videos that your published app generates through its AI features are AI gateway usage and appear under Run credits instead.
• Run credits shows Cloud usage, AI gateway usage, and connector usage. Cloud usage breaks down into Database (server and storage), Network, Storage, Compute, and Realtime. AI gateway usage shows a breakdown by the top three models used. Connector usage shows a breakdown by connector.

Select a category in the legend below the chart to hide or show it. In the Build credits and Run credits views, a table below the chart lists each category’s total for the selected time range. This helps you answer questions such as Which project is driving my hosting costs? or Which member used the most credits this month? directly from Usage details.

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Projects and People tabs

Below the chart, usage is broken down in two tabs:

• Projects (My projects for editors): credits used per project across the selected credit type. Search and sort projects by usage, then select a project to apply the filter and update the chart.
• People: usage under Build credits per workspace member, including chat usage. This tab is available when viewing Build credits. Search and sort members by usage, then select a person to apply the filter and update the chart.

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Credit top-ups

Credit top-ups are available on Pro and Business plans. Use them to add credits to your workspace balance so you can continue building your app, chatting with Lovable, hosting your app and running its built-in backend (Cloud), and using AI features in deployed apps. Workspace owners and admins on paid plans can add credits in two ways:

• Auto top-up: add credits automatically when your balance runs low
• One-time top-up: buy credits manually when you need them

You can buy credit top-ups from:

• Settings → Plans & credit usage
• The low-credits alert in the project chat when you’re running out of credits

Pricing depends on your plan. Top-up credits are purchased outside your monthly subscription, so they have their own price per credit. Credit top-ups are billed as one-time payments through Stripe. An invoice or receipt is generated for every purchase. Top-up credits are valid for 12 months from the purchase that added them.

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Auto top-up

Auto top-up automatically purchases credits when your balance reaches or falls below a threshold you set. Use it to keep building your app, hosting it and running its built-in backend (Cloud), and using AI features in deployed apps when your balance gets low. Top-ups run as often as needed, as long as the next top-up would not exceed your monthly spend limit. Your default payment method is charged only when a top-up is triggered. Auto top-up runs only if both conditions are met:

1. Your balance reaches or falls below your selected threshold.
2. The top-up would not exceed your monthly spend limit.

The monthly spend limit resets on the 1st of each calendar month at 00:00 UTC, displayed in your timezone. It is not tied to your subscription billing cycle.

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Disable auto top-up

Workspace owners and admins can disable auto top-up at any time to stop further automatic credit purchases. You can still add credits manually with a one-time top-up at any time.

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One-time top-up

Use a one-time top-up to add credits manually without changing your subscription. This is useful if you run out of credits mid-cycle or have occasional spikes in usage. Credits are added to your workspace instantly. Multiple purchases are allowed.

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Alerts and notifications

Lovable shows alerts when your workspace is close to a limit, runs out of credits, or needs billing attention. Alerts can appear as nudges in the project chat, in-app banners, blocking dialogs, inline messages, or emails to workspace owners and admins. You may be notified when:

• Your workspace is running low on credits. A nudge appears above the chat input with your remaining credits and an option to add more.
• Your daily chat allowance is used up. In a chat, Lovable shows Chats may now use your credits, and further chat usage draws on your daily build credits, then your general credits. See Chat costs.
• Your workspace runs out of credits. When you try to continue building your app, Lovable shows a blocking dialog and building stops until credits are available. If Lovable is working on a message at the time, it pauses and shows a card in the project chat instead. See What happens when you run out of credits.
• A deployed app is paused because your workspace has no available credits. Lovable shows an in-product message when a deployed app that relies on the built-in backend (Cloud) or AI features pauses.
• Cloud or AI gateway usage approaches a limit. Lovable shows an in-app alert on the Plans & credit usage page.
• Credits are expiring soon. A nudge in the project chat may appear when top-up or rollover credits are nearing expiry.
• Auto top-up fails. Lovable emails workspace owners and admins and shows an in-app banner with options to retry the charge or update the payment method.
• Auto top-up reaches its monthly spend limit. Lovable emails workspace owners and admins when auto top-up reaches the monthly spend limit you set.
• A non-admin runs out of credits. They can send a credits ping to workspace owners asking them to add credits.

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What happens when you run out of credits

Running out of credits affects each part of Lovable differently:

• Building stops. When you try to continue building, Lovable shows a blocking dialog until credits are available.
• Chats and Chat mode continue while the daily chat allowance lasts. The allowance does not depend on your credit balance, so messages in Chats and Chat mode keep working until it is used up for the day. After that, Lovable shows Chat credits unavailable and pauses chats until you add credits or the allowance resets at 00:00 UTC.
• Work in progress pauses. If Lovable is working on a message when your workspace runs out of credits, it pauses and shows a card in the project chat. Choose Add credits to resume the message where it left off, or Finish up to have Lovable finish what’s in progress and stop instead of starting anything new. If you can’t manage billing for the workspace, the card shows Ask an admin instead, and once credits are available again the card offers Resume. Paused work waits until you decide.
• AI features in deployed apps stop working. App features that call AI at runtime need available credits, so they fail while your balance is at zero.
• Built-in backend services will pause. If your app uses a backend service such as a database, storage, or authentication, those services pause shortly after you run out of credits. Your database, storage, and authentication data stays safe while the services are paused. You cannot access or export it until the services run again. To learn how to get a copy of your data, see Export Lovable Cloud data. To reduce costs, ask Lovable to optimize your project, or pause projects you don’t use. Check your usage page for more information on backend spend.

To keep your workspace and apps running:

• Free plan: upgrade to a paid plan to get more credits and unlock top-ups.
• Paid plans: enable auto top-up, or add credits with a one-time top-up.

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FAQ

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Troubleshooting