Bolt.new (Bolt) is StackBlitz's AI app builder. You describe a website, web app or mobile app in plain English, and its agent writes JavaScript code, runs it in your browser tab and shows a live preview you can prompt, adjust visually or edit by hand. Bolt Cloud adds a database, sign-in and hosting. It is legitimate software from StackBlitz, Inc. of San Francisco. The catch is the meter. Free gives 1M tokens a month with a 300K daily limit, and Pro starts at 10M tokens a month for $25 per month billed monthly or $18 per month billed yearly ($216 a year).[1] Pay if you build steadily and can read code; skip it if you need refunds or quick support.
From a prompt to a running app, inside one browser tab
Nothing gets installed. StackBlitz built WebContainers, the technology that runs each Bolt project client-side in an isolated environment in your tab rather than on a remote machine per session. Bolt writes JavaScript-based applications only; its developer persona page names React and Next.js with Tailwind and Prisma. You can start from a prompt, a marketplace template, uploaded files, a single Figma frame, a Google Stitch design, an existing GitHub repository or a Lovable project imported through GitHub. After every processed prompt Bolt saves a version you can label and restore.
Two agents do the work. Standard is quick and frugal with tokens, suits small or medium apps, and is the only agent on Free. Max reasons more deeply for large apps and refactoring, spends more tokens per prompt, and needs a paid plan. Plan Mode lets you think through a change with the codebase as context without touching any file; it costs fewer tokens than Build Mode, though never zero. Direct edits in Code view and terminal commands cost nothing, and visual edits in the preview are free until you save the batch.
The backend ships with the product. Bolt Database is built on PostgreSQL and runs on Supabase infrastructure managed by Bolt, and it is the default on every plan, with tables, authentication, file storage, server functions, secrets and user management. Each app publishes to a free bolt.host address; custom domains need a paid plan. Using your own Supabase account, whether starting there, connecting an existing database or claiming a Bolt one, needs Pro or Teams. Native iOS and Android apps come through Expo from the same code base.
Ownership follows the StackBlitz Terms. You keep your rights in prompts and outputs, StackBlitz assigns its rights in AI output to you as far as the law permits, and the Terms warn that such output may not be copyrightable. GitHub two-way sync works on every plan, and a zip download runs locally with Node.js, minus your secrets. One wrinkle: an app on Bolt Database keeps depending on it until you claim the database into Supabase. The original bolt.new repository on GitHub is MIT licensed, and bolt.diy is a community fork you run with your own model keys. It has no Bolt Cloud and no tokens, and its maintainers plan no new features.
Plan Mode works through a change with your codebase as context without editing files, and it uses fewer tokens than Build Mode, though not zero.
What each plan buys, measured in tokens
Prices shown are what Bolt.new lists for visitors in the United States, in US dollars. Your price can differ by country, currency and local taxes such as VAT.
| Plan | Billed monthly | Billed yearly | Tokens |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 a month | $0 a month | 1M a month, 300K a day |
| Pro, entry level | $25 per month | $18 per month ($216 a year) | 10M a month, no daily limit |
| Pro, top level | $1,500 per month | $1,350 per month ($16,200 a year) | 900M a month |
| Teams, entry level | $30 per member per month | $27 per member per month ($324 a year per member) | 10M a month per member |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom | Not published |
Free and Pro are individual accounts tied to one named person, and credential sharing is prohibited. Teams is priced per member, and tokens are never shared or pooled between members, whatever the card's wording about shared capacity suggests. Higher Pro and Teams levels sit in the plan selector on the pricing page. The yearly toggle advertises savings of up to 28%, but that figure belongs to the Pro 10M level alone. By our arithmetic, Pro with 10M tokens a month costs $300 over 12 months billed monthly versus one $216 charge billed yearly, saving $84. Every higher Pro level saves 10%.
Tokens are not messages. Bolt's selector estimates about 100 messages for 10M tokens, yet most usage comes from Bolt reading and syncing your project files, so a larger project burns more tokens per message. The help center's own sample app used about 204K tokens for its first build and about 70K for a small title change. Those are Bolt's figures, not a forecast. On Free, reaching 300K in a day pauses the AI until the daily bar refreshes, though Code view edits still work. The 1M monthly bar resets on the 1st of each calendar month, and unused Free tokens never roll over.
Paid tokens refill every month (on annual plans, on the monthly billing anniversary) and roll over for two months from the start of the cycle in which they arrived, only while the subscription stays active, oldest first.[2] Canceling keeps the plan to the end of the period; after that, every allocated token, rollover included, is gone unless you re-subscribe in time. Extra token reloads exist only on the highest monthly Pro level or any annual Pro plan, at a price Bolt does not publish. An annual plan can only be downgraded at its next annual renewal. Our Bolt.new pricing guide walks through every level and upgrade rule.
Restoring a Bolt version rolls back code only; Bolt Database and Supabase data stay as they are, so export or back up data before risky changes.
The edges that catch buyers out
Refunds are the sharpest edge. Bolt subscriptions are non-refundable except where the law requires otherwise, and consumed AI usage stays non-refundable even when the output disappoints or has to be regenerated.[3] Domains bought through Bolt are final. There is no trial of Pro or Teams, and no student or educator discount. Test the workflow on Free before paying, because the upgrade itself is the commitment.
Support is thin below Enterprise. Free users get community help in the Bolt Discord. Paid users email support from their account address, answered Monday to Friday during business hours with no response-time commitment. Only Enterprise lists 24/7 priority support, a dedicated account manager, custom SLAs and a private Slack channel for escalation. Payment runs on credit and debit cards only, with no PayPal or bank transfer. Every account holder must be at least 18.
Several limits are structural. Restoring an earlier version rolls back code but never the database, so back up data before risky changes. Every Free published site is public, carries the Made in Bolt badge, and shares one hosting allowance across the account: 10 GB of bandwidth and 333,333 requests a month, a hard limit that takes sites offline until it resets.[4] Getting an Expo app into the App Store or Google Play happens outside Bolt, with the EAS command-line tool on your own computer and your own Expo, Apple and Google developer accounts, and every update means downloading and rebuilding.
Training is opt-out. From October 2026, individual accounts outside the EEA, UK and Switzerland may have new content used to train AI models, and StackBlitz may license de-identified datasets to third parties. The opt-out is free on any plan and does not undo training already done. Teams and Enterprise workspaces are excluded. The third-party AI providers behind the agents, by contrast, process your input only to respond and are contractually barred from training on it.
Restoring an earlier version costs no tokens, while asking Bolt to undo a change or clicking Attempt fix repeatedly spends them.
The complaints people post most often
Ratings split by platform. G2 and Product Hunt reviewers rate Bolt far more kindly than Trustpilot reviewers do. Trustpilot works here as a map of grievances rather than a verdict, and the map is consistent: support, account access and price come up most, and unexpected charges and refunds also appear. Capterra's Bolt.new listing carries no user ratings yet, and Bolt's own rating badge on its use-case pages is self-reported, so we ignore it.
Several of the recurring complaints trace back to rules described above rather than to bugs. Email support without a response-time promise meets builders stuck mid-project. Token use that rises with project size meets buyers who read the message estimate as an allowance. A no-refund policy meets anyone who upgraded and regretted it. None of these are hidden, but all of them sit in help pages and Terms rather than on the pricing card.
How we arrive at the score
Bolt.new (Bolt) covers the whole job in the browser: from a plain-language prompt its agent writes JavaScript-based websites and web apps and, through Expo, native iOS and Android apps from the same code, runs them in an isolated WebContainer in the browser tab (nothing to install) and shows a live preview; Bolt's developer page names React/Next.js with Tailwind and Prisma. Bolt Cloud is built in: Bolt Database on every plan (built on PostgreSQL and running on Supabase infrastructure managed by Bolt, unlimited databases, tables created after October 2026 private by default, Row Level Security on the tables Bolt creates), sign-up and login, file storage, server functions, secrets, user management, hosting on a free bolt.host address, and on paid plans hosting analytics, SEO boosting, private sites and custom domains bought or connected inside Bolt. Projects start from a prompt, a free marketplace template, uploaded files, a single Figma frame, a Google Stitch design, an existing GitHub repo or a Lovable import, and Bolt also builds slide decks (Bolt Slides, all plans). The code stays reachable: Code view with a terminal, two-way GitHub sync on every plan, a zip download that runs locally with Node.js, Stripe payments with webhooks handled, a database security check on every plan and a project security audit before publishing on paid plans. Held back by JavaScript-based apps only; App Store and Google Play publishing that happens outside Bolt (download the code, run the EAS CLI, use your own Apple and Google developer accounts, and repeat for every update); version restores that roll back code but never the database; your own Supabase only on Pro or Teams, one Supabase organization per Bolt account that cannot be changed and no way back from Supabase to a Bolt database; Netlify publishing without a database or backend; a 100MB combined project size limit for publishing; every Free published site public; and adding your own design system only on a paid Teams plan.
The agent is the product: Bolt offers two agents and picks the model behind them (since May 2026). Standard is fast and token-efficient for small or medium apps and well-defined tasks, on all plans and the only agent on Free; Max gives deeper reasoning for large apps, refactoring and open-ended work on paid plans and uses more tokens per prompt. Plan Mode (it replaced Discussion Mode in August 2026) plans and answers questions without changing code, with the codebase and recent messages as context and real-time information from trusted web sources, then hands off with Implement this plan; it uses fewer tokens than Build Mode, but not zero. The agent is steered by Skills at workspace or project level (July 2026, all plans), Knowledge at account, project or team level applied to every prompt, an agents.md file, @-tagging, locked files and a .bolt/ignore file; a prompt queue holds up to 20 prompts while Bolt builds; visual edits change text and styling in the preview and spend tokens only when a batch is saved; connectors let the agent read and act in tools over MCP; and the project security audit on paid plans fixes most issues it finds automatically without tokens. AI image editing and generation and Dynamic reasoning are paid-plan settings, off by default. Bolt's help center gives concrete token-efficiency advice (diagnose in Plan Mode, batch instructions, restore a version instead of re-prompting). Held back by no individual model choice, token use per message that grows with project size because Bolt reads and syncs the project files on every message, tokens spent on each Attempt fix click, saved visual edit, comment sent to Bolt and dictation, several active connectors that Bolt says can slow it, lower quality and raise token use, Max and AI images unavailable on Free, and skills that cannot call external tools without a connector.
Bolt connects outward at several points. Connectors (March 2026) run on MCP: built-in connectors for Notion, Linear, GitHub, Miro, Sentry, Context7, Granola and Jira, plus custom connectors for any remote MCP server (HTTP or SSE transport, API key, MCP OAuth or no auth), each action switchable off and following you across projects. GitHub has two-way sync on every plan, with branches created in Bolt, an org-level GitHub app (April 2026) and any public repo opened by putting bolt.new in front of its URL. Supabase can be used instead of Bolt Database (start on it, connect an existing database or claim a Bolt database) on Pro or Teams; Stripe handles one-time payments, subscriptions, trials and multiple tiers with webhooks (it needs Bolt Database or Supabase); Netlify is an optional host; Expo builds native apps, with RevenueCat for in-app purchases; Figma frames come in through Anima and Google Stitch hands designs to Bolt; Pica (November 2025) is a connection layer to many third-party tools through secrets and server functions; server functions reach webhooks and external APIs; Lovable projects import through GitHub. For enterprises Bolt announced (May 2026) Bolt inside Microsoft Teams and Microsoft 365 Copilot and Azure deployment, sold through its enterprise team. Held back by no public API or SDK to control Bolt from outside the product (only an invite-only CLI beta), connectors that live in personal settings and that only the project owner can connect on shared projects, one Supabase organization per Bolt account that cannot be changed, Supabase options gated to Pro or Teams, Netlify sites without a database or backend, Stripe that needs Bolt Database or Supabase rather than Firebase, the Lovable import that Bolt notes depends on a third-party app and may change, and the Microsoft items positioned for enterprise only.
Starting is easy: sign up with Google, GitHub or email without a credit card, describe the app and watch Bolt build it in the browser with a live preview and nothing to install. Plan Mode lets a non-coder agree a plan before any code changes, visual edits change text and styling in the preview, a version is saved after every processed prompt and restoring one uses no tokens, the Publish and Update buttons use no tokens and put the site on a free bolt.host address, and Bolt creates a database automatically when the app needs one (a login form, for example). Held back by what an owner has to manage: a token meter whose cost per message grows with project size, so the same prompt costs more in a bigger project and the plan selector's message counts are only Bolt's estimates; a 300K-token daily limit on Free inside 1M tokens a month; Free sites that stop serving when the whole account reaches its monthly bandwidth or request cap; restores that roll back code but never data; database choices that must be made at project start (a Bolt database cannot be switched to a separate Supabase project and there is no way back from Supabase); App Store and Google Play publishing done outside Bolt with the EAS CLI; Code view read-only on Safari or mobile and zip downloads on desktop only; GitHub disconnection that is permanent; and on Teams, tokens per member that are not pooled, with free members unable to prompt.
Bolt's pricing page (November 2026) prices Free and Pro per individual account and Teams per member, in tokens per month. Free is $0 with 1M tokens a month and a 300K-token daily limit, public and private projects, hosting on bolt.host and unlimited databases; Bolt's card says "Free forever, no card required". Pro starts at $25 per month billed monthly or $18 per month billed yearly ($216 a year) for 10M tokens a month with no daily limit, and rises in token levels chosen on the pricing page up to 900M tokens a month at $1,500 per month billed monthly or $1,350 per month billed yearly; per 1M tokens that is $2.50 billed monthly and $1.80 billed yearly at the 10M level, flattening to about $1.67 and $1.50 from 120M upward. Teams starts at $30 per member per month billed monthly or $27 per member per month billed yearly ($324 a year per member) for 10M tokens per member. Unused paid tokens roll over for two months while the subscription is active, reload tokens never expire, and custom domains, badge removal, private sites, your own Supabase, the Max agent, AI images and 1M hosting requests a month start on Pro. Held back by token use that grows with project size, Bolt's save-up-to-28% yearly label applying only to Pro at 10M (higher Pro levels save 10% and Teams about 8-10%), Teams tokens per member and never pooled, reloads only on the highest monthly Pro level or an annual Pro plan with no published price, all allocated tokens lost at the end of the period after cancelling, annual plans downgraded only at the next annual renewal, subscriptions and consumed AI usage non-refundable except where the law requires, no trial of paid plans and no student discount, and individual accounts outside the EEA, UK and Switzerland opted in to AI training on content created from October 2026 unless they opt out (free on any plan; Teams and Enterprise workspaces excluded).
Support is tiered by plan: Free gets community support in the Bolt Discord; paid plans email support@bolt.new from the account email, Monday to Friday during business hours, with no response-time commitment; Enterprise adds a dedicated account manager, 24/7 priority support, custom SLAs and a private Slack channel for escalation. The help center has troubleshooting pages for preview, publish, database, domain, integration and sharing issues. On security, Bolt says (November 2026) it is SOC 2 Type 2 certified and compliant with GDPR and CCPA, with its trust profile listing the same, round-the-clock monitoring and yearly third-party penetration tests; new Bolt databases have leaked-password protection on by default, new tables are private by default, a database security check runs on every plan and a project security audit before publishing on paid plans, and Enterprise adds SSO, audit logs and BYOK deployment in your own AWS or Azure tenant. Held back by no email support on Free, email support only during business hours with no response-time commitment on self-serve plans, no published uptime or SLA figure for self-serve plans, no HIPAA claim or BAA (Enterprise BYOK is only described as aimed at HIPAA requirements), version restores that never roll back databases, Free sites that stop serving at the monthly cap, failed payments that revert the plan to Free and drop rollover tokens, and Terms under which StackBlitz may delete content immediately after a Terms or AUP violation, so Bolt tells users to keep their own backups.
Mean of each platform's displayed rating with at least 30 reviews, weighted by review count (read November 2026): Trustpilot 2.1 from 217 reviews, G2 4.3 from 95 reviews and Product Hunt 4.4 from 47 reviews give about 3.0, so the axis rests mostly on Trustpilot. Trustpilot's negative reviews cluster on support, account access, price and charges; that is a map of complaints, not a trend and not a measure of all users. G2 and Product Hunt, read from the search index, are far higher. Capterra's Bolt.new listing has no ratings. No ad-hoc adjustment is applied. Bolt's own user rating on its use-case pages is self-reported and not counted.
support.bolt.new is deep and specific: tokens (what spends them and what does not, rollover, reloads, what happens at zero), billing with worked upgrade and downgrade examples, hosting limits per plan, Bolt Database, auth, storage, server functions, secrets and security checks, domains, agents, Plan Mode, token efficiency, skills, design systems, collaboration and team administration, integrations (GitHub, Supabase, Stripe, Expo, Figma, Google Stitch, MCP, Netlify), a glossary, a FAQ, troubleshooting pages and release notes dated entry by entry; the help center tells AI agents it is the source of truth for prices, token amounts and plan limits. A quickstart walks through a sample app with its real token use, and the blog adds prompting guides and use-case walkthroughs. Held back by help pages that are undated and by product, blog and repository pages that were not updated and contradict the pricing page or the help center: 2026 blog posts with an older, lower Pro price, a Forge post with a wrong yearly Pro price, a home page that puts Max on Pro only, a Lite page that still says it is open to everyone, older Discussion Mode wording, a design-system list in the release notes that differs from the help, and an older README; Bolt's comparison pages are a competitor's claims, which leaves the pricing page, the StackBlitz legal pages, the help center and the dated release notes as the reliable sources.
Weighted across the axes above (weights reflect what actually drives the decision in this category). How we score →
Bolt scores well where a builder needs breadth on day one. Database, auth, hosting, version history, GitHub sync, Plan Mode and visual edits all work on Free, and exported code is plain JavaScript that runs elsewhere. Bolt says its trust profile lists SOC 2 Type 2, GDPR and CCPA, and paid plans get a project security audit from the Publish menu, up to 30 a day without tokens, which Bolt itself calls a first pass. The weaker axes are value for money (a token meter that grows with the project), support and reliability, and user sentiment. That balance lands Bolt.new at 3.8/5.
The score would rise with a published reload price, a response-time commitment on paid support, or a token meter that scales less steeply with project size. It would fall if rollover or the Free allowance shrank, since the Terms allow plan limits to change. Keep one more rule in view: the Terms make you solely responsible for reviewing, testing and validating AI output, including its security and licenses, before you deploy it.
Matching Bolt to the person paying
Bolt fits a solo founder or developer who wants a working full-stack app quickly and expects to open the code. The Standard agent, Code view edits that cost nothing and GitHub sync keep a modest project cheap to iterate. Agencies and product teams gain per-member billing, team templates and admin controls on Teams, and adding your own design system needs a paid Teams plan. Anyone shipping native mobile apps should be comfortable with Expo tooling outside the browser.
It suits less well a buyer with a fixed budget and a large, growing code base, since each message reads more files. It also suits less well anyone who needs fast support or an exit from a paid plan before the period ends. If you would rather pay per workspace than per member, our Lovable review covers a builder billed in credits per workspace. Softr builds apps on top of your data without generating exportable code. Our Bolt.new alternatives roundup compares the wider field.
Frequently asked questions
Does Bolt.new have a public API?+
No. The help center says there is no public API or SDK to control Bolt from outside the product; a Bolt CLI exists only as an invite-only beta, free while in beta.
Whose tokens pay when a collaborator prompts in my project?+
The person who sends the prompt pays from their own account, not the project owner, on shared projects, in real-time collaboration and when sending comments to Bolt.
Can I work in Bolt.new from Safari or a phone?+
Code view is read-only on Safari and on mobile, and the Bolt phone experience added in October 2026 is for managing projects. Bolt's preview troubleshooting is written for Chrome and other Chromium browsers.
How does Bolt.new charge tax?+
Since November 2026, billing for Bolt plans and Bolt-bought domains runs through Link by Stripe, which adds VAT or sales tax where your region requires it.
Bolt subscriptions and consumed AI usage are non-refundable except where the law requires, and domains bought through Bolt are final.
The bottom line
Bolt.new hands you real JavaScript, a working backend and hosting from one browser tab, with enough on Free to judge whether the workflow suits you. What you pay for is a token meter that grows with your project, rules on refunds and rollover that favor the vendor, and support that, on paid plans, answers by email in business hours while Free relies on the Discord community. Our score reflects a capable builder with a costly learning curve on the bill. Start on Free, plan in Plan Mode, watch the token bar on a real project, and move to Pro only once you know how your project burns.
- [1] Bolt plans and pricing (2026-11) https://bolt.new/pricing
- [2] Bolt help: Tokens (2026-11) https://support.bolt.new/account/tokens
- [3] StackBlitz (2026-11) https://stackblitz.com/terms-of-service
- [4] Bolt help: Bolt Cloud hosting plans (2026-11) https://support.bolt.new/bolt-cloud/hosting/plans