Base44 pricing and credits, explained: plans, costs and what a prompt uses

The short version

As of October 2026, Base44 has five self-serve plans and a custom Enterprise tier. Prices are in US dollars on base44.com/pricing:

• Free: $0, with 25 message credits and 100 integration credits a month, and up to 5 apps.
• Starter: $20 a month, or $16 a month billed yearly.
• Builder: $50 a month, or $40 a month billed yearly.
• Pro: $100 a month, or $80 a month billed yearly.
• Elite: $200 a month, or $160 a month billed yearly.

Each plan comes with two monthly credit allowances. Message credits pay for building with Base44’s AI. Integration credits pay for what your live app does with Base44’s built-in services, such as sending email, calling an AI model or running workflow steps. Reading and writing your database uses no credits, and hosting is included in every plan. Unused credits expire when they reset.

Free tool: the Base44 cost calculator puts your plan over one to three years next to running the same app on your own accounts.

Base44 plans and prices (as of October 2026)

A few rules sit behind the table:

• Yearly billing is 20% off and is charged once a year. The credit allowances are the same on either billing period, and they still reset monthly.
• Elite can go higher. Base44’s billing documentation says the Plans page has a drop-down for choosing larger Elite credit amounts. Only the base Elite tier is priced on the public page.
• Currency depends on where you are. The billing docs say most people are charged in US dollars and customers in Israel in shekels. If you are searching for Base44 pricing in India or the UK, the public page lists dollars only, so check the amount and any tax at checkout.
• App store prices differ. A plan bought in Base44’s iOS app is priced by Apple and can cost a different amount. Elite isn’t sold through Google Play.
• Discounts exist. Students, teachers and staff at academic institutions can get 50% off Starter or Builder (Academic discount), for up to 12 months on monthly billing or for the first year on annual billing.

What each plan adds

Credits are only half the difference between plans. Several features that a production app relies on start at Builder:

In practice, an app that runs backend code, takes payments or runs workflows needs Builder or higher, whatever its credit use.

Message credits vs integration credits

Base44’s credits documentation splits usage in two, and the split is the key to reading your bill.

Message credits are for building. They are used when you prompt the AI chat to plan, add, change or fix something in your app. A few things are cheaper or free:

• Each message in Discuss mode, which talks things through without changing your app, uses about 0.3 credits.
• Manual edits in the visual editor, such as dragging elements or editing text, use none.
• Automatic AI fixes are free on paid plans. On the Free plan they use message credits.

Integration credits are for running. They are used when your published app calls a Base44 built-in service: sending an email, generating an image, running an LLM call, handling an upload, answering through an in-app agent, running workflow steps and, on some workspaces, invoking backend functions. They are not used when your app reads or writes its database, or when a backend function calls an outside service with your own API key.

Both pools belong to the workspace, not to one app or one person. Every member’s prompts and every app’s live activity draw from the same allowance.

How many credits does a prompt use?

There is no fixed price per message. Base44 works out the cost after each message runs, based on how much work it took. Its published rough ranges, as of October 2026:

By those estimates, Starter’s 100 monthly message credits cover roughly 100 small-feature prompts, or around 200 simple tweaks. To see what a prompt actually cost, open the More actions menu under it and look at Credits Used.

How many integration credits does a live app use?

Base44’s published estimates, as of October 2026:

Base44’s own example is a workflow that runs an LLM call and sends an email: roughly 2 credits each time it fires, so Starter’s 2,000 integration credits cover about 1,000 runs a month. Billing can differ between workspaces and costs can’t be previewed, so a controlled test and the app’s usage page are the reliable guide.

When integration credits run out, actions that need them fail until the reset. Base44 emails you, but the people using your app see a generic error that doesn’t mention credits.

How many credits per day, and when they reset

• Free plan: up to 5 message credits a day and 25 a month. The daily allowance resets at midnight in the workspace owner’s time zone, or midnight UTC if none is recorded.
• Paid plans: no daily cap. Credits reset once a month, on the day and at the UTC time you subscribed.
• Unused credits expire at each reset. Bonus and top-up credits never carry over.
• Upgrading mid-cycle: moving to a higher monthly plan charges the full price difference, and your unused credits carry over for one more cycle. Upgrades that involve a yearly plan are prorated, and unused credits expire as usual.

Base44’s docs mention credit top-ups, but the pricing page lists no top-up prices as of October 2026. The documented way to get more credits before your reset is to upgrade. Credits used on AI mistakes aren’t refunded; the terms of service say so explicitly.

What Base44 hosting costs

There is no separate hosting fee. Every plan, including Free, includes hosting, the database, authentication and cloud storage. Base44’s backend service is free during its beta and draws on integration credits. There is no fixed storage limit per plan, only per-file upload limits.

Domains are the one extra. Connecting a domain you own needs Starter or higher. Buying one inside Base44 means paying Wix at checkout (Buying a domain with Wix). Yearly Builder, Pro and Elite plans include one free domain for the first year, claimed within 60 days, with public registration only.

Using Base44 without a subscription

The Free plan is a real option for some apps. You can keep up to 5 apps, and they stay live. An app that only shows and edits data keeps working, because database reads and writes cost nothing.

What Free doesn’t include: your own domain, new private apps, backend functions, workflows, payments, GitHub sync or ZIP export. You also get only 100 integration credits a month. An app that sends emails or calls AI will start failing once it needs one of those. If you’re thinking of dropping to Free, our guide to cancelling Base44 explains what stops and the order to do things in.

Base44’s referral program and a one-time post about your project on LinkedIn or X can add a few free credits.

What running the same app yourself costs

When an app runs on your own accounts, there are no credits. You pay each provider for what the app uses, at that provider’s prices. For an app moved with Unbase44, the bills look like this:

None of this makes a move automatically cheaper or dearer. Base44’s cost is a fixed plan price. Your own cost depends on traffic, email volume and AI use. To compare for your app:

1. Note the plan your app actually needs on Base44, including the features above (often Builder), and its yearly price.
2. Open your app’s App usage page in Base44 and look under By source to see where integration credits go. Emails become email-provider usage, and LLM calls and agent messages become AI-provider usage.
3. Add the Railway minimum or your server’s cost, then the email and AI usage at those providers’ prices.
4. Count what you’d stop getting. Base44’s plan also pays for building with its AI chat. After a move there is no Base44 builder, so further changes are made with tools such as Claude Code or Cursor, which have their own pricing, or by a developer.

If you’re still building quickly, a Base44 plan can be the simpler bill. If the app is finished and mostly running, the comparison is worth doing with real numbers. The Unbase44 analysis is free and shows the one-time price before you connect any account or pay: start it here. The migration guide shows the steps.