How many credits does it cost to build an app with the AI assistant, and how do I keep the cost down?

Building an app uses AI credits at 25 cents per credit, the same kind of pricing as tools like Lovable. The number of credits depends on what you build: larger requests cost more and small changes cost much less. As an example, a business directory app with categories, profiles, featured and visible flags and a back end admin page for managing listings and categories took about 2,220 seconds to build and used 20.9 credits, about $5.22. The assistant built it and also tested everything step by step.

On the Founders Plan, the $297 of AI assistant credit included every month can be used to build apps, websites, funnels, automations and agents. Hosting the finished app is a separate $9 a month per app.

To keep the credit cost down, plan the whole app before you build. Building from complete requirements in one go is cheaper than going back and forth one feature at a time (add a login page, then make this button clickable, then add a menu item). Write your full requirements in a document first; you can even use ChatGPT to write them. Then tell the AI to go through the document, review and double check it, test it and keep looping until it is done.

AI never makes a custom app perfect the first time, so part of the process is building and part is fixing, and fixes use credits. If you are a programmer, you can open Files and edit the code yourself without using the AI.