Bolt launched Forge, an open-model agent with up to 50X more usage in exchange for opt-in training data

Archive entry: this covers an event from September 14, 2026, and we published it on November 8, 2026. The details come from sources dated at the time and may have changed since.

On September 14, 2026, Bolt (StackBlitz) launched Bolt Forge as a research preview, announced in Bolt's post on Bolt Forge. Forge was a third agent alongside Standard and Max that ran on open-source models such as GLM 5.3, GLM 5.3 Flash, Kimi K3 and DeepSeek v4 Pro.

What changed

• Every individual Pro plan got up to 50X more Forge usage at no extra cost through October 14, 2026, for builders who opted in to share de-identified sessions.
• Forge usage was tracked separately from Standard and Max, reset monthly and had no daily limit. At 100% on the usage bar, Bolt switched the user back to Standard instead of charging an overage.
• On Bolt's own Bolt Build Index, Forge's open models scored 92.2 against 101.0 for the top paid model in Bolt, or 91% of the top score.
• Forge was opt-in. Sessions were de-identified with secrets stripped and went into datasets that Bolt licenses to AI developers under a data license agreement, starting with Arcee AI.
• Bolt partnered with Arcee AI to help train a trillion-parameter-class model. Sessions shared from September 14 to October 14 fed the first training run, which began in October.
• Bolt Lite, a $9-per-month plan with Forge-only access, was sold through a waitlist. Bolt said the first seats would open by September 21 and sign-ups would close on October 14.

What it means for builders

Bolt traded user build data for open-model capacity, a way for an app builder to pay for cheaper inference. For builders, opting in meant sharing de-identified sessions that could be licensed as training data. StackBlitz might be paid for the datasets it licenses, and they could also go to AI developers other than Arcee.

Who was excluded

Teams and Enterprise workspaces were excluded. Sessions from the EEA, the UK and Switzerland were not used for training or datasets.

Sources

• What is Bolt Forge? (Bolt (StackBlitz), September 14, 2026, official)
• Release Notes - Bolt: Build with open-source models using Bolt Forge (week Sep 14 - Sep 20) (Bolt (StackBlitz), official)

Written with AI assistance, strictly from the sources listed above. Before it went live, automated checks verified its dates, sources and every language edition.