# Is Base44 Free? What the $0 Plan Covers and Where It Stops

> Base44's Free plan costs $0: 25 message credits a month, at most 5 a day, and up to 5 apps. What you can publish, what needs Starter, and why no trial.

_Source: https://professionalstoolkit.com/articles/is-base44-free — The Professional's Toolkit · updated November 2026_

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Yes. Base44 has a permanent Free plan at $0 that needs no credit card, and its credits refill every month instead of running out after a set number of days. You get 25 message credits a month, capped at 5 a day, plus 100 integration credits a month and room for up to 5 apps [1]. That is enough to build a working app and publish it on a base44.app address. It is not enough for a custom domain, a private app, code edits or payments. Base44 offers no free trial of its paid plans, so Free is the only way to try it before paying. If the monthly allowance is your only complaint, Starter is the cheapest step up, with 100 message credits a month.


**25** — Message credits a month on Base44 Free, at most 5 a day



- **$0** — Free plan, no credit card needed
- **100** — Integration credits a month on Free
- **5 apps** — Most apps a Free workspace can hold


## 25 credits a month: how far the Free allowance stretches

Message credits pay for every exchange with the building AI, and there is no fixed price per message. Base44 estimates about 0.5 credit for a simple text or visual change, about 1 for a small feature, about 2 for a complex module and 3 to 4 for a change that touches the whole app. The very first build of a new app costs about 1 credit, however detailed the prompt. By our arithmetic, 25 credits cover roughly 6 app-wide changes at the expensive end or about 50 small tweaks at the cheap end, and the daily ceiling means a month's allowance takes at least five days to spend [2].

The daily counter resets at midnight in your timezone or UTC. **Only the personal workspace** created at sign-up receives free message credits; any other workspace you leave on Free gets integration credits alone. Unused credits vanish at each reset rather than piling up, a rule that holds on paid plans too, apart from a one-cycle carryover when you upgrade from a monthly plan to a higher monthly plan, as our [Base44 pricing breakdown](/articles/base44-pricing) explains. Integration credits are the second meter. They pay for built-in services your app runs: about 1 per email from Base44's default sender and about 2 from your own email domain, 1 per upload, 1 per generated image, about 1 per AI call on the Automatic model and from about 3 per message to an in-app agent.

Your visitors spend those 100 integration credits too, every time the app emails them or calls the AI on their behalf. Database reads and writes cost nothing, though. When the pool hits zero, pages and stored data keep working while the built-in actions pause until the monthly reset. That makes Free workable for a small internal tool and fragile for anything public that leans on AI features. A busy demo can drain the month in days.


> 💡 **Plan in Discuss mode first:** Discuss mode costs about 0.3 message credit per message, so by our arithmetic Free's 25 message credits a month stretch further there, with the most you can spend in a day (5 credits) buying about 16 planning messages before Build mode spends more.


Several actions cost nothing at all. Manual drag-and-drop and text edits in Edit mode are free, as are previewing the app, the SEO and GEO scan, and Resolve with AI on errors flagged under Issues Found. One trap applies to Free alone: automatic AI fixes draw on message credits here, while paid plans run them at no charge. Credits spent on a failed or disappointing AI answer are never returned. Roll back instead. Version history is the undo button, so restore an earlier version rather than prompting the mistake away.



> ⚠ **Automatic AI fixes cost credits on Free:** On the Free plan, automatic AI fixes use message credits, while Resolve with AI for errors under Issues Found does not.

## What you can ship without paying

Free is a full builder, not a demo mode. Base44 lists its core features on this plan as authentication, a database and analytics, and you can publish complete apps with hosting and SSL on a free base44.app address. In-app AI agents work on every plan, including this one, with any model you pick for them, paid in integration credits. Built-in email reaches people who have signed up to your app. The security scan, the testing agent (about 1 to 4 credits per run) and the store-readiness scan for mobile apps all run here as well.

There are quieter limits too. Each app created since mid-October 2026 gets a 200 MB database on Free, and uploaded files do not count toward it. Analytics show only the last 7 days, with 3 custom events. An app can send 100 invitations in a rolling 24 hours. A Superagent, Base44's workspace-level personal agent, also runs on the Free credits and stops replying when they are gone; it does not count toward the 5-app limit.

One caution matters if the app is meant to be found. Base44's own SEO setup is built for apps on a custom domain, and search engines treat base44.app addresses as staging or test sites. **A Free site works for sharing a link, not for ranking.** The SEO and GEO scan and a robots.txt file still work on Free, so you can fix titles and structure early. Even after you connect a domain, Base44 says indexing takes days to weeks.

## The walls you hit on Free

Most limits fall into two tiers. Starter removes the ones that make an app look and feel like yours: the address, the branding and who can open it. Builder unlocks the ones that let the app do serious work, such as charging customers or talking to other software. Know which tier you need. Paying for the wrong one wastes a month. The table below lists the lowest plan for each feature people most often run into.

| What you want | Lowest plan |
|---|---|
| Connect your own domain | Starter |
| Hide the Edit with Base44 badge | Starter |
| Private app (invited users only) | Starter |
| Change code in the editor (Free can only view it) | Starter |
| Analytics beyond the last 7 days | Starter |
| Choose the AI model while building | Builder |
| Backend functions, connectors and workflows | Builder |
| Accept payments (Base44 Payments or Stripe) | Builder |
| GitHub sync and code export | Builder |
| App Store and Google Play files | Builder |

The badge deserves attention before you publish anything you care about. It sits at the bottom right of every public Free app, and anyone who clicks it can copy your app into their own account [3]. Private apps have needed a paid plan since February 2026. Emailing people who have not signed up to your app requires the Starter plan or higher plus a verified custom domain. Even text-message two-factor login for your own Base44 account is a paid feature; Free users rely on an authenticator app.


> ⚠ **Public Free apps can be copied:** The Edit with Base44 badge on a public Free app lets anyone copy the app into their own account; hiding it needs the Starter plan or above, and apps built on Free before early November 2026 need the badge toggle switched off one by one after the upgrade.


## No trial, so the Free plan is the test

Base44 offers no free trial of Starter, Builder, Pro or Elite. **Free is the trial.** Spend its credits on the riskiest part of your idea, such as the data model or the one screen that must work, rather than on polish you could add later. Base44 calls a first build a strong draft that usually still needs validation, permission rules and edge cases, so budget credits for that second pass.

There are a few legitimate ways to get extra credits without paying. Sharing a project on LinkedIn or X earns 20 message credits once per account, if the post tags base44, runs to 200 characters and the account has more than 100 followers. Referral bonus credits go to new accounts only and expire 40 days after they are earned. Founders building independently or backed outside Base44's partner network can apply for a year of Builder at no cost, subject to approval.

If you will pay anyway, students and teachers can claim 50% off Starter or Builder on their first paid subscription, but only while still on Free. It covers personal subscriptions, not team workspace billing, and lasts up to 12 months on monthly billing or the first year on annual billing before the standard rate applies; our [guide to Base44 for students](/articles/base44-for-students) covers the other conditions.

Read the Terms before you outgrow Free. Free accounts may serve business or personal purposes, but **paid accounts are for trade, business, craft or profession only**, not household use. A hobby app can live on Free. Upgrading it for family or personal use falls outside what the Terms allow for paid accounts. The Terms also call free credits promotional, which lets Base44 reduce or withdraw them at any time.

## When Starter is the cheapest way out

Starter costs $16 per month billed annually or $20 per month billed monthly. It quadruples the message allowance to 100 credits a month, raises integration credits to 2,000, lifts the app limit to an unlimited number of apps, and adds the domain, badge removal, private apps and code edits. By our arithmetic, a year of Starter billed annually comes to $192, while nine months billed monthly cost $180 and ten cost $200. Pay monthly unless you expect to keep the plan for ten months or more.

The yearly term carries one extra: Starter bought on annual billing since early October 2026 includes a free domain for one year (one standard domain, claimed within 60 days), which monthly billing does not. Payments, backend functions, connectors and GitHub sit one tier higher. They start on Builder, at $40 per month billed annually or $50 per month billed monthly, so price that plan first instead of upgrading twice. Plans are non-refundable under Base44's Terms, with Customer Care able to approve a prorated refund minus processing fees for a mistaken purchase or special circumstances.


> 💡 **Claim student pricing while on Free:** The 50% student and educator discount on Starter or Builder must be activated while you are still on the Free plan, before your first paid subscription. It covers personal subscriptions only and lasts up to 12 months on monthly billing or the first year on annual billing, then the standard rate applies.


One upgrade detail catches people out. Apps built on Free before early November 2026 keep the badge after you upgrade. You must switch the Platform Badge toggle off in each one, because the upgrade alone will not hide it on those older apps. Apps you create after that cut-off drop the badge on a paid plan without the extra step. Upgrades take effect immediately. Check the toggle the same day.


## FAQ

**Does the Base44 Free plan expire?**

No set end date applies: Free credits reset every month, so it is not a time-limited trial. Base44's Terms do let it reduce or withdraw free credits at any time.

**Do people who use my free app need their own Base44 plan?**

No. Base44 sets no limit on how many people sign up for or use a published app, but the built-in services they trigger, such as email or AI calls, spend your workspace's integration credits.

**Can I open several free accounts to get more credits?**

No. Base44's Terms prohibit creating multiple free accounts to get around plan limits.

**What happens to my apps if I pay and later drop back to Free?**

When the paid period ends, up to 5 apps stay published; with more than 5 you choose which, and the rest are unpublished, not deleted. Custom domains stop working, payments stop and your data stays in the workspace.


## The bottom line

Base44 is free in a useful, limited way: $0, no card, 25 message credits a month at no more than 5 a day, 100 integration credits and up to 5 apps on a base44.app address. That is room to prove an idea, not to run a branded product. Treat Free as your trial, since there is no other, and move to Starter only when the domain, the badge or the size of the credit allowance is what stops you. If you need payments or connectors, which start on Builder, skip straight to pricing that plan.



## Sources

[1] Base44 plans and pricing — https://base44.com/pricing (2026-11)
[2] Base44 docs: Credits — https://docs.base44.com/Account-and-billing/Credits (2026-11)
[3] Base44 docs: Choosing who can access your app — https://docs.base44.com/Setting-up-your-app/Managing-access (2026-11)
[4] Base44 Terms of Service — https://base44.com/about-us/legal/terms-of-service
[5] Base44 Privacy Policy — https://base44.com/about-us/legal/privacy-policy