Stop your AI builder from using up Netlify's free credits

On Netlify's Free plan you get 300 credits a month, and each production deploy costs 15 of them. That is 20 deploys. If your Lovable or Bolt project is synced to GitHub and Netlify builds from the main branch, every change the builder pushes there goes live as a new production deploy, and an ordinary afternoon of prompting can use the whole month.

It adds up fast. In a December 2025 thread on Netlify's forum, someone reported 16 deploys and one AI request in a single day, which left them at 277.6 of 300 credits and unable to deploy again until the next month (the thread, 10 December 2025). When the credits run out completely, Netlify pauses every project on the account and visitors see a "Site not available" page.

The good news is in the same billing docs. Netlify only charges for production deploys, the version that goes live at your main address. Deploy Previews and branch deploys are listed as not metered by credits, and failed deploys and rollbacks cost nothing either. So the fix is to keep editing as much as you like, and choose when a version goes live.

There are three ways to do that, from the simplest to the most flexible. All rates and settings were checked on 2 November 2026.

Option 1: lock publishing while you edit

This needs no change in your builder and no Git knowledge, which makes it the best first step for most people.

1. In Netlify, open your project and go to Deploys.
2. Select Lock to stop auto publishing.
3. Keep editing in Lovable or Bolt as usual.

While publishing is locked, Netlify still builds every push, but none of them replaces the live site. Each finished deploy appears in the Deploys list with its own address, so you can open it and check the new version before anyone else sees it.

When a version is ready, open the deploy you want. The newest one is at the top of the Deploys list. On its page, select Publish deploy. Netlify's pricing docs say that when a project is locked, only the deploys you publish cost the 15 credits. A day of thirty small edits becomes one charge instead of thirty.

Lovable's own Publish button is a separate thing: it puts the app on Lovable's hosting and does not touch Netlify.

To go back to the old behaviour, select Unlock in the same Deploys list. Leave it locked if you like publishing by hand.

One thing to remember: a locked project does not update by itself. If you fix a typo in the builder and nothing changes on your site, that is the lock doing its job. Go to Deploys and publish the newest one.

Option 2: edit on a branch, publish with one merge

This takes a few more clicks the first time, and gives you a preview link for each round of changes plus a clear record of what went live when.

Lovable syncs one branch at a time, and by default that is the repository's main branch. Its docs describe a branch picker in the project's GitHub settings where you can switch branches or select Create branch. Lovable then edits and syncs the branch you picked.

1. In Lovable, open the project's GitHub settings, select Create branch in the branch picker, and name it something like draft. Lovable switches to it.
2. Make your changes as usual. They go to draft and leave main, and the live site, alone.
3. On GitHub, open a pull request from draft into main. Netlify builds a Deploy Preview for it automatically, and the preview link shows up on the pull request. Previews are not metered by credits.
4. When the preview looks right, merge the pull request. That is one production deploy, 15 credits, for everything in it.

If you would rather have a fixed preview address for draft without opening a pull request, turn on branch deploys for that branch. Netlify does not create branch deploys until someone sets them up: go to Project configuration > Developer settings > Continuous deployment > Branches and deploy contexts, select Configure, and add the branch.

Bolt's GitHub sync works differently from Lovable's, so check which branch it pushes to before you rely on this option. If it only pushes to main, Option 1 is the simpler route.

Option 3: stop builds for a few days

If you are going to rework the app for a while and do not need to see it on Netlify at all, you can stop builds. Go to Project configuration > Developer settings > Continuous deployment > Build settings, select Configure, and set Build status to Stopped builds.

With builds stopped, Netlify builds nothing from Git: no production deploys, no Deploy Previews, no branch deploys. Your live site stays as it is. When you are done, set the build status back to active and push once.

This is the bluntest of the three. You lose the preview links, so it suits a pause rather than everyday editing.

If a broken change already went live

Do not fix it by pushing more changes in a hurry. Each of those is another production deploy. In Deploys, open the last version that worked and select Publish deploy. Netlify switches the live site back at once, and its billing FAQ says rolling back to a previous production deploy does not use credits.

If auto publishing is still on, the next push from the builder will replace that rollback. Lock publishing first (Option 1), fix the problem in the builder at your own pace, then publish the fixed deploy.

If this month's credits are already used up

On the Free plan the limit is hard: the projects stay paused until the next monthly cycle starts. To get back online sooner you need a paid plan or extra credits (see the last section). Either way, lock publishing before you start editing again, so the new month does not go the same way.

Keep an eye on the balance

Your Netlify team dashboard has a Usage & billing page with the number of credits left at the top and a breakdown by feature area underneath. Check it after a busy day of edits. If deploys are the biggest line, one of the options above will help more than anything else.

For the rest of the bill (bandwidth, requests and functions) and three worked examples, see Is Netlify's free plan enough for your app?.

When a paid plan makes sense

Sometimes the honest answer is that the app has outgrown Free. If you publish the finished version only a few times a week and still run out, the credits are going to traffic rather than deploys, which means people are using the app. Netlify's Personal plan is $9 a month and Pro is $20 a month (checked 2 November 2026), and both can buy more credits instead of pausing at the limit. The free plan guide covers which one fits.

If you only ran out because every prompt became a deploy, try locking publishing first. It costs nothing and usually fixes it.