Bolt promises "Unused tokens roll over" and a "Save up to 28%" annual toggle

The psychology

Why it nudges

Rollover removes the feeling of losing what you paid for, which answers loss aversion directly. A dated inclusion adds mild urgency, and "up to 28%" frames the annual saving. Whether these lift upgrades for Bolt is not public.

● Mixed evidence · More on loss aversion, with sources →

Context

An AI web-app builder. Prices are in US$ as served to our capture (US egress); UK prices were not shown.

Honest nudge or dark pattern?

Honest nudge

Honest nudge as captured.

Sources: Captured by Nudgeswipe, 16 Oct 2026 (logged out)

Steal this, honestly

If usage does not expire, say so on the plan card, as here.

What to test: With vs without the rollover line. Measure upgrades and month-2 retention.

Next: run it on your product

Apply this with your agent

Take the steps above into your own flow. The prompt carries this teardown, the honest-vs-dark line and the steps.

You are helping me apply a behavioural-design pattern ethically.

Pattern: Bolt: Bolt promises "Unused tokens roll over" and a "Save up to 28%" annual toggle
Bias: Loss aversion: Losses tend to loom larger than equivalent gains.
Why it nudges: Rollover removes the feeling of losing what you paid for, which answers loss aversion directly. A dated inclusion adds mild urgency, and "up to 28%" frames the annual saving. Whether these lift upgrades for Bolt is not public.
Our verdict: Honest nudge. Honest nudge as captured.
Source page: https://nudgeswipe.com/examples/bolt-unused-tokens-roll-over/ (JSON: https://nudgeswipe.com/api/teardowns/bolt-unused-tokens-roll-over.json)

Rules: say a brand "uses" a tactic, never that it "worked"; outcomes are not public unless the company published them; no invented uplift estimates; flag mixed evidence. Honest nudge = true, visible, easy to reverse, and in the user's interest. Dark pattern = hides costs, fakes scarcity or popularity, shames, or makes leaving harder than joining. Quote company-published results as "X reports", with the source link, and don’t generalise them. Don’t cite retracted or failed-to-replicate studies as support (e.g. Ariely & Wertenbroch 2002). Don’t state study figures unless they’re on this page or in a source you can link. If an idea crosses the line, link the matching deceptive.design pattern.

Tasks:
1. Ask me for my product, the flow (URL or screenshots) and the goal.
2. Audit where this pattern already appears, or could, in that flow.
3. Propose 2-3 ethical experiments: hypothesis, variant copy or UI, primary metric, and a guardrail metric (refunds, complaints, cancellations).
4. Flag every dark-pattern risk and say how to stay on the honest side.

Open in ChatGPT Open in Claude Open in Grok Open in Cursor

ChatGPT, Claude, Grok and Cursor open with the prompt filled in (it is also copied, in case the prefill doesn't load). Gemini and Codex don't support prefilled links, so the prompt is copied and the app opens; paste it in.

Sources

Our capture of bolt.new, 16 Oct 2026
Kahneman & Tversky (1979), Prospect theory. Critique: Gal & Rucker (2018). doi.org/10.2307/1914185
Captured by Nudgeswipe, 16 Oct 2026 (logged out): bolt.new

Bolt promises "Unused tokens roll over" and a "Save up to 28%" annual toggle

Why it nudges

Honest nudge

Apply this with your agent

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