Base44 pricing explained: plans, credits and real cost (Sept 2026)

What are Base44's pricing plans in 2026?

Base44 offers five plans ranging from free to $160 per month on annual billing. All paid plans include both message credits for building and integration credits for running live apps. The only difference between tiers is how many credits each plan provides.

Annual billing saves approximately 20 percent across all paid tiers. The free plan resets daily on message credits, not monthly. Every paid plan resets on the same calendar date each month, matched to your original subscription date.

Credits do not roll over. Unused message or integration credits at the end of the billing cycle expire.

How does the Base44 credit system work?

Base44 uses two credit types: message credits for the building process and integration credits for live app operations. They serve different functions and drain at different rates depending on what you are building and how complex your app's live functionality is.

Understanding both types before you choose a plan prevents mid-project credit exhaustion.

Message credits

Message credits are consumed while you build. Every prompt you send to Base44's AI builder costs credits, but the amount varies based on the scope of the request.

A simple text or visual tweak costs approximately 0.5 credits. A large, app-wide structural change costs 3 to 4 credits. The credit cost scales with how much work the AI has to do, not how many words you type.

This means active build sessions during early development consume credits faster than the published number implies. A founder actively iterating on their MVP can burn through 100 message credits in a week of focused building.

Integration credits

Integration credits are consumed by your live app after launch. Every time your app calls a built-in Base44 service, it costs integration credits.

• Sending an email costs 1 integration credit.
• Generating an image costs more depending on the model used.
• An LLM call costs credits that scale with the model's complexity.
• Automation triggers and scheduled jobs each consume credits per execution.

An AI-heavy app, such as a chatbot handling hundreds of daily user questions, can exhaust 2,000 integration credits quickly. Each conversation turn is a separate LLM call, each of which costs credits. The Starter plan's 2,000 monthly integration credits cover light usage. Any app with meaningful AI features at live scale needs Builder or higher.

What does each Base44 plan actually include?

Beyond credit allowances, Base44 plans differ on custom domains, backend functions, GitHub integration, and app publishing capability. The free plan cannot deploy a production app. Every paid plan can.

Free plan

The free plan gives you 25 message credits per month with a 5-credit daily cap, plus 100 integration credits. Apps run on a Base44 subdomain and cannot be published to a custom domain.

It is useful for evaluating whether Base44 fits your project and for early prototyping before committing to a subscription. It is not viable for any live product.

Starter ($16/month annually)

Starter unlocks custom domain publishing and removes the daily message credit cap. Integration credits jump to 2,000 per month.

It suits personal projects and very early MVPs where live app usage is low and AI features are minimal. Most serious product builds outgrow Starter within the first month of live usage.

Builder ($40/month annually)

Builder is the recommended starting point for most MVPs, internal tools, and client-facing apps. It adds backend functions, GitHub integration for version control, and a meaningfully larger credit pool.

The jump from Starter to Builder is significant in feature terms, not just credit volume. Backend functions open up more complex logic. GitHub integration means your code is version-controlled and portable.

Pro ($80/month annually)

Pro doubles the message credit allowance to 500 per month and increases integration credits to 12,000. It suits high-velocity builders working on multiple features simultaneously or apps with active AI features generating meaningful usage.

If monthly overages on Builder consistently exceed $20, upgrading to Pro is cheaper than paying overage rates.

Elite ($160/month annually)

Elite is for teams or builders scaling apps with heavy AI usage, large user bases, or complex automation. At 1,200 message credits and 30,000 integration credits per month, it covers apps where AI features are core to the product's daily operation.

What is the real monthly cost of Base44?

The published plan price is the floor, not the ceiling. Real monthly cost includes the subscription, any overage charges if credit limits are exceeded, and the cost of third-party tools your app calls through integrations.

Base44 does not currently publish overage pricing in a simple per-credit format. When you exhaust your credits, you must upgrade your plan to continue building or operating your app at full capacity.

Third-party costs add on top. If your app sends emails via SendGrid, processes payments via Stripe, or calls external APIs, those fees are separate from your Base44 subscription. Budget $50 to $200 per month for a typical app with standard integrations.

How does Base44 pricing compare to alternatives?

At the entry tier, Base44 is priced below most AI app builder competitors. At the upper tiers, it runs more expensive than several alternatives. The comparison shifts based on how much you build and how AI-intensive your live app is.

Base44's $16 entry plan is the most affordable in its category. Above the entry tier, Base44's pricing converges with or exceeds alternatives, particularly for apps with high AI feature usage where integration credits drive the real cost.

Bubble is in a different category. It is a more mature platform with broader production capability, more editor collaboration tools, and a workload unit model that scales differently. For teams deciding between Base44 and Bubble, the decision is less about price and more about the complexity of the app being built.

Which Base44 plan should you choose?

Start with Builder if you are building a real product. Starter is underpowered for most serious MVPs. Free works for evaluation only. Upgrade to Pro or Elite when your live app's AI features are consistently exhausting your integration credits before month end.

Choose Free if: You are evaluating Base44 before committing and want to test whether the builder fits your workflow.

Choose Starter if: You are building a personal project or very simple internal tool with minimal live AI usage and low ongoing user activity.

Choose Builder if: You are building an MVP, a client app, or an internal tool that will be actively used. Backend functions and GitHub integration are worth the upgrade from Starter alone.

Choose Pro if: You are actively building and iterating multiple features simultaneously, or your live app has AI features generating meaningful daily usage that is exhausting Builder credits.

Choose Elite if: Your app's AI features are core to daily operations, you are scaling to a larger user base, or you are running multiple intensive development cycles in the same month.

Conclusion

Base44 pricing is straightforward at the plan level and more nuanced at the credit level. The subscription unlocks the platform. The credits determine whether you can build and run what you actually need.

For most serious product builders, Builder at $40 per month annually is the right starting point. It is the first tier that includes the features needed for a production-grade application. Starter is too limited for most real use cases. Pro and Elite make sense when credit consumption patterns consistently exceed what Builder provides.

The key number to track is integration credits, not message credits. Message credits are consumed in development sprints. Integration credits drain continuously as your live app runs, and AI-heavy apps can exhaust them well before month end.

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Building on Base44 and need a product team to go further?

Base44 is a strong tool for getting to a working product quickly. When your requirements outgrow the platform, whether in data complexity, integration depth, or production scale, you need a team that can build what Base44 cannot.

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• Platform evaluation: We assess whether Base44, Bubble, or a custom build is the right foundation for your specific requirements before a line of code is written.
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We have delivered 450+ products for clients including Coca-Cola, American Express, and Sotheby's. If your product has outgrown Base44 or you are not sure which platform fits, let's talk.