Olune

Build: what it costs · Stage 3: build it

What a vibe-coded app costs to build and run: four bills and three worked scenarios

A vibe-coded app has four bills: the AI tool you build with, hosting and a database, the model your app calls, and payment fees. Each is priced here from vendor pages checked on 2026-10-13, with three scenarios worked line by line.

Updated

Key takeaways

  • A 100-user web MVP on free tiers costs about $0.92 a month for the domain, or about $2 to $25 a month with an AI feature (scenario A, as of October 2026).
  • At 500 users with 60 paying $19, scenario B costs $139.96 a month on Haiku 5.5 or gpt-6-luna and $424.96 on Sonnet 5.5 or gpt-6.1-sol. The model is the line that swings.
  • Free tiers stop in specific ways: Vercel Hobby is non-commercial only, Netlify Free pauses every project on the team after its 300 credits (20 production deploys use them all), and Supabase Free pauses after 7 quiet days.
  • Fees on 60 subscriptions at $19 run from $59.04 a month (Stripe with Billing) to $98.94 (Stripe Managed Payments), as of October 2026. Paddle, Lemon Squeezy and Stripe Managed Payments cost more because they act as merchant of record and handle sales tax for you.
  • A mobile app with 30 subscribers at $4.99 costs $36.39 a month in scenario C with Apple's Small Business Program, and $51.36 without it.

Line 1: the AI builder or coding tool

This is the bill you pay while you build, whether or not the app ships.

  • Entry paid plans, as of October 2026. Per month: Cursor Plus $8 (Grok models only), ChatGPT Go $8 (includes Codex), GitHub Copilot Pro $10, Claude Pro $20 (includes Claude Code), Replit Core $20, Lovable Pro $25, Bolt Pro $25, v0 Plus $30 and Cursor Premium $30.[28], [30], [29], [25], [31], [32], [34], [35]
  • Free plans, with tight limits. As of October 2026, Bolt Free gives 300K tokens a day and 1M a month, v0 Free 7 messages a day, and Lovable Free 5 build credits a day (30 a month at most). Cursor and GitHub Copilot list free plans, and ChatGPT Free includes Codex for quick tasks.[34], [35], [32], [28], [29], [30]
  • The units do not compare. Lovable sells credits, Bolt sells tokens, GitHub prices an AI credit at $0.01, and Cursor bills Claude and GPT models separately by usage. A monthly price does not say how much app it buys.[32], [34], [29], [28]
  • Build and run can share one balance. On Lovable, one credit balance pays for building and, beyond a monthly 20-credit Cloud grant that Lovable calls temporary, for hosting, so an empty balance can stop the live app's backend.[33]
  • What people on Hacker News report spending. In an August 2026 Ask HN thread on monthly AI subscription spend (41 comments), answers ran from $0 to several hundred dollars a month, and several named a single $20 plan.[36]

Line 2: hosting, database, auth, email

Most small apps need one service per job. If a browser builder hosts your app, its credits cover some of these rows. Prices as of October 2026, in USD before tax.

Line 2: hosting, database, auth, email
ServiceJobFree planFirst paid step
VercelHostingHobby, $0: 1M function calls, 1M CDN requests and 100 GB transfer a month. Personal, non-commercial use only.Pro, $20 a month, including $20 of usage credit.
NetlifyHostingFree, $0: 300 credits a month. A production deploy costs 15.Personal, $9 a month (1,000 credits). Pro, $20 a month (3,000).
SupabaseDatabase and sign-inFree, $0: 500 MB database, 50,000 monthly active users, 5 GB egress, 2 active projects.Pro, from $25 a month: 8 GB disk, 100,000 monthly active users, $10 of compute credit.
FirebaseDatabase, sign-in, server functionsSpark, $0: Firestore 1 GiB and 50,000 reads a day; sign-in included except phone sign-in (50,000 monthly active users if you add Identity Platform). No Cloud Functions.Blaze, pay as you go: the same free amounts, plus Cloud Functions free to 2M calls a month.
NeonPostgres databaseFree, $0: 100 CU-hours of compute and 1 GB storage per project.Launch: $0.106 per CU-hour and $0.35 per GB-month.
ResendTransactional emailFree, $0: 3,000 emails a month, at most 100 a day.Pro, $20 a month for 50,000 emails, no daily cap.
Porkbun.com domainNone$11.08 a year, the same at renewal.

Prices checked on vendor pages 2026-10-13.[1], [2], [4], [6], [7], [9], [11], [12], [13], [14]

Line 3: the model your app calls

If your app calls an AI model, this is the line that moves most. The cost of one call by model is on How to price an AI app. At list prices as of October 2026:

  • Same app, different model. Scenario B's 30,000 calls a month cost $13.20 on Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite, $15.00 on Haiku 5.5 or gpt-6-luna, $300.00 on Sonnet 5.5 or gpt-6.1-sol and $600.00 on Opus 5.5.[25], [26], [27]
  • Scenario A has a dated price. Scenario A's Gemini 3.8 Flash line is $9.00 at Google's list price through 2026-12-31 and $18.00 from 2027-01-01, when the price doubles. Scheduled price changes, output-heavy prompts and free-tier data rules for each model are on How to price an AI app.[27]

Line 4: payments

The same revenue through each option: 60 subscribers paying $19 a month, $1,140 in total, on US cards. A merchant of record is the legal seller and collects and files sales tax and VAT for you. Fees as of October 2026.

Line 4: payments
OptionFeeFees on 60 x $19ShareSales tax and VAT
Stripe with Billing2.9% + $0.30 per US card charge, plus 0.7% of the amount billed. International cards add 1.5%.$59.04 (cards $51.06, Billing $7.98)5.2%Yours to handle. Stripe Tax Basic, which Stripe says covers tax calculation only, adds 0.5% per transaction where you are registered.
Paddle5% + $0.50 per transaction, no monthly fee.$87.007.6%Paddle, as merchant of record.
Lemon Squeezy5% + $0.50, plus 0.5% on subscription payments. Non-US buyers add 1.5%, and PayPal 1.5%.$92.708.1%Lemon Squeezy, as merchant of record.
Stripe Managed PaymentsCard fees plus 3.5% per transaction on the full amount, including any sales tax, plus Billing's 0.7% on subscriptions.$98.94 (cards $51.06, Managed Payments $39.90, Billing $7.98)8.7%Stripe, as merchant of record.

Prices checked on vendor pages 2026-10-13. Lemon Squeezy now sells through Link, LLC. In a post dated 2026-01-28 its team said it is building on Stripe Managed Payments, aims to give users an easy way to migrate there, and warned of slower support; the post announced no shutdown.[15], [16], [17], [18], [19], [37]

Scenario A: a free-tier web MVP with 100 users

Our assumptions, none of them an average: 100 monthly active users, 8 visits each (30 requests and 2 MB per visit), 10 production deploys and 5 emails per user a month, not charging yet. Netlify Free hosts it because Vercel Hobby is non-commercial and this app is meant to earn. Netlify's Self-Serve Subscription Agreement sets no personal-use limit on its free tier, which Netlify offers at its discretion with no service commitment. Optional AI feature: 30 calls per user at 1,500 input and 500 output tokens.

Scenario A: a free-tier web MVP with 100 users
LineAssumed usageHow it is worked outCost a month
Hosting: Netlify Free24,000 requests, 1.6 GB, 10 production deploysDeploys 10 x 15 = 150 credits, bandwidth 1.6 x 20 = 32, requests 4.8, compute about 5 (assumed). About 192 of 300 credits.$0
Database and sign-in: Supabase Free100 monthly active users, well under 500 MBInside the free plan$0
Email: Resend Free500 emailsInside 3,000 a month and 100 a day$0
Domain: .com at PorkbunOne domain$11.08 a year / 12$0.92
Total without AI$0.92
Optional AI feature3,000 calls: 4.5M input, 1.5M output tokensGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite: 4.5 x $0.10 + 1.5 x $0.40 = $1.05. Haiku 5.5 or gpt-6-luna: 4.5 x $0.10 + 1.5 x $0.50 = $1.20. Gemini 3.8 Flash: 4.5 x $0.75 + 1.5 x $3.75 = $9.00 through 2026-12-31 (4.5 x $1.50 + 1.5 x $7.50 = $18.00 from 2027-01-01). Sonnet 5.5 or gpt-6.1-sol: 4.5 x $2 + 1.5 x $10 = $24.00.$1.05 to $24.00
Total with AI$0.92 plus the model line$1.97 to $24.92

Prices checked on vendor pages 2026-10-13. What breaks first: at this level of use, the 18th production deploy in a month takes the team past 300 Netlify credits and every project on it pauses until the next billing cycle. A quiet week pauses Supabase Free.[6], [7], [9], [13], [14], [25], [26], [27], [38]

Scenario B: a paid SaaS with 500 users and AI in the core loop

Our assumptions, none of them an average: 500 monthly active users, 60 paying $19 a month ($1,140); 60 AI calls per user at 2,000 input and 600 output tokens; 300 function calls per user at 50 ms of CPU and 3 seconds at 2 GB each (deliberately generous); 400,000 CDN requests; 6 emails per user.

Scenario B: a paid SaaS with 500 users and AI in the core loop
LineAssumed usageHow it is worked outCost a month
Hosting: Vercel Pro150,000 function calls, 400,000 CDN requestsAt Vercel starting rates: invocations $0.09 + CPU 2.08 hours x $0.128 = $0.27 + memory 250 GB-hours x $0.0106 = $2.65. Total $3.01, inside the $20 credit. CDN requests inside the included 1M.$20.00
Database and sign-in: Supabase Pro500 monthly active users, one projectPlan price; the $10 compute credit covers one Micro instance$25.00
Email: Resend Pro3,000 emailsFree covers the monthly count but stops at 100 a day$20.00
DomainOne .com$11.08 a year / 12$0.92
Payments: Stripe with Billing60 charges of $19 on US cards60 x (2.9% x $19 + $0.30) = $51.06; Billing 0.7% x $1,140 = $7.98$59.04
Subtotal before the model$124.96
Model: Haiku 5.5 or gpt-6-luna30,000 calls: 60M input, 18M output tokens60 x $0.10 + 18 x $0.50$15.00
Model: Sonnet 5.5 or gpt-6.1-solSame calls60 x $2 + 18 x $10$300.00
Total with Haiku 5.5 or gpt-6-luna$124.96 + $15.00$139.96 (12.3% of revenue)
Total with Sonnet 5.5 or gpt-6.1-sol$124.96 + $300.00$424.96 (37.3% of revenue)

Prices checked on vendor pages 2026-10-13. On Opus 5.5 the model line is 60 x $4 + 18 x $20 = $600.00 and the total $724.96, 63.6% of revenue. Supabase Free and Resend Free would cover this usage on paper and save $45 a month; we upgraded so a paying app does not pause after a quiet week or stop at 100 emails in a day (our call).[1], [4], [5], [9], [13], [14], [15], [25], [26]

Scenario C: a mobile app on both stores with subscriptions

Our assumptions, none of them an average: 300 monthly active users; 30 US subscribers at $4.99 a month (20 on iOS, 10 on Android, $149.70 gross); a Firebase Blaze backend at 50 reads per session and 30 sessions per user a month; AI through a Cloud Function, 40 calls per user at 1,000 input and 400 output tokens; a developer new to the App Store, enrolled in the Small Business Program.

Scenario C: a mobile app on both stores with subscriptions
LineAssumed usageHow it is worked outCost a month
Apple Developer ProgramOne membership$99 a year / 12$8.25
Google Play registrationOne account$25 once, spread over 12 months (our presentation choice)$2.08
Backend: Firebase BlazeAbout 15,000 reads a day, 12,000 function callsInside the free amounts: 50,000 reads a day, 2M function calls a month, sign-in included$0
Model: Haiku 5.5 or gpt-6-luna12,000 calls: 12M input, 4.8M output tokens12 x $0.10 + 4.8 x $0.50$3.60
Apple commission, Small Business Program20 x $4.99 = $99.8015%$14.97
Google Play, US subscriptions10 x $4.99 = $49.9010% service fee + 5% billing fee$7.49
Total with the Small Business Program$113.31 left of $149.70$36.39
Total without it (Apple keeps 30% in a subscriber's first year)$36.39 - $14.97 + $29.94; $98.34 left$51.36

Prices checked on vendor pages 2026-10-13. On Sonnet 5.5 the model line is 12 x $2 + 4.8 x $10 = $72.00 and the total $104.79. Not modelled: how the stores collect sales tax and VAT. Not included: a website for support and privacy pages, and the cost of an App Review rejection.[11], [20], [21], [22], [23], [24], [25], [26]

What the three scenarios show (our call, editorial)

Written for a solo builder using AI coding tools, with no audience yet, building in spare time. Hosting, database and email cost nothing in scenarios A and C, and $65 a month in scenario B, where we chose paid plans so a paying app does not pause or stop at 100 emails a day; the usage alone fits the free plans. The two lines that grow with use are the model and the payment fees: in B, Sonnet 5.5 instead of Haiku 5.5 adds $285 a month, and fees take 5.2% to 8.7% of revenue depending on the processor.

The cost these tables leave out is your time. If nobody wants the app, every scenario here is money and evenings spent on the wrong thing, and no free tier gives the evenings back.

Free tiers that pause or take your app offline

Hosting, database and email services, as of October 2026. If a builder such as Lovable, Bolt, Replit or Base44 hosts your app, its own credits decide when the app stops.

Free tiers that pause or take your app offline
ServiceWhat happensWhen builders hit itWay out
Vercel HobbyPersonal, non-commercial use only. Past a usage limit you usually wait 30 days to use that feature again.As soon as the app asks for payment, shows ads or advertises a product: Vercel's fair use guidelines count each as commercial use. Donations do not count.Pro, $20 a month.
Netlify FreeWhen the team uses its 300 monthly credits, every web project on it pauses and shows "Site not available", and production deploys stop.At 15 credits each, 20 production deploys use the month before any visitor arrives.Wait for the next billing cycle or upgrade. Free cannot buy extra credits.
Supabase FreePaused after 7 days of low database activity, after a warning email about a week ahead.A side project with a quiet week.Resume project in the dashboard (the docs say within 1 year), or Pro from $25 a month, which is never paused for inactivity.
Neon FreeUsing up 100 CU-hours or 5 GB of egress suspends compute until the next billing period.A database kept busy around the clock (our reading).Launch plan, billed by usage.
Resend FreeStops at 100 emails a day.Launch-day sign-ups, each sending a confirmation email (our reading).Pro, $20 a month, no daily cap.
Firebase SparkNo Cloud Functions.Calling an AI model needs server code to keep the API key secret (our reading).Blaze, which needs a billing account; use inside the free amounts stays at $0.

Checked on vendor pages 2026-10-13.[1], [2], [3], [6], [7], [8], [9], [10], [11], [12], [13], [39]

A free tier can carry a test. Is the idea worth one?

The stack above runs a small app for about the price of a domain. Before you upgrade anything, check whether anyone wants it. Describe your app and who it is for: Olune scores it free, then a free sign-in runs the research on search demand, public complaints in Reddit threads found through Google, and competitors. You get Cook it, Sleep on it or Kill it, with the reasoning. 3 a day, no card.

Free score, no account. The research needs a free sign-in.

Keeping the bill small

Our call (editorial), for a solo builder using AI coding tools. Tick these off before launch.

  • Try the cheapest model first: $139.96 against $424.96 in scenario B. Run your own test prompts on the cheapest model before a bigger one. In scenario B, the model alone separates a $139.96 month from a $424.96 one.
  • Cache the system prompt: $300.00 to $214.50 in scenario B. If 1,500 of every 2,000 input tokens are a system prompt read from cache, scenario B on Sonnet 5.5 falls from $300.00 to $214.50: 15M input x $2 = $30, 45M cached reads x $0.10 = $4.50, output $180. Cache writes ($2.50 per million) are left out.[25]
  • Cap AI calls per user in your own code. Require sign-in before any call that costs money, and set a daily limit per account.
  • Set the spend alert at the host. Vercel Pro turns on spend notifications at $200 a billing cycle by default for new customers. Lower the amount and add automatic actions.[1], [4]
  • Batch deploys on Netlify. Each production deploy costs 15 credits, so deploy when a feature is done instead of after every prompt.[6], [7]
  • Upgrade before you sell. Leave Vercel Hobby before the app asks for payment, shows ads or advertises a product, since Vercel counts each as commercial use. Leave Supabase Free before a pause could cost you a customer.[3], [10]
  • Check demand before the bills grow. None of these bills is large at 100 users. The months you spend on an app nobody pays for are. Check the idea before you build.

Run your app idea before the first invoice

Every bill on this page pays to build or run the app. None of them tells you whether anyone will pay for it. Describe the app and who would pay: Olune scores it free, then a free sign-in checks search demand, public complaints found through Google, and competitors, and returns Cook it, Sleep on it or Kill it. The analysis is AI-assisted and can vary between runs. Kill is a normal answer, and it comes with 3 to 5 pivots instead of a Build Kit.

Free score, no account. The research needs a free sign-in.

Common questions

How much does vibe coding cost per month?

Expect $0 to $30 a month for the AI tool on entry plans, plus a running cost that was $0.92 to about $25 a month in our 100-user scenario, as of October 2026. At 500 users with 60 paying $19, our scenario came to $139.96 to $424.96 a month, mostly set by the model and the payment fees.

Can I use Vercel Hobby for a paid app?

No. Vercel limits Hobby to personal, non-commercial use, and its fair use guidelines count any way of requesting or processing payment, showing ads or advertising a product as commercial. Pro costs $20 a month with $20 of usage credit, as of October 2026.

Why did my Supabase project pause?

Supabase pauses Free projects that get too little database activity over 7 days, after a warning email. To restore it, open the project in the dashboard and click Resume project; the docs say a paused project can be restored for up to 1 year. Paid projects are not paused for inactivity. As of October 2026.

What is the cheapest way to host a vibe-coded app?

Free tiers plus a domain: a .com at Porkbun is $11.08 a year, about $0.92 a month, as of October 2026. Pick a host whose free plan allows your use (Vercel Hobby does not allow commercial use), watch Netlify deploy credits, and expect Supabase Free to pause after a quiet week.

How much does it cost to run an AI app?

Mostly what the model costs: in our scenario B, 30,000 calls a month cost $13.20 on Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite and $600 on Opus 5.5 at list prices as of October 2026. Output tokens cost 4 to 5 times input tokens, so answer length matters. Our AI app pricing page lists the cost of one call per model.

What is the cheapest vibe coding platform?

$0, if a free plan's limits are enough: as of October 2026, Bolt, v0, Lovable, Cursor, GitHub Copilot and ChatGPT (with Codex) all have free plans with tight daily or monthly limits. The cheapest paid plans are $8 a month: Cursor Plus (Grok models only) and ChatGPT Go (includes Codex). Which is cheapest for you depends on how each one meters use (our view).

Why did Netlify pause all my sites?

Your team used its monthly credits, and on Netlify credit plans that pauses every web project on the team. A production deploy costs 15 credits, so 20 deploys use the Free plan allowance of 300. Projects resume at the next billing cycle or when you upgrade.

Sources

Each number in brackets on this page points here. Prices and limits change; the date is when we read the page.

  1. [1]Vercel, Pricing · accessed
  2. [2]Vercel docs, Hobby plan · accessed
  3. [3]Vercel docs, Fair use guidelines (commercial usage) · accessed
  4. [4]Vercel docs, Pro plan · accessed
  5. [5]Vercel docs, Flat Rate CDN · accessed
  6. [6]Netlify, Pricing · accessed
  7. [7]Netlify docs, Billing FAQ for credit-based plans · accessed
  8. [8]Netlify docs, Resume paused projects · accessed
  9. [9]Supabase, Pricing · accessed
  10. [10]Supabase docs, Project pausing · accessed
  11. [11]Firebase, Pricing · accessed
  12. [12]Neon, Pricing · accessed
  13. [13]Resend, Pricing · accessed
  14. [14]Porkbun, Domain name pricing · accessed
  15. [15]Stripe, Pricing (US) · accessed
  16. [16]Paddle, Pricing · accessed
  17. [17]Lemon Squeezy, Pricing · accessed
  18. [18]Lemon Squeezy docs, Fees · accessed
  19. [19]Lemon Squeezy blog, 2026 update (2026-01-28) · accessed
  20. [20]Apple, Enroll in the Apple Developer Program · accessed
  21. [21]Apple, App Store Small Business Program · accessed
  22. [22]Apple, Auto-renewable subscriptions · accessed
  23. [23]Play Console Help, Developer registration fee · accessed
  24. [24]Play Console Help, Service fees · accessed
  25. [25]Anthropic, Claude pricing · accessed
  26. [26]OpenAI, API pricing · accessed
  27. [27]Google, Gemini API pricing · accessed
  28. [28]Cursor, Pricing · accessed
  29. [29]GitHub, Copilot plans · accessed
  30. [30]OpenAI, ChatGPT and Codex pricing · accessed
  31. [31]Replit, Pricing · accessed
  32. [32]Lovable docs, Subscription plans · accessed
  33. [33]Lovable docs, Plans and credits · accessed
  34. [34]Bolt, Pricing · accessed
  35. [35]v0, Pricing · accessed
  36. [36]Hacker News, "Ask HN: How much money do you spend monthly on subscriptions for AI models?" (2026-08-13) · accessed
  37. [37]Stripe Support, Managed Payments pricing · accessed
  38. [38]Netlify, Self-Serve Subscription Agreement · accessed
  39. [39]Firebase docs, Firebase pricing plans · accessed

Read next

Part of the vibe coding guide: what to check before, during and after the build.