Pricing comparison
Tripo vs Meshy: pricing compared, and when you only need one model
Tripo and Meshy both sell image-to-3D generation on a monthly subscription, and on both, downloading a model from their current generator without a free-tier limit takes a $20/mo plan — Tripo’s free models are public and non-commercial, Meshy’s free downloads are capped at 10 a month and limited to its older Lite model. If you only need one model, that is the comparison that matters more than any feature list.
| Plan | Tripo | Meshy | Sculptly |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free tier | 200 credits/mo (≈ 13 models), public and non-commercial, 15 exports on the H2.5 model only | 100 credits/mo, but 10 downloads/mo, Lite model only — the current Meshy 6/7 models cannot be downloaded on Free. Output is CC BY 4.0 (commercial use allowed with credit). | 1 free run with no account, then 1 more model after a free sign-up. |
| Cheapest paid plan | Pro $20.00/mo ($240/yr), 3,000 credits/mo | Pro $20/mo ($240/yr), 1,000 credits/mo | One-time, $5 or less — no subscription |
| Cost for exactly one model | ~$0.16–$0.27 of a $20 plan you have to keep paying for (15–25 credits of 3,000) | ~$0.67–$0.71 of a $20 plan you have to keep paying for (30–35 credits of 1,000) | $5 or less, once |
| Do unused/bought credits expire? | Monthly credits do not roll over; credit-pack expiry is not stated | Monthly credits reset; bought credit packs never expire | n/a — pay per model, nothing to expire |
Sculptly's exact price depends on how many models you buy at once — the checkout screen quotes the number, and it is $5 or less either way. Buying more than one at a time also covers a few more models, not just the one in front of you.
Sculptly turns one photo into a printable, textured 3D model for a one-time payment of $5 or less — no subscription. Try the first one free.
Try one photo free →Tripo vs Meshy pricing, side by side
Both companies quote a $20/mo Pro plan as their cheapest paid step, and both meter it in credits rather than models. A tripo ai pricing check on 2026-09-27 put a plain (untextured) Tripo model at 15 credits and a textured one at about 25, out of 3,000/mo — close to Tripo’s own “$0.16/model” claim at full plan use. Meshy prices a textured model at 30 credits on its API (35 on the Meshy 7 web app), out of 1,000/mo on the same $20 plan.
Free tiers look generous until you try to keep anything: Tripo’s 200 free credits are public and non-commercial, and capped at 15 exports on an older model. Meshy’s 100 free credits can only be spent on 10 downloads a month of its Meshy 6 Lite model — the newer Meshy 6/7 models it actually markets are not downloadable on Free at all. Either way, a free-tier model that you can keep, use commercially, and export in full quality is not actually free on either product.
What each one is genuinely better at
We make Sculptly, so we are not neutral here — in the spirit of our own comparison page, here is where the other two are ahead of us, honestly:
- Tripo is built for people who need more than a static mesh: auto-rigging and retargeting, native quad topology (“Smart Mesh”, 500–25,000 polys), part segmentation, and ten DCC plugins (Blender, Unity, Unreal, Maya and more) so the model lands inside your tool of choice instead of a download folder.
- Meshy ships over 600 stock animation presets, and a credit pack you buy never expires (only the monthly subscription allowance resets). Its free-tier output is licensed CC BY 4.0, so commercial use is allowed with attribution even without paying. Meshy also carries the higher independent rating of the two — Trustpilot 4.7/5 from 3,644 reviews, against Tripo’s 4.6/5 from 614.
- Sculptly does one thing: turn a single photo into a print-ready model. A one-time payment of $5 or less unlocks that one model, no subscription to remember to cancel, and the STL comes out repaired and watertight (OBJ and GLB export too) rather than raw reconstruction output.
If you came here looking for a Meshy AI alternative rather than a straight Tripo pricing lookup: the comparison above still holds, because Meshy and Tripo charge the same $20/mo for a keepable model. A free Tripo alternative that skips the subscription entirely is the one-time, $5-or-less route below, not another credit-based free tier.
If you only need one model
Neither Tripo nor Meshy sells a single model outright — the smallest unit either one offers is a subscription month or a credit pack sized for many models. If the job in front of you is one photo, once, paying $20/mo for that is buying eleven months of a plan you will not use again. Sculptly’s one-time, $5-or-less unlock is priced for exactly that job: this model, repaired for printing, no ongoing charge.
Common complaints (sourced)
Pulled from each vendor’s own Trustpilot page, checked 2026-09-27:
- Tripo, yummie (2026-09-18, 2★): “They hide subscription cancellation... A month later Stripe charged $5 again.” Trustpilot: tripo3d.ai
- Meshy, Jan Sýkora (2026-09-26, 1★): “The free plan feels misleading. You get 100 credits per month… those credits disappear very quickly” and “downloading/exporting it in that quality required a paid plan.” Trustpilot: meshy.ai
- Meshy, Kelsey M (2026-09-17, 1★): “I wasted many hours and $42 without getting a single usable result. They keep coming up with different excuses for why they won’t refund me.” Trustpilot: meshy.ai
Both refund policies are narrow: Tripo only refunds accidental purchases requested within 24 hours with no credits spent, and Meshy says it “generally” does not refund, with exceptions handled case by case. Sculptly’s pay-per-model pricing means a bad model costs at most $5, once, not a subscription to cancel — see our own refund policy.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a free Tripo alternative?
Sculptly is free for one model with no account: upload a photo, get a textured GLB back, no card and no sign-up. Tripo’s own free tier gives roughly 13 models a month, but they are public and non-commercial and capped at 15 exports on its H2.5 model. If you just need one model to keep and print, Sculptly’s single free run plus a one-time payment of $5 or less is the shorter path.
Is Tripo cheaper than Meshy?
Their cheapest paid plans are the same price: Tripo Pro and Meshy Pro are both $20/mo. Tripo’s $20 buys about 200 models a month at its own $0.16/model math; Meshy’s $20 buys 1,000 credits, about 28–33 textured models at 30–35 credits each. Neither is cheaper in list price — Tripo’s plan works out cheaper per model if you actually use all of it.
Can I 3D print a Tripo or Meshy model?
Both export STL. Tripo lists STL, OBJ, FBX, GLB, USD and 3MF; Meshy lists FBX, OBJ, USDZ, GLB, STL and BLEND (3MF is not on Meshy’s list). Neither vendor’s pricing page says whether the mesh is watertight or repaired for slicing — a single-photo reconstruction is frequently non-manifold, which is why Sculptly repairs and re-checks the mesh before the STL is offered for export.
Last reviewed: 2026-09-27. Every price above was read directly off Tripo’s and Meshy’s own pricing pages that day — full sourcing in tripo3d.ai/pricing and meshy.ai/pricing. Prices change; verify on the vendor’s site before buying. Tell us if something here is out of date.