Bolt.new — The ultimate guide to saving money on tokens

plus other tips and tricks

Ok so I’ve been using Bolt.new a lot this past month, and after comparing it to various other tools on the market (lovable, replit, cursor, windsurf) I still find myself coming back to bolt.new, and that’s even aftter spending some time with bolt.diy. I just don’t seem to get the same level of results with the other tools.

Bolt.new downsides

Cost! — As your project grows, you’ll find yourself forking out a LOT of credits per call. It becomes unsustainable — I’ll show you how I tackle this now.

Error-loop hell — Bolt.new cannot fix certain things, and you’ll find it overwriting good code with bad, and wasting credits at the same time. I’ll show you how I avoid this.

Weird output and bugs — I’ve found Bolt.new spitting out half-complete pages, or wrapping code inside comments, etc.

Ok let’s get to how I address these things…

Reducing cost on Bolt.new projects

Before I explain how I tackle the issue, I’ll explain WHY bolt.new starts getting crazy expensive. It’s because your CONTEXT gets bigger and bigger as your project expands. Essentially this means that every change you make, Bolt.new is trying to keep tabs on it. So you have 20 modules/components in your project, and that’s 20 modules/components that Bolt.new wants to remain aware of. Why does it do this? Well…