Lesson Content

Most builders charge for the AI work of building, and some also charge when your live app is used. Common models (verify current details; they change often):

• Message or build credits: each chat request costs credits; bigger requests can cost more. Free plans often give a small daily allowance (for example, Lovable's free plan has given a few credits per day; Base44's free plan has included a small monthly message allowance).
• Tokens: some builders (such as Bolt) bill by how much text the AI reads and writes. Costs grow as your app gets bigger, because the AI reads more of it each time.
• Usage-based credits for agents: some services (such as Replit) let the agent decide how much work a request needs and bill from a credit allowance.
• Live app usage: some services charge separately for what the running app does (database actions, AI features inside your app, emails, storage, or number of users). Base44 separates message credits for building from integration credits for app actions; Glide meters data updates; Bubble meters workload.

Habits that waste credits: vague prompts, asking for many changes at once, "try again" loops, rebuilding instead of rolling back, and adding features before the basics work.