Good for / not for
- Developers who want the shortest path from a prompt to a running app, with the code theirs to keep.
- Anyone who does not want to install anything — the build and the runtime are both in the browser.
- Full-stack JavaScript projects, which is what Bolt generates.
- Seeing how much a long debugging conversation costs before paying: 300,000 free tokens a day.
- Non-developers. Reviewers describe a complexity wall that stops people who cannot read the code.
- Anything outside the JavaScript ecosystem.
- Anyone who needs a predictable monthly cost, since the tokens spent fixing Bolt's mistakes are billed like any others.
What it actually does
You type what you want and Bolt.new writes a full-stack JavaScript app, runs it and shows you the result — all inside a browser tab, with nothing installed on your machine. The generated project is an ordinary JavaScript codebase you can take with you, which is the usual reason developers pick it over builders that keep your app behind their login. Everything is metered in tokens rather than messages or generations. The free plan gives 300,000 tokens a day under a ceiling of 1,000,000 a month, and reviewers report that daily cap running out before a first build completes, so treat it as a way to measure the cost of your own iteration rather than as a budget for a finished app. Pro at $25 a month starts at 10,000,000 tokens a month and removes the daily cap. Teams is $30 per member a month, and Enterprise is quoted. The tokens you spend are not only the ones that add features: reviewers estimate up to half go on fixing errors Bolt itself introduced, which is the single most useful thing to know before you start.
Start a project on the free plan and keep iterating on it.
300,000 tokens a day under a ceiling of 1,000,000 a month. Pro at $25 a month starts at 10,000,000 tokens and drops the daily cap.
From the vendor's docsPricing and free-plan limits
Free tier: $0 with 300,000 tokens a day, under a ceiling of 1,000,000 a month.
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Free |
Limits: 300,000 tokens/day · 1,000,000 tokens/month |
| Pro | $25/month |
|
| Teams (per member) | $30/month |
This table carries the per-member price only; check the pricing page for the token allowance Teams includes. |
| Enterprise | Custom pricing |
No figure is published. |
Prices checked on Sep 6, 2026 against the vendor's pricing page. Plans change often — confirm before you pay.
Three honest limitations
- Token burn is the recurring complaint: reviewers estimate up to half of your tokens go on fixing errors Bolt itself introduced, and the free daily cap can run out before a first build completes.
- Trustpilot scores it 1.4 out of 5, with many complaints from non-developers who hit a complexity wall.
- The MIT-licensed repository at github.com/stackblitz/bolt.new has not been pushed since December 2024, while the product you use is closed, hosted software.
Alternatives
- Lovable — Choose Lovable instead if you want a chat-first workflow and a Supabase backend rather than a codebase to manage.
- Base44 — Choose Base44 instead if you do not write code and want the database, login and hosting handled for you.
- v0 by Vercel — Choose v0 instead if you need a React front end and deploy on Vercel already.
Getting started in 5 minutes
- Open bolt.new and describe the app in a sentence or two — there is nothing to install.
- Keep the first build small. The free plan gives 300,000 tokens a day, and reviewers report that running out before a first build completes.
- Export the project once it works; it is an ordinary JavaScript codebase and it is yours.
- If the daily cap keeps stopping you, Pro at $25 a month starts at 10,000,000 tokens and removes it.
Bolt.new questions
- Is Bolt.new free?
- There is a free plan with 300,000 tokens a day and 1,000,000 a month. Pro is $25 a month, starts at 10,000,000 tokens and has no daily cap. Teams is $30 per member a month.
- Why does my token allowance disappear so fast?
- Bolt meters usage in tokens rather than messages, so a long conversation about one bug costs more than a request that works first time. Reviewers estimate up to half of tokens go on fixing Bolt's own errors.
- Is Bolt.new open source?
- Not in any useful sense. There is an MIT-licensed repository, but it has not been pushed since December 2024 and the hosted product you actually use is closed software.
- Can I take the code with me?
- Yes. Bolt generates a normal full-stack JavaScript project, and full code ownership is part of what it sells.
- Bolt.new or Lovable?
- Bolt if you write JavaScript and want the runtime and the code in the browser. Lovable if you want a React and Supabase app built through chat and are less interested in the codebase.
Sources
- Bolt.new pricing (free token limits, Pro, Teams, Enterprise)
- Bolt.new review — token burn, free-cap exhaustion, Trustpilot 1.4/5
- GitHub repository (MIT, 16,537 stars, no push since 2024-12-17)
- Bolt.new traction ($40M ARR in ~5 months, 7M+ registered users)
Research-compiled, not hands-on tested. Compiled from official docs, the vendor's pricing page and community reviews as of Sep 6, 2026. We haven't tested it hands-on yet.