Bolt Forge launches open models, 50x usage

Forge is a smart usage-for-training-data exchange that could make open models materially better at real software development, but developers should treat it as an experimentation lane rather than a production default.

• –Bolt reports Forge scoring 92.2 versus 101.0 for its top paid model on the company’s own Build Index—a promising but self-reported gap.
• –The data trade is unusually explicit: consent is requested each time, but shared sessions include prompts, code, and debugging traces.
• –Switching back stops new sharing, though data already incorporated into training remains in the resulting models.
• –Dedicated hardware and browser-based WebContainers help explain how Bolt can offer dramatically higher usage at lower inference costs.
• –Bolt recommends duplicating projects first; Forge models remain experimental and currently lack PDF-upload support.