Base44 pricing runs from a free plan to $200 a month across five tiers, Free, Starter, Builder, Pro and Elite, with yearly billing 20 percent cheaper. Every plan sells two separate meters: message credits you spend building, and integration credits your live app spends. Builder is the first tier that syncs your code to GitHub.
Base44 pricing: the five plans and what each costs
Base44 sells five plans on its pricing page: Free at $0, then Starter, Builder, Pro and Elite at $20, $50, $100 and $200 a month, or $16, $40, $80 and $160 a month billed yearly. Each step up raises both credit allowances, and Builder adds GitHub sync.
We read Base44’s pricing page, its cost explainer and its billing and credits documentation on October 5, 2026, without buying a plan, so every price and credit figure here is Base44’s own. A price says nothing about what the platform secures and what you still have to test yourself; that is a separate question, answered under whether Base44 is safe for real users.
The table sets out Base 44 pricing (the product is written as one word, Base44): how much each plan costs per month when billed monthly, what it costs per month when billed yearly, and both credit allowances.
| Plan | Monthly | Yearly, per month | Message credits a month | Integration credits a month | What it adds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | $0 | 25, at most 5 a day | 100 | Core features, up to 5 apps |
| Starter | $20 | $16 | 100 | 2,000 | Unlimited apps, in-app code edits, a custom domain, private apps, no Base44 badge |
| Builder | $50 | $40 | 250 | 10,000 | GitHub sync, code download, backend functions, model choice, Stripe payments, store files |
| Pro | $100 | $80 | 500 | 20,000 | Early access to beta features |
| Elite | $200 | $160 | 1,200 | 50,000 | Premium support |
Prices checked October 5, 2026 on Base44’s pricing page; yearly billing saves 20 percent on every paid plan. Across the Base44 pricing plans, the feature list changes most at Starter and at Builder; from Builder up to Elite, each step is mostly more credits.
Base44 integration credits and message credits: what each one meters
Base44 integration credits are the meter your published app spends when it calls a built-in service, such as sending an email or calling a model; message credits are what you spend prompting the editor. Unused credits of both kinds expire at each reset, on every plan.
Message credits have no set price per prompt: a small text change runs about half a credit and an app-wide change about three to four, and dragging or editing elements by hand in the visual editor uses none. Integration credits are charged only for Base44’s built-in services, and they are not used when your app calls an outside service with your own API key. Both come out of one pool shared by every app in the workspace.
| Action your app performs | Integration credits, Base44’s estimate |
|---|---|
| Send an email | About 1 per email |
| Send an email from your own domain | About 2 per email |
| Send a push notification to a mobile user | About 1 per notification |
| Upload a file | About 1 per upload |
| Extract data from an uploaded file | About 1 per call |
| Generate an image | About 1 per image |
| Generate video | About 5 per second of video |
| Turn text into speech | About 1 per 50 characters, up to about 100 per call |
| LLM call on the Automatic model | About 1 per call |
| LLM call on a model you choose | From about 3 per call, by model and by prompt and answer length |
| Message to an in-app agent on Automatic | From about 3; most other models cost more |
| Workflow steps | About 1 per 10 steps, plus what each step does |
| Backend function runs | About 1 per 100 runs, plus what the function calls |
| Read or write the app’s database | None |
Base44’s credits documentation calls these figures estimates: the real cost is worked out after an action runs, and there is no way to preview it, so the docs suggest running the action once in a controlled test and reading the execution logs.
Base44’s cost explainer, a post on its blog dated July 26, 2026, puts it more simply: every action that calls an integration, “like sending an email, generating an image or making an LLM request, spends one credit.” The credits documentation matches that for an email or an image, and for an LLM call only on the Automatic model; a call on a chosen model starts at about 3. Both pages are Base44’s, and the documentation’s per-model rows are the ones we would budget from.
The reset rule has one printed exception: moving from a monthly plan to a higher monthly plan carries unused credits over for one more cycle, up to a month’s allowance. On Free, message credits are capped at 5 a day, within the 25 a month. If a balance runs dry mid-cycle, the explainer and the credits docs both point to upgrading or waiting for the reset; the credits docs mention top-up credits, which never carry over, but neither page prints a price for them.
Is Base44 free? What the free plan includes
Base44 is free to start: the Free plan costs $0, needs no credit card and does not expire, with 25 message credits a month capped at 5 a day and 100 integration credits. It is a plan, not a trial, and its runtime allowance is the tight part.
The Base44 free plan carries the core features (authentication, database functionality and analytics) and up to 5 apps, each on a built-in base44.app address. There is no Base44 free trial to start or run out: neither the pricing page nor the billing docs names one, so the Free plan is the way to try the builder.
Base44 starts to cost money when the app needs what the free tier leaves out, and a few of those things matter once other people use the app. Since February 6, 2026, new private apps need Starter or above, and removing the Base44 badge and connecting a custom domain also start at Starter. On Free, the automatic error fixes and “Resolve with AI” spend message credits; on paid plans the automatic fixes are free.
In practice, Base 44 is free only while that runtime allowance covers the app. As a planning illustration from Base44’s own estimates, 100 integration credits a month is about 100 emails, or about 50 sent from your own domain, or about 100 LLM calls on the Automatic model, or about 33 on a chosen model at its lowest rate (100 divided by 3). Every user of every app in the workspace draws on that same 100, and the real cost of each call is set after it runs.
What each paid Base44 plan unlocks
The paid tiers differ in credits and in features; the credits are in the plan table at the top, so the four parts here cover features only.
Starter: a custom domain and in-app code edits
Custom domains start at Starter: Base44’s custom domain docs say they are available on the Starter plan and higher. “In-app code edits” first appears on the pricing page at Starter, and the billing docs add removing the Base44 platform badge and creating new private apps at Starter. The plan lets you connect a domain, but the domain itself is bought separately: through Wix inside Base44, paying Wix at checkout and agreeing to automatic yearly renewal, or from a registrar you already use. Every yearly plan from Starter up includes a free domain for the first year, as the pricing page’s yearly cards and the billing docs both say; monthly plans do not include it.
Base44 Builder plan: GitHub sync, code download and payments
Two-way GitHub sync requires Builder or higher, and there is no manual push from the Base44 app to GitHub; changes sync to the connected repository on their own. Builder is also where the code can leave the platform: Base44’s quick-start guide says that on Builder or higher you can download the app’s code as a ZIP file or sync it with a GitHub repository, both from the More actions menu in the app editor. The pricing page says the sync “exports the full source code to your own repo at any time.” What lands in the ZIP or the repository is covered in what a Base44 export actually contains. Builder also adds backend functions and model selection. On a monthly bill, Base44’s Builder lacks two yearly extras: the free first-year domain and 25 credits to share with a friend.
Stripe payments are available from Builder: Base44 sets the integration up in a test environment first and creates live API keys once your Stripe account finishes activating. If those payments are subscriptions, the app’s own records have to follow Stripe’s, which is the subject of keeping Stripe subscriptions in sync with your database.
App Store and Google Play files come from Builder up as well: the store readiness scan runs on Free, but “to download the files for app submission you must be on the Builder plan or higher”, and you still submit through your own App Store Connect and Google Play Console accounts. The full process is in publishing a Base44 app to the App Store.
Pro and Elite: more credits, and the enterprise route above them
Pro and Elite mostly raise the two allowances in the plan table; Pro adds early access to beta features, and Elite adds premium support. The Base44 Elite plan is the top tier on the pricing page, and the billing docs say a drop-down on the Plans page sets how many message and integration credits you take on it. Above Elite, the billing docs list two Enterprise plans: Business, which you can upgrade to yourself in one of six credit sizes, and Enterprise, arranged with Base44’s sales team. No price for either appears on the pricing page or in the docs we read; the pricing page says only that enterprise pricing is custom.
Discounts, gift cards and student pricing
Yearly billing is the standing discount, 20 percent off every paid plan. Base44’s student discount is 50 percent off the Starter or Builder plan for students, teachers and staff at accredited academic institutions who verify a school email address, claimable once per account, and the pricing page adds education and non-profit pricing case by case. Gift cards can no longer be bought, though one you already hold still redeems as a discount toward a subscription.
When Base44 integration credits run out on a live app
Base44 integration credits run down with what your users do after launch. When they hit zero, Base44 emails the owner, while a visitor whose action needed a credit sees a generic error that names no credits, so the visitor cannot tell what went wrong.
The credits documentation describes both sides. The owner gets an email when integration credits run out, and any owner action that needs them “fails and shows an error that you have used all your integration credits.” The person using the app gets less: Base44’s own example is a visitor subscribing to the app and triggering an email, who receives “a generic error message without any reference to integration credits”. Actions that use credits then pause until the next reset or an upgrade.
Two things follow, in our reading. From outside, an app with an empty balance looks broken, so the balance is the first thing to check when a Base44 app stops working. And anyone who can trigger a paid action can spend the shared pool, whether or not you meant them to.
Of the 14 third-party apps with an AI feature in our June and July 2026 audits, 12 had a confirmed denial-of-wallet path, where a stranger or free account can burn the owner’s paid AI or compute bill without limit. Those apps were picked for audit, not drawn at random, so the count describes that group rather than AI-built apps at large. In the same audits, 17 of the 21 third-party apps had no error tracking or alerting: when a user hits an error, nothing records it. Put that next to Base44’s generic visitor error and a failed signup can reach nobody at all.
An app paused outright is a different state from one feature failing; an app paused when credits run out walks through what that looks like.
What the Base44 price does not include
- The domain itself. Starter and up let you connect one, but you buy it from Wix inside Base44 or from your own registrar, and a Wix domain renews automatically every year; the free voucher covers one first-year registration on any yearly plan from Starter up.
- Model and API spend outside Base44’s built-in services. An outside service called with your own key uses no integration credits, and Base44’s pricing page says such services “bill you directly on their own pricing.”
- Credits you did not use. They expire at each reset, so a quiet month funds nothing later.
- A published top-up price. The docs mention top-up credits, but no page we read prints what they cost.
On refunds, Base44’s billing and plans docs say all Base44 services are non-refundable under its terms, with special circumstances handled by contacting Base44, and a switch from monthly to yearly credits what you paid for the month with “no separate refund.” Subscriptions renew automatically unless you turn auto-renewal off, and the terms of service make renewal charges non-cancelable and non-refundable once a renewal term begins.
Is Base44 worth it? Which plan a live app needs
Base44 is worth paying for when the app needs what the next tier adds: a custom domain from Starter, your code in GitHub and Stripe payments from Builder, and more integration credits at Pro and Elite. Pick the tier by the feature and the runtime meter, not the message credits.
That is our reading of Base44’s own tier lists. Whether Base 44 is expensive depends less on the fee than on what the integration credits cover: at about 1 credit an email, Starter’s 2,000 a month is roughly 2,000 emails, against Free’s 100. Against Lovable the meters work differently, which is why how Base44 and Lovable pricing compare needs more than the entry price.
The Free plan, for trying the builder
Free fits while nobody but you uses the app. Its 100 integration credits a month, shared across the workspace, are what rule it out for a live app (the free plan section above has the arithmetic).
Starter, when a custom domain is the only gap
Starter fits a small public app on your own domain with light runtime use. It stops fitting the day you need the code outside Base44, because GitHub sync and the code download both start at Builder.
Builder, the floor for an app heading for customers
GitHub sync, the code download, store files and Stripe payments all start here (the Builder section above lists them). We think an app that will hold customer data should live in a repository you control, and on Base44 that means Builder at least.
Pro and Elite, when the runtime meter runs out first
Move up when integration credits, measured over a real month, run short; message credits are the wrong guide here. The app usage page shows what spent them this cycle, by source.
Questions to ask before you pay for a Base44 plan
- 01 Which actions in my app spend integration credits, and who can trigger them?
- 02 How many integration credits did a real month use, according to the usage page and the execution logs?
- 03 Do I need my code in GitHub? That means Builder or higher.
- 04 Do I need payments? Stripe starts at Builder.
- 05 Who receives the out-of-credits email, and does anyone ever see the error a visitor gets?
- 06 How do I switch from monthly to yearly billing, and where are the invoices?
The last answer is in the billing docs: the switch to yearly starts from Manage Subscription on your plan card, and only workspace owners can open Billing History to download invoices.
Where the sprint fits: what no Base44 plan buys
Every tier sets how many paid actions the app may perform. Base44’s credits docs describe one email, sent when integration credits run out, and no tier decides who may trigger a paid action. Two pieces of production work close that gap, and both are deliverables in our Production Hardening Sprint. One is spend or usage alerts for every metered service the app uses, through the provider’s own alerts or measurement inside the app: deliverable 2.7, Metered-service spend alerts. The how-to is alerts and caps on metered API spend, part of the wider set of secrets, keys and spend controls for an app. The other is the app in a version-controlled repository on a hosting account you control, deployable through a documented pipeline with no step that depends on the tool that generated it: deliverable 7.11, Independent repository and hosting. The steps are in how to self-host an exported app.
When the Base44 app is about to take real customers, a free audit is a half-hour video call where we open the app together, starting with who can trigger its paid actions. Our engineers do the two pieces of work above, checked in the code, in a fixed-scope sprint: 10 working days , starting from the app’s current framework and hosting setup. Hosting, paid tools, and API usage remain in your accounts.
Common questions about Base44 plans and credits
Is Base44 free forever?
Yes, as Base44 documents it today: the Free plan costs $0, does not expire and has no trial clock. It keeps 25 message credits and 100 integration credits a month, so it holds for as long as the app’s runtime use stays small.
When do Base44 credits reset?
Paid plans reset both kinds of credit once a month, on the day of the month you subscribed, at the exact UTC time of the purchase. On Free, the 5-a-day message cap resets at midnight in the workspace owner’s local timezone, and unused credits expire at each reset instead of rolling over.
Can I cancel my Base44 subscription anytime?
Yes. Cancel from your workspace settings (workspace name, Settings, Plan & Subscriptions, then Cancel plan from the plan row’s More actions menu), and you keep full access until the end of the billing period. Canceling stops future renewals but does not refund the current period, and the workspace then drops to the Free plan with its 5-app limit while your apps stay live. A plan bought through the Apple App Store or Google Play is canceled there instead.
Is there a coupon code for free Base44 credits?
No standing public coupon code appears on Base44’s pricing page, credits docs or billing docs; Base44 says it may issue coupon codes, which you redeem under Credit usage in your settings. The published routes to free credits are the referral program (a friend gets 30 credits at signup, and you earn 30 when they publish a first app and send a message and 100 more when they upgrade to a paid plan, each expiring 40 days after you earn it), a one-time 20 message credits for sharing your project on LinkedIn or X, and the Free plan itself.
Which plan does your live Base44 app need?
When credits run dry while real users are active, features they rely on stop, and a bigger plan does not change how the app spends them. On the audit, we look at the app with you, talk through what it uses as it grows, and point out what no upgrade will cover.
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