By the PrototypeVerdict Test Team · Docs checked: Oct 29, 2026 · Our tests: Oct 29, 2026
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Bolt.new’s free plan runs on tokens: 1M a month, with a cap of 300K a day. We built three apps on it on Oct 29, 2026 and hit the daily cap exactly as the third one finished. Here’s how the limits work, what Bolt does and doesn’t say about resets, what used our tokens, and what you can still do when you run out.
Quick answer
Bolt free plan tokens (as of Oct 29, 2026)
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| How many tokens on Free? | 1M a month, with a 300K daily limit (bolt.new/pricing) |
| When does the monthly allowance reset? | The 1st of each calendar month (Bolt help: Tokens) |
| When does the daily limit reset? | Unconfirmed. Bolt says “every day” but doesn’t publish a time, and we haven’t seen the refill ourselves yet (details below) |
| Do unused free tokens roll over? | No. Today’s unused tokens don’t carry over, and free monthly tokens don’t roll over either |
| Can I work without tokens? | Yes: direct edits in Code view and restoring an earlier version don’t use tokens |
When the daily limit resets (what we know and don’t)
Bolt’s help center says free-plan daily tokens “reset every day, but they don’t carry over — if you don’t use all 300K today, tomorrow you still start at 300K, not 600K.” Its FAQ says usage shows as separate daily and monthly bars, and “your daily bar refreshes every day.” Neither page gives a clock time. Sources: Bolt help: Tokens, Bolt FAQ, both read Oct 29, 2026.
At least one third-party article says the daily reset is at midnight UTC, but the same article gives the free daily cap as 150K, which doesn’t match Bolt’s own 300K, so we don’t rely on it. Until Bolt publishes a time or we see the refill ourselves, treat any exact reset time as unconfirmed.
What we saw: we hit the daily cap at about 9:20 AM US Central on Oct 29, 2026. When we came back at about 12:10 PM Central, almost three hours later, Bolt still said “You’re out of tokens.” That tells us the limit hadn’t refilled by about 12:10 PM Central that day. It doesn’t tell us whether Bolt refills at a fixed clock time or a set number of hours after you hit the cap. We’ll add the reset time here once we’ve watched it happen.
How to check yours: open your profile icon (bottom left), then My Subscription, to see your balance, or watch the daily bar Bolt shows near the chat. Note the time it refills.
What used our tokens
We pasted our three standard prompts (in our prompt library) into Bolt’s free plan on Oct 29, 2026:
| Build | Tokens used (approx.) | Share of the 300K daily limit | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Client intake portal | ~185K | ~62% | Includes one login fix that alone used ~84K |
| Invoice tracker | ~100K | ~33% | 0 fix messages |
| Landing page | ~15K | ~5% | 0 fix messages |
| Total | ~300K | 100% | Cap hit as the third build finished |
Source: our Oct 29, 2026 Bolt test log. Approximate figures from Bolt’s token display during the session.
The fix being the expensive part matches what Bolt says about tokens: “Most of your token usage comes from Bolt reading, understanding, and syncing your project files, so larger projects use more tokens per message.” By the time we sent the fix, the portal was a full project, so every message cost more. Source: Bolt help: Tokens.
What to do when you run out
- Edit code directly. Bolt says direct edits in Code view don’t use tokens, even after you hit the daily limit.
- Roll back instead of asking for a fix. Restoring a previous version from Version history doesn’t use tokens.
- Use buttons, not prompts. Bolt notes that clicking Publish or using Version history is free, while asking the agent to do the same thing uses tokens.
- Wait for the daily refill, or for the 1st of the month if you’ve used the 1M monthly allowance. If you’ve used your monthly allowance, the daily refill won’t help.
- Upgrade. Pro removes the daily limit and starts at 10M tokens a month, with unused tokens rolling over for two months. It was $25/month billed monthly, or $18/month billed annually, when we checked on Oct 29, 2026. We haven’t tested Pro.
What Bolt Free gave us, next to what Lovable Free and Base44 Free include according to their docs: our free-plan comparison.
Sources: Bolt help: Tokens and Maximize token efficiency, read Oct 29, 2026; bolt.new/pricing.
How to make free tokens last
- Write a complete first prompt. Our invoice tracker and landing page needed no fixes and used about 115K tokens together. The one fix we did need cost about 84K on its own.
- Talk it through in Plan mode first. Bolt says Plan mode uses fewer tokens because it doesn’t change your code. We haven’t measured how many fewer.
- Don’t keep clicking “Attempt fix.” Bolt warns that each automatic fix attempt uses tokens. If one or two don’t work, step in or switch to Plan mode.
- Keep the project small. Bolt suggests deleting unused files and splitting large files, and clearing the chat context between big tasks.
- Pick the Standard agent. It’s the only one on Free anyway. On paid plans, Bolt says the Max agent uses more tokens for deeper reasoning.
“Prompt too long” or “project exceeds total supported prompt size”
This is a different limit from your token balance: the project has grown too big for Bolt to read in one go. Bolt’s help center suggests reducing project size by cleaning up unused files and breaking large files into smaller ones. Source: Bolt help: Bolt issues, read Oct 29, 2026. We didn’t hit this error with our three small apps.
Want the full picture of what Bolt’s free plan built? Read our Bolt.new review.
Sources
- Bolt help, Tokens: https://support.bolt.new/account/tokens (read Oct 29, 2026)
- Bolt help, FAQs: https://support.bolt.new/reference/faq (read Oct 29, 2026)
- Bolt help, Maximize token efficiency: https://support.bolt.new/prompting/maximizing-token-efficiency (read Oct 29, 2026)
- Bolt help, Bolt issues: https://support.bolt.new/troubleshooting/issues (read Oct 29, 2026)
- Bolt pricing: https://bolt.new/pricing (checked Oct 29, 2026)
- Our own test log, Bolt Free, Oct 29, 2026 (tokens per build, cap hit about 9:20 AM CT, still out about 12:10 PM CT).
Frequently asked questions
How many tokens does Bolt’s free plan give?
As of Oct 29, 2026, 1M tokens a month with a daily limit of 300K. Paid plans start at 10M a month with no daily limit.
What time do Bolt free tokens reset each day?
Bolt says daily tokens reset every day but doesn’t publish a time. In our test, the limit hadn’t come back almost three hours after we hit it, so treat any exact reset time you read elsewhere as unconfirmed. The monthly allowance resets on the 1st of each calendar month.
Can I keep working in Bolt when I’m out of tokens?
Yes, partly. Bolt says direct edits in Code view and restoring a version from Version history don’t use tokens. Anything that needs the AI agent waits for the reset or a paid plan.
How many tokens does it take to build an app in Bolt?
In our Oct 29, 2026 test on the free plan, a client portal took about 185K tokens including one fix, an invoice tracker about 100K and a landing page about 15K. Bolt says bigger projects use more tokens per message.
Update history
- October 29, 2026: First published. Our test results are from the Oct 29, 2026 round (Lovable Pro, Base44 Builder, Bolt Free, Softr Basic). Vendor docs and prices checked Oct 29, 2026.