---
title: "Baseten AI Startup Program"
slug: "baseten-ai-startup-program"
provider: "Baseten"
status: "verified"
verifiedAt: "2026-10-12"
listedAt: "2026-09-12"
canonical: "https://aifree.dev/offer/baseten-ai-startup-program"
---

# Baseten AI Startup Program

> AI startups get up to $25,000 for Dedicated Deployments or Training credits

- Provider: [Baseten](https://aifree.dev/provider/baseten-co)
- What is free: $25,000
- Status: verified by a person on 2026-10-12
- Credit card: not required
- Sign-up: required
- For: Startups
- Claim at: https://www.baseten.co/talk-to-us/startup-program

## What you get

AI-first startups accepted into the program get up to $25,000 in credits for Dedicated Deployments or Training, plus up to $2,500 for Model APIs.

## The catch

Acceptance is not automatic; credit amounts are 'up to' maximums and subject to Baseten's legal disclaimers.

## Limits

- Up to $25,000 for Dedicated Deployments or Training
- Up to $2,500 for Model APIs
- Application review required before credits are granted

## Models served free

Published free-tier rate limits; "—" = not published.

| Model | API id | Context (k tokens) | Tool calling | Vision | RPM | RPD | TPM |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | — | 1000 | yes | — | — | — | — |
| Kimi K3 | — | 1000 | yes | — | — | — | — |
| GLM-5.3 | — | — | yes | — | — | — | — |
| GPT OSS 120B | — | — | yes | — | — | — | — |

## Details

## Overview

[Baseten](https://www.baseten.co) runs an AI Startup Program offering **up to $25,000 in credits for Dedicated Inference or Training** and **up to $2,500 in credits for Model APIs** to eligible AI-first startups. Credits apply across Baseten's inference platform — dedicated GPU deployments for your own models, a training service, and serverless Model APIs for open-weight models like DeepSeek V4.1 Flash, GLM-5.3, Kimi K3, and Qwen3.8-27B.

## Credits & Limits

- Up to $25,000 in credits for Dedicated Inference or Training
- Up to $2,500 in credits for Model APIs
- Credit amounts are set per applicant; no cash payout
- No stated expiration date for the program

## Additional Benefits

- Support with response times within a few business hours, scaling to shared Slack channels and Zoom calls
- Exclusive networking events with Baseten engineers and founders
- Cross-cloud autoscaling across nodes, clusters, clouds, and regions
- Go-to-market support: launch amplification, consultations, and webinars

## Eligibility

- AI-first startup — AI must be core to your primary products or solutions
- Seed to Series A funding stage, with the company started less than 5 years ago
- Net new customers only — you must never have received credits from Baseten before

## How to Apply

1. Review the program details on the [startup program page](https://www.baseten.co/startup-program/).
2. Submit your application at [baseten.co/talk-to-us/startup-program](https://www.baseten.co/talk-to-us/startup-program).

## More

- HTML page: https://aifree.dev/offer/baseten-ai-startup-program
- Change history: https://aifree.dev/offer/baseten-ai-startup-program/history
- How it was verified: https://aifree.dev/offer/baseten-ai-startup-program/verification
- More in [Free AI API credits](https://aifree.dev/free-api-credits.md)
- JSON: https://aifree.dev/api/v1/offers/baseten-ai-startup-program