"How much will my app cost?" is usually the first question. On the traditional path, a simple MVP still runs €15,000–€80,000 at an agency, or €5,000–€30,000 with a freelancer, over 2 to 6 months and billed by the hour. In 2026, AI app builders changed the math: you describe an application in natural language and get a first version in hours, for a fraction of that budget. "Cheaper" does not mean "free": there is still a real bill of subscriptions, credits, hosting, and a few costs nobody puts in the pitch. This guide breaks down what an AI-generated app actually costs, with pricing examples (Cadrant, Lovable, Base44, Emergent) and realistic budgets by project type. Freelancers who use these tools to deliver faster should also see our AI app builder for freelancers guide.
AI app builder pricing at a glance
The four entry plans cost almost the same. What differs is what a credit pays for and what happens to the bill once an app is online. Entry plans re-checked on October 5, 2026; each builder has its own section below.
| Builder | Entry paid plan | Credits included | What changes the bill |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cadrant | Starter, $20 a month | 300 a month | Hosting and custom domain included; a published app uses no credits. |
| Lovable | Pro, $25 a month | 100 a month, plus 5 a day | One credit balance pays for building, hosting and the built-in backend. |
| Base44 | Starter, $20 a month | 100 message credits a month | A second meter: 2,000 integration credits for what the live app calls. |
| Emergent | Standard, $20 a month | 100 a month | Each deployed app takes 50 credits a month from the plan. |
The AI app builder route: what you actually pay for
AI app builders replace most billable development hours with a monthly subscription, but the bill still has several line items. Understanding them upfront avoids surprises three months in. To compare platforms, see our best AI app builders guide and our Lovable alternative comparison.
- Subscription: a flat monthly fee for access to the builder, typically $20 to $100 depending on the plan and how much you generate.
- Credits: AI generation is metered, not unlimited. Every generation or edit consumes credits, and heavier plans include more of them per month.
- Hosting: on good platforms this is bundled into the subscription; on others it is a separate bill on top.
- Domain name: roughly €10–15 per year, independent of which builder you use.
- Database (Supabase): free to start on the shared/free tier, then around €25/month once you have real usage and need dedicated resources.
- Maintenance: ongoing iteration, bug fixes and small feature requests: cheap per change, but it adds up over a year.
Cadrant pricing
Cadrant is the builder we make, so we start with our own grid. The plan is the whole builder bill: from Starter, hosting and a custom domain are included (up to 5 projects, unlimited from Pro), and a published app does not draw credits every month. The same plan covers websites, web apps and native mobile apps, and about 10 credits generate or modify an app. Prices checked in September 2026.
| Plan | Price | Credits | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Freemium | $0 | 10 at signup, one-time | Websites, web apps and native mobile apps, published on a Cadrant subdomain. |
| Starter | $20 a month | 300 a month | 5 projects, hosting, custom domain, App Store and Google Play publishing. |
| Pro | $40 a month | 1,000 a month | Everything in Starter, plus unlimited projects, code export and GitHub integration. |
| Max | $100 a month | 2,000 a month | Everything in Pro, plus priority support. Optional top-ups on paid plans: 200 credits for $20. |
Lovable pricing
Lovable charges for credits, not seats: every plan allows unlimited workspace members, and both paid tiers scale by buying more monthly credits, up to 10,000. Prices checked in September 2026.
| Plan | Price | Credits | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 5 a day, up to 30 a month | Enough to test, not to ship: no custom domain. |
| Pro | $25 a month, or $250 a year | 100 a month | Custom domain and private projects. Extra credits by tier. |
| Business | $50 a month, or $500 a year | 100 a month | Same credits as Pro plus access controls and centralized billing for teams. |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom | SSO, dedicated support. |
Base44 pricing
Base44 bundles the database, authentication, storage and hosting into every plan. Plans are sized by message credits (a message uses about 0.5 to 4 of them) and a separate pool of integration credits, spent by the live app. Monthly prices below; yearly billing is 20% cheaper. What you can and cannot export is covered in our Base44 alternatives guide.
| Plan | Price | Message credits | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 25 a month | 100 integration credits. |
| Starter | $20 a month ($16 yearly) | 100 a month | 2,000 integration credits. |
| Builder | $50 a month ($40 yearly) | 250 a month | 10,000 integration credits. Often the first production tier. |
| Pro | $100 a month ($80 yearly) | 500 a month | 20,000 integration credits. |
| Elite | $200 a month ($160 yearly) | 1,200 a month | 50,000 integration credits. |
Emergent pricing
Emergent covers web and mobile apps, but its credit model has one line that surprises people: every deployed app consumes 50 credits a month, taken from the plan. Full breakdown in our Emergent pricing guide. Weighing other tools? See our Emergent alternatives comparison.
| Plan | Price | Credits | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 10 a month | Web only: the mobile agent needs a paid plan. |
| Standard | $20 a month ($17 yearly) | 100 a month | Half of it goes to keeping a single app deployed. |
| Pro | $200 a month ($167 yearly) | 750 a month | For heavier builds and several deployed apps. |
| Business, Enterprise | On request | Custom | Top-ups from $1 for 5 credits, never expire. |
In every case, the sticker price is only part of the total: heavy iteration means credit top-ups add up quickly. Budget the plan, plus headroom for credits, plus backend and domain. What each Cadrant plan produces is detailed on the AI app builder page.
The real cost of inference: understanding tokens
Behind every platform that generates code with AI, there is a model provider (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google) billing by usage. Inference cost is measured in tokens, roughly 4-character fragments of text. What is rarely mentioned: code generation is particularly token-intensive, and the cost comes as much from reading as from writing.
Here are the current rates for the most capable models, in dollars per million tokens:
- Anthropic Claude Opus 5: $5 input, $25 output. The most powerful model for complex code.
- Anthropic Claude Sonnet 5: $3 input, $15 output. The best value for most tasks.
- OpenAI GPT-4o: $2.50 input, $10 output. The most widely used model.
A simplified example with Claude Opus 5: each code generation involves reading the existing context (4 to 10 files, roughly 10,000 to 25,000 input tokens) then writing the equivalent of one to two files (~4,000 output tokens). For a single generation: (20,000 × $5) + (4,000 × $25) = $0.10 + $0.10 = roughly $0.20 per generation.
A working session with ten iterations therefore costs around $2. This is precisely the cost that platforms absorb into their subscription. The advantage of a transparent credit system is knowing exactly what you are consuming and why.
The hidden costs nobody puts in the pitch
This is where budgets quietly blow up. None of the following show up on a pricing page, but all of them show up on your bank statement eventually.
- Vendor lock-in. If a tool doesn't let you export your source code or keep your own database, you are not a customer, you are a hostage. Migrating off a locked-in platform later can cost more than the original build.
- Forced rebuilds. Outgrowing a tool, switching platforms mid-project, or discovering the generated code is unmaintainable all mean paying for the same app twice.
- Usage-based surprises. Per-seat pricing, per-integration fees, or billing tied to monthly active users can turn a $40 plan into a $400 invoice the moment your app actually gets traction.
- Third-party services. Email sending, payments processing fees, analytics, or a paid API you integrate: none of these are the builder's fault, but they are real costs to plan for.
Realistic budgets by application type
"How much does an app cost?" depends entirely on what the app needs to do. Here is what a reasonable first year looks like with an AI app builder, all-in: subscription, credits, hosting, domain, database and a bit of headroom for iteration.
- Simple web app: authentication, a few screens and CRUD on one or two tables: an entry plan (often $20–25/month) plus domain and a free database tier to start, roughly €250–450 for the year.
- Booking app: accounts, a calendar, a database and often payments: budget for a mid-tier plan plus Supabase once you have real bookings, roughly €500–900 for the year.
- SaaS MVP: auth, subscriptions, more frequent iteration and higher credit usage while you find product-market fit: plan for a higher-tier plan plus a growing Supabase bill, roughly €800–1,500 for the year.
- Internal tool: less design polish needed, but often more integrations (your CRM, your spreadsheets, your existing systems): a mid-tier plan is usually enough, roughly €400–800 for the year.
Compare any of these to the €15,000 minimum for an agency-built MVP, and the gap explains why AI app builders have become the default starting point in 2026, even for founders who plan to hire a developer later.
Key takeaway: budget for the full year
When comparing tools, add subscription, credits, hosting, domain, database, third-party services, and the cost of changing your mind mid-project. For a first app in 2026, an AI app builder often lands between €250 and €1,500 all-in for year one, a fraction of agency quotes, but only if you account for every line item upfront.
Before you spend, clarify scope: a simple CRUD app, a booking flow, or a full SaaS MVP each hit different cost tiers. Pair this guide with our article on how to write prompts to build an app to estimate what you actually need to build and avoid paying for complexity you do not need yet.