How much does it really cost to build apps with AI? Move the sliders to match how you work, and the calculator prices the same work on six hosted AI app builders and on Zeltro, where your own AI agent does the building. Hosting and custom domains are included on both sides, and every price is the vendor's own, checked on 30 September 2026.
Solid bar: low estimate. Faint bar: high estimate, for heavier credit use per request. Hosting and domains included for every option.
How to read the result#
The bars show a range for every option. Most builders do not say how many credits a typical request uses, so the low end assumes about one credit a request, the way their own examples describe it, and the high end assumes what users commonly report for real projects. The "Your own AI" range comes from the hosting price and, on pay-per-use APIs, from how long your requests run. Zeltro itself adds nothing to it.
Change Your AI with Zeltro to see how much the choice matters. If you already pay for ChatGPT Plus or Claude Pro, all you add is hosting. A cheap API model costs a few dollars a month. A model on your own computer costs electricity.
What the calculator assumes#
All plans are billed monthly. Paying yearly lowers most of them by 15 to 30 percent, and Zeltro's license is paid once either way.
- Lovable: Pro tiers from 100 credits for $25 to 2,000 for $480, plus the 5 free credits a day that paid plans include. One to 1.5 credits a request; Lovable's own examples run from 0.5 to 2. Hosting and domains are included.
- Bolt.new: Pro tiers from 10 million tokens for $25 to 120 million for $200. Bolt puts 10 million tokens at about 100 messages; we assume 100,000 to 250,000 tokens a message, since bigger projects use more. Teams pay about $30 per member for 10 million, not shared.
- Base44: 100 credits for $20, 250 for $50, 500 for $100, 1,200 for $200. One to two credits a request; Base44 rates a complex change at 2 and an app-wide one at 3 to 4.
- Emergent: $20 for 100 credits, then $0.20 a credit, plus 50 credits a month for each deployed app. One to 2.5 credits a request, since Emergent does not publish it.
- Hercules: Pro at $25 for 50 credits, or Business at $199 for teams, then extra credits from $0.47 down to $0.30. One to 1.5 credits a request; Hercules says it "cannot provide estimates."
- Replit Agent: Core at $20 or Pro at $100 for teams, each including that much usage, then pay as you go. $0.10 to $0.40 a request, from Replit's "typically less than $0.25" for a simple one. Plus $2 a month to host each app.
- Zeltro: your AI option, plus one small server ($5 to $7 a month) for every four live apps, a .com domain at $11 a year per app, and the US$99.99 license once if it is business use. Personal use is free.
The full method, the per-request prices and the token test we ran are on the cost comparison page.
Why the gap is so large#
Lovable, Bolt.new and Emergent run on Anthropic's Claude. Base44 and Framer offer Claude, GPT and Gemini. Hercules says it pays OpenAI and Anthropic. They are a paid layer between you and the same models you can use directly. Zeltro removes that layer: your agent talks to the model on your own plan or key, and Zeltro handles the projects, databases and servers around it. No credits that expire, no fees per deployed app, and the freedom to use a cheaper model when you want one.
Sources#
Plan prices from Lovable, Bolt.new, Base44, Emergent, Hercules, Replit, Claude, ChatGPT, OpenRouter, Hetzner, DigitalOcean and Porkbun, checked on 30 September 2026. The full list, with credit examples and user reports, is on the cost comparison page.
Questions
Is Zeltro free?
Yes, for personal use: hobby projects, learning and anything you are not paid for, with no account and every feature included. A business using it, including for paid client work, buys a lifetime commercial license once, for US$99.99, covering everyone in the business. The costs in this calculator are the AI and hosting you pay for with any tool, not Zeltro.
How much does it cost to build an app with AI?
On a hosted builder, about $22 to $107 a month for a hobbyist and $66 to $379 a month for a freelancer with three live apps, depending on the builder and how many credits your requests use. With Zeltro and a $20 AI plan, the freelancer case comes to about $28 to $30 a month including hosting, plus a one-time license for business use.
How much does Lovable cost per month?
Lovable Pro starts at $25 a month for 100 credits, plus 5 free credits a day. Steady daily work of about 600 requests a month needs the 800-credit tier, $200 a month, and a team of three at 1,500 requests needs about $480 to $500. Lovable Business costs twice the Pro price.
Is Bolt.new cheaper than Lovable?
For light use, no: Bolt's tokens run out faster than Lovable's daily free credits, so a hobbyist pays $50 to $100 a month on Bolt against $25 on Lovable. For steady solo work they are similar, about $200 to $250 a month. Both cost several times what the same work costs with Zeltro and your own AI plan.
How much does Base44 cost?
Base44 runs from $20 a month for 100 message credits to $200 for 1,200, billed monthly. A hobbyist typically needs the $50 to $100 plans; steady solo work needs the $200 plan, and heavier use goes beyond it. Its AI also trains on your data on every plan below Enterprise.
What is the cheapest way to build an app with AI?
Use an AI you already pay for, or a cheap one, directly. With Zeltro, an existing ChatGPT Plus or Claude Pro plan does the building at no extra cost; a cheap API model such as DeepSeek costs a few cents a request; a local model costs only electricity. Zeltro itself is free for personal use.
Do AI app builders use Claude and GPT?
Most do. Lovable, Bolt.new and Emergent run on Anthropic's Claude, Base44 and Framer offer Claude, GPT and Gemini, and Hercules says it pays OpenAI and Anthropic. With Zeltro your agent uses those same models directly.
How accurate is this calculator?
The plan prices are the vendors' own, checked on 30 September 2026. The part that varies is how many credits your requests use, which is why every result is a range. Prices change often, so check the vendor's page before you commit. If something here is out of date, tell us and it gets fixed.
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Checked 2026-09-30. Other products change often — if something here is out of date, tell us and it gets fixed.