---
title: "YC AI Student Starter Pack"
slug: "yc-ai-student-starter-pack"
provider: "Y Combinator"
status: "verified"
verifiedAt: "2026-10-12"
listedAt: "2026-09-12"
canonical: "https://aifree.dev/offer/yc-ai-student-starter-pack"
---

# YC AI Student Starter Pack

> Students attending a YC university event get over $25,000 in free AI credits

- Provider: [Y Combinator](https://aifree.dev/provider/deals-ycombinator-com)
- What is free: $25,000
- Status: verified by a person on 2026-10-12
- Credit card: not required
- Sign-up: required
- For: Startups, Students
- Regions: worldwide
- Claim at: https://deals.ycombinator.com/students

## What you get

Over $25,000 in credits from 20+ companies for students who attend a YC university event: $10,000 AWS + $10,000 Azure cloud credits, $1,000 OpenAI, $500 Anthropic, plus credits from YC-backed AI devtools (Vapi, Firecrawl, Browser Use, Deepgram, Supabase and more).

## The catch

Only for students who attend a YC university event (Fall 2025 onward); access expires one year from the qualifying event.

## Eligibility

Students who attend a YC university event starting Fall 2025; eligibility is auto-detected via the Hacker News account used to RSVP.
- Attend a YC university event (starting Fall 2025)
- Attend a YC university event (starting Fall 2025)
- Receive the confirmation email after the event
- Sign in with the same Hacker News account used to RSVP
- Redeem each deal individually

## Limits

- Must attend a YC university event (Fall 2025 onward)
- Access lasts one year from the qualifying event
- Each deal must be redeemed individually via a Hacker News account

## Details

## Overview

The [YC AI Student Starter Pack](https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/the-yc-ai-student-starter-pack), now branded the YC AI Stack, is a bundle of free credits from Y Combinator and "nearly two dozen companies" for students who attend a YC university event. YC announced it in January 2026 and says it is "rolling this out to more students in the upcoming year".

## Free Tier Quotas & Limits

The official announcement groups the value as follows:

- **Over $20,000 in cloud credits** on **Azure** and **AWS**, usable for compute, storage, managed AI services and model hosting.
- **Over $5,000 in credits for GPT, Claude and Grok** (OpenAI, Anthropic and xAI model APIs).
- Credits from **14 YC-backed AI devtool companies** covering voice AI, browser automation, web search, video generation, document parsing, workflow automation and databases. Named partners include Firecrawl, Exa, Vapi, Browser Use, Reducto and Gumloop; the remaining partners are not individually named.
- Combined value is **over $25,000**.

The deal page lists $10,000 AWS, $10,000 Azure, $1,000 OpenAI and $500 Anthropic credits and says "Your access lasts for one year from the date of the qualifying event"; devtool partner amounts and a program end date are not published.

## Eligibility

- Open to "students who attend a YC university event starting in Fall 2025".
- Attendance is in person; YC describes no online-only redemption path.
- No startup, company or funding requirement is mentioned.

## How to Get Started

1. Attend an eligible YC university event. YC states "You will receive an email shortly after your eligible event confirming your access to the program."
2. Go to the deal page at [deals.ycombinator.com/students](https://deals.ycombinator.com/students) and sign in with a Hacker News account.
3. Claim each partner deal individually; every partner runs its own redemption flow and may apply its own terms, including separate credit expiries.

## More

- HTML page: https://aifree.dev/offer/yc-ai-student-starter-pack
- Change history: https://aifree.dev/offer/yc-ai-student-starter-pack/history
- How it was verified: https://aifree.dev/offer/yc-ai-student-starter-pack/verification
- JSON: https://aifree.dev/api/v1/offers/yc-ai-student-starter-pack