Credits
Credits are Builder's usage currency for everything that runs on the platform: AI generation, hosting and serving your published projects, and Builder-managed databases.
Each credit represents a fixed dollar value that covers the underlying model or infrastructure costs plus Builder's service margin.
Why usage-based credits work:
- Simplicity: one currency for AI, hosting, and database usage
- Transparency: understand exactly how model and infrastructure costs translate to credits
- Flexibility: ability to both rollover and pool credits across your team
Note: Builder is transitioning from Agent credits to credits as they expand to cover hosting and databases.
Credit allocation by plan
| Plan type | Plan Details |
Free |
|
Pro/Team |
|
Enterprise |
|
Notes | Users that purchased before May 3, 2025 will remain at their current limits, but can upgrade to the above plan at anytime. |
How credits are shared
Credits pool at the team, Space, or Organization level, so everyone collaborates from the same credit allocation without individual usage limits.
- All plans: no individual limits; teams use credits from the shared pool
- Free, Pro, & Team plans: everyone in your Space shares the same credit pool.
- Enterprise plans: everyone in your Organization shares the same credit pool.
A note on Free plan limits
Free plan capacity is fixed. Adding users does not increase credit limits.
Additionally, keep in mind that whichever limit is reached first, daily or monthly, applies. This may mean that your monthly usage may run out in the middle of a day. See Pricing for more information on current limits for Free plans.
Example: Free user daily limit
Sarah uses 15 credits by noon for code generation. Since she’s hit her daily cap, she needs to wait until tomorrow for more credits or upgrade to Pro for immediate access.
AI usage
Builder's agentic AI systems think, reason, and use tools differently from traditional chat models.
The AI automatically scales its reasoning depth to match each task’s needs—it scales its computational effort with task complexity, using more tokens for hard problems and fewer for basic ones.
This means Builder uses tokens proportional to the task's difficulty.
Credits are consumed when you interact with AI models. The cost is calculated from:
- Input tokens: your prompts, code, and instructions sent to the AI
- Output tokens: the AI's generated responses and code
- Model selection: different AI models have different per-token rates
Choose a different model for different costs
Builder defaults to the best AI model that balances cost and performance, but this model can be changed to adjust to the needs of yoru business. To do so, click the Select AI Model dropdown at the bottom of your prompt and choose a different model.
The dropdown displays the AI model's Quality as a letter grade and Cost as a multiplier of the base credit value (Claude Haiku 4.5).
For example, choosing a model with a Cost of 0.1x means you receive 10x the prompts for the same amount of credits.
Keep in mind that higher quality models produce better results, both in terms of output as well as general reasoning.
Real-world impact
Input tokens are the most cost-effective for providing context. Every prompt, question, or piece of content you send to the model counts as input. This includes your initial requests, follow-up questions, and any context you provide—like pasting code snippets or design specifications. Input tokens are processed once and discarded after the response.
Cache write tokens enable you to write once and reuse many times. When the system processes large context—like your entire codebase or a long, written research document—it writes this information to cache for future reuse. The upfront cost is higher than input tokens, but pays off through cheaper cache hits later.
Cache hits offer significant savings for repeated context. After content is cached, subsequent operations that reference the same context—like asking follow-up questions about your codebase, or iterating on a component—use cache hits instead of reprocessing. This creates major cost savings for ongoing work on the same project.
Output tokens are premium-priced as they require the most computation, and generally where the most value is derived. Every word, line of code, or character that is generated costs more because the model must actively create new content rather than just process existing information. Longer responses cost more, but the quality and accuracy justify the premium pricing.
Hosting and database usage
When you publish a project with Builder hosting or add a Builder-managed database, the infrastructure your app uses draws from the same credit pool as your AI usage. Builder provisions and manages hosting and databases inside your Space, so there's no separate hosting or database account or bill.
What's metered
- Hosting: deploys, bandwidth, server and edge function compute, and web requests for your published sites. Builder meters these together as one combined total for your Space.
- Databases: compute time, storage, and data transferred out over the network. Databases scale to zero after 5 minutes of inactivity, so an idle database uses no compute—though its stored data still counts toward storage.
Infrastructure costs convert to credits the same way model costs do: each credit covers the underlying cost plus Builder's service margin. Hosting and database rates are set separately from AI model rates.
How hosting and database charges work
- Charged to your Space, not a person: hosting and database usage comes from your app's traffic and activity, so it's billed to the Space and isn't attributed to any team member.
- Deducted once an hour: Builder measures usage hourly and deducts credits for any new usage since the last check. Your balance can go down even when nobody on your team is working in Builder.
- Same pool, same rules: these charges use the same shared credit pool, rollover, and top-up options as the rest of your credits.
Free plan hosting limits
On the Free plan, hosting is limited to:
- 1 published site per Space
- 15 deploys per month: Builder warns you once you reach 10. When you hit the limit, your live site keeps serving, but new deploys are blocked until the next month or until you upgrade.
Pro, Team, and Enterprise plans don't have a deploy limit.
Real-world usage examples
These scenarios are for demonstration purposes only. The numbers provided are approximate and will vary due to the non-deterministic behavior of generative AI and live application usage.
This section covers examples of how credits translate to actual app building tasks. Expand each for details:
Description: A UX designer needs to add a carousel component designed in Figma.
Prompt with context: “Create a carousel component using this design [attached Figma design]”
Additional context: Figma frame copied and pasted with the Builder plugin
Estimated credits
- 1 credit generating in Figma
- 4 credits exporting to Figma
- 11 credits generating a working demo in an app
Description: A cross-functional team needs a working prototype of an onboarding flow to demo to stakeholders.
Prompt with context:"Create a 4-step user onboarding flow on /welcome: 1) Welcome & account setup, 2) Profile information, 3) Preferences selection, 4) Confirmation. Include progress indicators, form validation, ability to go back/forward, and integration with our user API. Make it mobile-responsive."
Additional context: n/a
Estimated credits: 18 credits
Description: A product manager needs to create a user settings feature by attaching a Product Requirement Document.
Prompt with context: “Based on this Product Requirements Document [attach document], create a user profile settings page on /settings that allows users to update their personal information, change password, manage notification preferences, and upload a profile picture. Include proper state management and loading states.”
Additional context: 124kb PRD attached as a PDF
Estimated credits: 37 credits
Description: A product team wants to create a lightweight design system based off of their existing components.
Prompt with context (from within an existing app):
“Using this application as context, help create a set of css variables that can be used to apply the branding and design to reusable web content.
These tokens will be for the basis of a design system. Be sure to organize the tokens in sections clearly marked by comments, and be sure to include a fairly exhaustive list of clearly named tokens that describe their function and meaning. Use comments to help guide use of the tokens.
Make sure the set generated includes:
- Base colors (a set of color primitives selected from the image, named after the color)
- Neutrals (any grays or neutral tones)
- Semantic colors: success, warning, error
- Text colors: default, subtle, muted, inverted, brand
- Background colors: default, muted, inverted, brand
- Border colors
- Font families
- Font sizes
- Font weights
- Line heights
- Letter spacing
- Spacing scale tokens (used for margin, padding, size, etc)
- Border radii
- Border widths
- Box shadows
- Button colors for primary and secondary (text color, background, hover color, etc)
- Button sizes and border and radius
- Icon sizes
- Link colors (primary and secondary)
- Container widths
- Card component tokens (background, radius, colors, etc)
Also include any other tokens you might feel are required to successfully recreate the design in the image. Tokens should be set to the value of other tokens as appropriate (like setting a border color to a base color, etc).”
Additional context: Existing codebase with 15,500 lines of code used as context
Estimated credits: 18 credits
Description: An admin needs a CRUD dashboard for managing feature-flag configurations.
Prompt with context: "Generate an admin panel where users can manage feature flags with list, edit, and search capabilities."
Additional context: n/a
Estimated credits: 20 credits
Description: A team publishes a store locator app backed by a Builder database, then promotes it with a marketing campaign.
What each visit does: Every page load is a web request that runs a server function, queries the database, and returns the page. That uses hosting credits (request, function compute, and bandwidth) and database credits (compute and data transferred out).
Estimated credits per month: roughly 4 credits per 1,000 visits, plus a small baseline for database storage
- 1,000 visits: ~10 credits
- 50,000 visits: ~220 credits
- 500,000 visits: ~2,000 credits
Usage is deducted hourly from your Space's credits, so a campaign that spikes traffic draws down your pool of credits.
Tracking your usage
Free, Pro, and Team users can see credits used across their entire space at /account/subscription.
Enterprise users can display the same Space-level information, but also Organization-wide information at /app/organization-insights. There, they can display usage across all Spaces as well as usage per user.
All users can also access trackers in-app while working within a project by clicking the Builder logo at the top left of the window.
Rollover and resets
Building products doesn't align to subscription cycles. Some months you're in deep development mode and burn through credits for prototypes and iterations. Other months you're in planning or testing phases with lighter AI usage. Rollover is designed to match how teams actually work.
- Free: No rollover; credits reset daily (15) up to the monthly limit (60).
- Pro, Team, & Enterprise: Credits roll over up to your monthly capacity.
- Maximum credits: Never more than 2x your monthly amount.
When credits reset
For free users, daily limits reset at 12 AM PST. Monthly limits reset at 12 AM PST on the first day of the month.
For Pro, Team, & Enterprise users, monthly limits are connected to your billing period. Monthly limits reset every month on the same date that you started your subscription.
Example rollover scenarios
Pro or Team plan example 1 (500 monthly credits)
- Month 1: Use 50 credits then roll over 450 credits.
- Month 2: Start with 950 credits (450 rolled + 500 new), use 100 credits so that 850 are unused, but only 500 can roll over.
- Month 3: Start with 1,000 credits (500 rolled + 500 new).
Pro or Team plan example 2 (1,000 monthly credits)
- Month 1: Use 200 credits then Roll over 800 credits.
- Month 2: Start with 1,800 credits (800 rolled + 1,000 new), use 600 credits so that 1,200 are unused, but only 1,000 can roll over.
- Month 3: Start with 2,000 credits (1,000 rolled + 1,000 new).
Rollovers & Downgrading
If you downgrade limits within a Pro plan, rollover amounts will be calculated based on your new limit, not the higher limit you downgraded from.
Users that downgrade to a free plan do not have access to rollover credits.
Examples
The following examples help explain how rollovers and downgrading work.
Example 1: A user has an account with a limit of 1,000 credits. After using 400 credits, they downgrade to a plan with a limit of 500 credits.
- Calculation: 500 (New Limit) - 400 (Usage) = 100 rolled over
- Next cycle: 600 credits
Example 2: A user has an account with a limit of 1,000 credits. After using 600 credits, they downgrade to a plan with a limit of 500 credits.
- Calculation: 500 (New Limit) - 600 (Usage) = 0 rolled over
- Next cycle: 500 credits
Example 3: A user has an account with a limit of 1,000 credits, with an existing rollover of 400 credits, for a total of 1,400 credits. After using 600 credits, they downgrade to a plan with a limit of 500 credits.
- Calculation: 500 (New Limit) - 600 (Usage) = 0 rolled over
- Next cycle: 500 credits
Purchase additional credits
When you need more than your base allocation, you can add credits in one of two ways:
- Adding credits to your monthly subscription — buy credits in advance that roll over month to month
- Purchasing one-off credits — a one-time top-up that doesn't change your subscription
Adding credits to your monthly subscription
Free plan
On-demand credits are not available. Upgrade to Pro, Team, or Enterprise to access additional credits.
Pro/Team plan
- $25 per 500 credits
- Buy credits in advance, use them over time
- Once purchased, credits roll over until used or your monthly capacity limit is reached
Once your plan has been increased with additional credits, your plan retains those credits on subsequent months. If you only need a temporary increase in credits, be sure to reduce your additional credit usage before your plan's monthly due date.
To adjust your Pro or Team plan:
- Go to your Space Settings.
- Click the Subscription tab.
- Click your plan's Select and Customize button.
- Update your plan as needed.
Example: Pro team with on-demand credits
A 3-person Pro team has 1,500 monthly credits. They purchase 500 additional credits for a major project, giving them 2,000 total credits with rollover protection.
Purchasing one-off credits
If you run out of credits mid-month, you can purchase a one-time top-up without changing your subscription.
Top-ups are available in packs of $250, up to $2,500 per transaction. They cost approximately 20% more than standard subscription credits. Once purchased, credits are added to your account immediately and are separate from your monthly plan.
Top up from the credits prompt
When you run out of credits, Builder displays a prompt in the chat.
- Click AI credits to open the top-up dialog.
- Select the number of packs you want.
- Click Pay now.
Builder adds the credits automatically and sends an invoice. The video below shows adding credits in the Agent chat.
Top up from Settings
You can also top up at any time without waiting to run out of credits.
- Go to Settings → Subscription.
- Open the Manage Subscription dropdown and select Add Agent Credits.
- Select the number of packs and click the Pay now button.
The video below shows adding credits from the Subscription tab in Settings.
Enterprise plans credit allocation
With an Enterprise plan, you have the flexibility of committed contract credits and pay-as-you-go credits. Contact Sales for tailored enterprise pricing and credit allocations.
When you run out of credits
Status indicators in your dashboard show Included, Overage, or Blocked.
When you hit your limit, new AI operations are blocked until you purchase more credits or wait for the next billing cycle.
Running out of credits with hosted sites
When your Space runs out of credits, new deploys are blocked on every plan. What happens to sites that are already live depends on your plan:
- Free: live sites are suspended, including custom domains. When your credits reset or you upgrade to a paid plan, suspended sites come back online automatically within about an hour, without a redeploy.
- Pro, Team, & Enterprise: live sites keep serving and only publishing is paused. Publishing resumes as soon as credits are available again, such as after you buy a top-up or add credits to your subscription.
FAQs
Free users: must upgrade to Pro, Team, or Enterprise to purchase additional credits.
Pro and Team users: two options — add credits to your subscription (500 credits for $25, rolls over month to month up to your plan's capacity), or buy a one-time top-up (packs of $250 up to $2,500, ~20% premium, added immediately and separate from your plan).
Enterprise users: choose between committed contract credits or pay-as-you-go billing; pricing and terms are negotiated per contract. Contact Sales for details.
No, credits do not expire but you or your team cannot have over 2x your monthly amount.
Free: No rollover; your 15 daily and 60 monthly credits reset completely.
Pro, Team, & Enterprise: You can roll over up to your monthly allocation (never more than 2x your monthly amount)
Yes! Credits pool at the Space level (Free, Pro, and Team) or organization level (Enterprise). All users in the pool share the total credit capacity.
No. Additional credit purchases are non-refundable.
Yes. If you run out of credits mid-month, you can purchase a one-time top-up without changing your subscription.
Support & Contact
Need help with credits or billing? Reach out through: