OBDeleven Credits and Plans Explained: PRO, ULTIMATE, Lifetime

The OBDeleven checkout has four boxes open in front of you. The device alone is €84.99. The PRO Pack is €139.99 and the ULTIMATE Pack €259.99, while a fourth option bundles 200 credits for €114.99. A forum thread says the needle sweep on your Golf "costs credits". A second-hand listing promises a "lifetime PRO". You want to know which box you actually need before you pay.

What plans does OBDeleven sell in 2026?

Every OBDeleven device comes with the FREE plan. Two paid plans sit on top of it, and both are now sold for 12 months at a time. These are the prices on obdeleven.com in September 2026:

Two details change the picture for many buyers.

First, PRO is mainly a VW Group plan. OBDeleven's own help page lists the full coding and adaptation feature set for Volkswagen Group brands (VW, Audi, Skoda, SEAT, Cupra). On the other supported brands (BMW, Toyota, Mercedes, US-built Ford), that page lists only priority support, and the PRO product page adds hybrid battery checks for Toyota and Lexus. On those brands the useful paid options are usually credits or ULTIMATE.

Second, the app stores charge more. Bought inside the iPhone app in Germany, PRO is €79.99, ULTIMATE is €249.99 and 100 credits are €34.99. OBDeleven says the gap comes from app store fees and points buyers to its website for the lower price.

What changed on 15 September 2026?

OBDeleven changed how website plans renew. From 11:00 Vilnius time on 15 September 2026, activating a PRO or ULTIMATE code asks for billing details and a payment card. You cannot skip that step, even with a code you bought before that date. The plan then renews for one year at the regular price minus 10 percent, so about €54 for PRO and about €171 for ULTIMATE at today's prices.

Four points keep this from being a trap:

• There is no monthly billing. The card is charged only when the full plan period ends.
• You can cancel renewal in "Plan & billing" on the OBDeleven dashboard right after activating. You keep access until the paid period runs out.
• A plan that comes inside a Pack does not renew unless you switch renewal on yourself.
• Plans bought inside the app, and credits-only codes, are not affected.

The two- and three-year website plans are gone. If you still hold one of those codes, it keeps its full length, and the first renewal after it is for one year.

What are OBDeleven credits and what do they buy?

Credits are OBDeleven's in-app money, and they do one job: they switch on One-Click Apps. These are ready-made changes such as needle sweep or a service light reset. You never need credits for diagnostics or for manual coding with PRO.

Website prices in September 2026:

• 10 credits: €1.99
• 100 credits: €17.99
• 500 credits: €74.99

OBDeleven says one-click apps cost between 10 and 100 credits, and common service functions usually cost around 10. Its own BMW example spends 100 credits (about €18) on four changes:

• remembering the last start/stop setting
• a new iDrive start-up animation
• side marker lights
• an engine oil service reset

Undoing a change you do not like costs credits again, so read each app's description before you tap.

Credits work with every OBDeleven device, including the old FirstGen, and they follow your account between the two OBDeleven apps. You can also earn 200 free credits each time a friend makes a qualifying purchase through your referral link.

Do OBDeleven credits expire?

No, not once they are in your account. OBDeleven's help centre says credits do not expire while your account remains active.

Three things do have a clock on them:

• Unredeemed website codes. Credits and plans bought on obdeleven.com arrive as a code by email, and that code is valid for one year from purchase. Redeem it the day it arrives.
• ULTIMATE's built-in credits. The Terms give ULTIMATE holders 10,000 credits per 12-month period, and unused ones do not carry over to the next year.
• Refunds. An unused credit code can be returned within 30 days of purchase. Once you have spent some of it, it cannot. Credits that came inside a Pack can only be refunded with the whole Pack.

If you read elsewhere that credits vanish after 12 months, that advice mixes up the code with the balance. Redeem a small pack as soon as it arrives and it stays put.

Most people land on the OBDeleven shop because of a warning light, not because they want to code a needle sweep. If reading that light is the real job, Skanyx reads engine fault codes off any 15 to 30 euro ELM327 Bluetooth adapter, explains them in plain English, puts a green-to-red severity on each one and gives a rough repair cost in your currency. It does no coding, so keep OBDeleven for that. See what your engine code means

Is there a lifetime OBDeleven PRO?

Not one you can buy today. Every PRO and ULTIMATE plan OBDeleven sells now is a 12-month plan. The Polish search "obdeleven pro dożywotnia" points at an older plan that still exists for the people who already have it.

That plan is called Lifetime VAG PRO. It belongs to owners from the FirstGen era, and OBDeleven's own pages set its limits:

• It works only in the OBDeleven VAG app, and only on Volkswagen Group cars.
• It did not turn into the new PRO or ULTIMATE plans in the July 2025 price change, and it does not cover other brands.
• It does work with an OBDeleven 3 device, again through the VAG app.
• The Terms define "lifetime" as for as long as OBDeleven supports the VAG app. OBDeleven keeps the right to change or end the plan, and it cannot be moved to the main OBDeleven app.
• Lifetime holders do not get priority support.

Be careful with second-hand "lifetime" offers. Plans belong to an OBDeleven account, not to the device, and OBDeleven says a plan cannot be moved from one account to another. Buying a used device does not by itself move someone else's plan into your account, so ask the seller exactly what you are buying before you pay.

OBDeleven 3 vs NextGen vs FirstGen: which device do you need?

OBDeleven has made three generations of the plug-in device. Only the newest is sold on its own.

If you already own a NextGen or FirstGen, you do not need to rebuy a plan to upgrade. PRO and ULTIMATE follow your account, so a new OBDeleven 3 picks them up as soon as you log in. The one exception is the Lifetime VAG PRO plan above, which stays inside the VAG app.

Check the car's age before you buy anything. OBDeleven lists these limits on newer cars:

• Volkswagen Group cars from 2024 have new security that limits it to the main gateway module. OBDeleven says support for them is in final testing.
• BMW's 2024 models get no One-Click Apps.
• Mercedes cars built from 2023 are not supported.

Which should you buy: credits, PRO or ULTIMATE?

Start from what you plan to change, not from the plan names.

• You only want to read and clear faults. The device on its FREE plan is enough. No credits, no subscription.
• You want a handful of one-click tweaks. Buy the device and credits. The €114.99 bundle with 200 credits covers several apps, and credits in your account keep.
• You want to code a VW, Audi, Skoda, SEAT or Cupra by hand. Buy PRO. It covers long coding and adaptations, including manual battery registration. One-Click Apps still cost credits on top.
• You want lots of one-click apps and manual coding. ULTIMATE. The €130 a year it costs over PRO buys roughly 700 to 850 credits at website prices, so it pays off only if you run a lot of apps.
• You drive a BMW, Toyota or Mercedes. PRO adds little here beyond priority support. Use credits or ULTIMATE, and compare BimmerCode for BMW in our Carly alternatives guide.
• You hate subscriptions. The FREE plan plus credits is the no-subscription route. Our OBDeleven alternatives without a subscription guide covers the other one-time options.

Is OBDeleven or VCDS better value?

It depends on how long you keep the car and how deep you code. VCDS from Ross-Tech is a one-time purchase of about €300 to €370 for 3 or 10 cars and needs a Windows laptop. OBDeleven starts lower and runs on your phone, but PRO or ULTIMATE keeps renewing every year. The full cost comparison, with Carly and BimmerCode alongside, is in our OBDeleven review, and the Carly vs OBDeleven guide covers the three-year totals.

When is a generic OBD2 app enough?

Be clear about what you give up first. OBDeleven's FREE plan scans all the control units on supported brands, including systems such as ABS or the airbags. The paid plans add coding and adaptations. The app also has a mileage check that compares the odometer stored in several modules on VW Group cars and newer BMWs to spot a rollback. A generic OBD2 app on a cheap adapter reads the engine and emissions side only, and it cannot code anything.

For a lit check engine light, that engine side is usually all you need. A code such as P0171 (the engine running lean) or P0420 (the catalytic converter below its limit) reads the same on any adapter. OBDeleven's own app even accepts a plain ELM327 for engine fault scanning. Any ELM327 adapter, for example a vLinker, costs 15 to 30 euros.

If you want that code turned into a verdict, a free app such as Skanyx explains it and adds an urgency rating plus a rough repair cost. Keep OBDeleven, or VCDS, for the coding and the deep module work. The best OBD2 scanner apps guide covers the rest of the field.

Go back to those four checkout boxes and pick by the job: device alone for faults, device plus credits for a few tweaks, PRO for hand coding a VW Group car. If you buy a plan on the website, cancel the auto-renewal in "Plan & billing" the same day and decide again in a year.

Codes mentioned in this guide: P0171, P0420.