💡 Did Google Just Kill Lovable?

The New Vibe Coding in AI Studio Is (Almost) Free — and More Powerful Than You’d Expect

Just a few weeks ago, I was paying $40 a month for Lovable to quickly build MVPs using AI.
It worked well — you write a prompt, it generates a web app, you connect Supabase or Stripe, and you’re done.

But this week, Google showed up and flipped the game a bit.

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🧠 What Happened

Inside Google AI Studio, they launched a new tool called Vibe Coding — and honestly, it’s wild.
It works similarly to Lovable, Bolt, or V0, but with one major difference:
👉 it’s basically free.

You get 25–100 Gemini 2.5 Pro requests per day and can spin up a complete app in minutes.
Once the quota runs out, it switches to your API key — and resets again at midnight.

That means you can:

• quickly test ideas,
• validate MVPs,
• and it costs you literally nothing (except a few minutes).

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⚙️ How It Works

Vibe Coding is essentially an AI builder.
You just write a prompt like:

“I want an app where users upload a photo of their room and the AI redesigns it in another style (e.g., mid-century modern).”

And it builds a working web app with:

• drag & drop photo upload,
• style selection,
• AI chatbot,
• and even an integrated Nano Banana model (for generating new images).

When I tested it, the app was ready in 87 seconds.
I just uploaded a photo, picked a style, and used the slider to compare before and after.

And the best part?
No API keys, no backend setup, no infrastructure headaches.
Everything just works.
For free.

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💬 Comparing It to Lovable

To be fair, I built the exact same app in Lovable.
The result?
Pretty similar on the surface — it had a slider, a chatbot, and style options.
But… the chatbot was more confused, the integrations were clunkier, and the whole experience felt heavier.

The difference?

• Lovable: $40/month
• Google AI Studio: $0

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🔍 When to Use Each

Lovable still makes sense if you want to:

• integrate Supabase, Stripe, Shopify, and other services,
• host your app directly inside Lovable,
• or maintain it long-term in their environment.

But if you just want to:

• quickly build and validate an MVP,
• download the code and refine it later (in Claude Code or Cursor, for example),
  → then Google AI Studio easily wins.

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⚡️ The Bottom Line

With this update, Google just opened the door for anyone to build small products, MVPs, or AI experiments for free.
And that’s exactly what excites me — more room to test ideas, more space to create, fewer barriers.

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🧭 Final Thoughts

Lovable, Bolt, V0... and now Google AI Studio — each has its place.
But if you’re currently figuring out where to quickly validate your idea,
👉 try AI Studio.
You might find that those $40 a month are better spent elsewhere 😉

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🖼️ Showcase

Below are a few visuals that show how Google AI Studio’s Vibe Coding interface looks and how the comparison fits together.

Note: The screenshots below are illustrative examples from AI Studio and not the exact app I generated.

Google AI Studio — Interface Example 1

Google AI Studio — Interface Example 2