How Base44 credits work: message credits, integration credits and resets

Base44 has two kinds of credits. Message credits pay for the AI building and editing your app, and the cost of each message depends on how much work it triggers. Integration credits pay for your live app’s use of Base44’s own services, like sending email or calling an LLM. Both reset monthly and don’t roll over, and the Free plan also caps message credits at 5 a day.

This is the detail behind the Base44 pricing guide.

Message credits: paying for AI building#

From Base44’s credits documentation: “There is no set credit amount used per message.” Cost follows the work the AI has to do behind the scenes, and the docs give rough ranges:

The first build of a new app uses “a small, fixed amount, about 1 credit, no matter how detailed your prompt is or which AI model you choose.” Previewing your app is free, and so are manual edits like dragging elements or editing text in the editor.

Two things surprise people. A short prompt like “translate the whole app” can be expensive, because the AI still reviews many files. And comparing two versions of a change builds your message twice, so it costs double.

Integration credits: paying for your app’s services#

Integration credits are spent when your live app uses Base44’s built-in services:

The docs are clear that these are estimates, “calculated after the action runs,” and “there is no way to preview an integration credit cost before running an action.” To estimate a workflow, run it on a small test and read the execution logs.

Integration credits aren’t used when you call an external service with your own API key, or when you call Stripe.

Allowances by plan#

Credits are shared across every app in the workspace.

Resets, expiry and running out#

• Free plan: up to 5 credits a day and 25 a month. Hit the daily limit and credit-using features pause until the next day, as long as monthly credits remain.
• Paid plans: credits reset on the same day each month that you subscribed.
• No rollover: “Unused monthly credits expire at the end of your credit cycle.”
• Running out: actions that need credits pause until your reset, or until you upgrade.
• No refunds for AI actions.

Track usage in your billing dashboard, which shows a daily usage chart for each credit type and an App usage breakdown by app.

How to make credits last longer#

1. Plan before you build. A clear first prompt produces a better app for about 1 credit, and Plan mode helps you settle the design before building.
2. Make visual tweaks by hand. Manual edits in the editor are free.
3. Batch related changes into one well-scoped message, and avoid vague app-wide requests.
4. Fix problems once. On Free, “Resolve with AI” and automatic error fixes use message credits too.
5. Edit code with your own tools. On Builder, changes made through GitHub sync or your own coding agent don’t go through Base44’s chat. See using Claude Code or Cursor with Base44.
6. Move high-volume jobs off built-ins. Thousands of notification emails cost thousands of integration credits. An external email provider, or a form backend that sends notifications itself, doesn’t draw on them. See the contact form guide.
7. Throttle automations to the frequency the job actually needs.

What to do next#

1. Open your billing dashboard and look at the daily usage chart for both credit types.
2. Find the app and the action spending the most integration credits.
3. If you’re consistently short, compare plans in the pricing guide.