AI startup credits, verified October 2026
Up to $350,000 in verified cloud and AI credit programs for early-stage companies.
80 offers checked and verified · Browse all 231 free AI offers · Changes (RSS)
The AI startup credits list holds 82 startup credits today, best free value first. By type, the startup credits split into 53 startup programs, 14 credit grants, 8 free tiers, 6 free trials and 1 student program. 80 of the 82 startup credits were verified by a person, most recently on Oct 13, 2026; 2 are listed and waiting for a first check. 58 of the startup credits need no credit card (Google Cloud AI Startup Program, Microsoft for Startups and Together AI Startup Accelerator among them); 24 ask for one. In the 7 days to Oct 29, 2026, the startup credits had 10 with changed terms (E2B Free Hobby Tier & $100 Usage Credits, Convex for Startups and 8 more). At the top of the startup credits table: Google Cloud AI Startup Program ($350,000), AWS Activate Startup Credits ($200,000) and Microsoft for Startups ($150,000). Coming end dates among the startup credits: T Cloud Public €250 Starter Credit on Dec 31, 2026. Across these startup credits the catalog records 61 free models; the most listed are DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash, Kimi-K3 and GLM-5.3.
The short answer
The largest verified programs, grouped by what they take to qualify.
- Up to $150K-$350K: Google Cloud's AI startup program ($350,000 over two years for AI-first companies), AWS Activate ($200,000), Databricks for Startups ($200,000), Microsoft for Startups ($150,000 Azure), Cloudflare for Startups ($350,000 for a year).
- Model tracks: Together AI's accelerator (up to $50,000 inference credits), Devin for Startups ($15,000 upfront, up to $65,000 with matching).
- No funding stage needed: Oracle's $300 trial, Akamai's $100 credit, Neon's and Render's startup tracks.
The catch: expect verification - incorporation, a live product, funding stage or accelerator affiliation, and in some cases a VC referral.
All startup credits, best free value first
Tick 2–4 offers to compare them side by side.
| Compare Tool | What's free | Key limits | Card? | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $350Kone-time | Year 1: 100% coverage up to $250,000 for AI-first scale-tier startups ($100,000… More: Google Cloud AI Startup Program | No card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| $200Kone-time | Founders: up to $5,000 (start with $1,000; select participants may qualify for more) ·… More: AWS Activate Startup Credits | Card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| $150Kone-time | Maximum of $150,000 in startup credits · Credits apply only to eligible Azure services | No card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| $50Kone-time | Build (up to $5M raised): up to $15K credits + 3 hours engineering · Scale ($5M-$10M… More: Together AI Startup Accelerator | No card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| $15Kone-time | $15,000 in Devin credits loaded the day you are approved · Up to $50,000 in matching… More: Devin for Startups | No card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| $650Kone-time | $650K+ in AI perks from day one (NVIDIA, OpenAI, AWS, Nebius, GCP, Azure and others) ·… More: Antler Disrupt AI Credits and Perks | No card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| $350Kone-time | Credits valid one year or until fully consumed, whichever comes first · Payment method… More: Cloudflare for Startups | Card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| $200Kone-time | Up to $200K is the maximum across Databricks and Neon credits combined · Qualification… More: Databricks for Startups | No card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| $200Kone-time | Credits valid 12 months from date of acceptance · Self-funded tier: up to $1,000 (under… More: Neon Startup Program | No card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| $100Kone-time | Referral by one of Datadog's partners required — no direct applications · Series A or… More: Datadog for Startups | No card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| $100Kone-time | Up to $100,000 in Grafana Cloud credits · Valid 12 months or until the next round of… More: Grafana for Startups | No card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| $100Kone-time | $500 direct tier requires $25,000+ in outside funding · Build, Scale and AI tiers… More: Render Startup Program | No card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| $50Kone-time | $50,000 in credits valid for 12 months · Under $5M in funding, fewer than 2 years old,… More: PostHog Startup Program | Card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| $30Kone-time | Up to $30,000 in Flexible Commitment Amount · Enterprise-tier access · Startup-focused… More: Vercel for Startups | No card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| $25Kone-time | Up to $25,000 for Dedicated Deployments or Training · Up to $2,500 for Model APIs ·… More: Baseten AI Startup Program | No card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| $20Kone-time | $5,000 over 6 months for TRL 1-7 teams · $20,000 over 12 months for TRL 8-9 teams · 1/4… More: Yandex Cloud Startup Credits | No card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| $16Kone-time | Up to $16K in Aura credits · Startups at Series B or earlier · Single product built for… More: Neo4j Startup Program | No card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| $12Kone-time | 6 months free via select startup partners (VCs/accelerators) · 3 months free with a… More: Notion for Startups | No card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| $10Kone-time | Valid 12 months · New Algolia customers only (existing free users may join; paying… More: Algolia Startup Program | No card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| $10Kone-time | Credits valid for 24 months · Must be part of the current Y Combinator program · Must… More: ClickHouse Cloud for Y Combinator | No card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| $10Kone-time | $10K granted straight away on the account upon acceptance · Up to $100K total credits… More: Daytona Startup Grid | No card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| $10Kone-time | $10K in credits granted straight away upon acceptance · Up to $100K total credits as… More: Daytona Startup Program | No card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| $10Kone-time | Valid up to 12 months from approval or until fully consumed · One redemption per startup… More: GitHub for Startups | Card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| $10Kone-time | $10,000 in Indent Credits loaded upon approval · Application via Google Form required ·… More: Indent for Startups | No card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| $10Kone-time | $10K credits valid 1 year (2 years for YC companies) · First-time LangSmith customers… More: LangSmith for Startups | No card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| $9,000one-time | Fewer than 20 employees · Less than $5M total funding raised · Not a current paying… More: Sanity Startup Program | No card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| $5,500one-time | 33,000,000 characters (~680+ hours of Agents usage) over 12 months · Startups and small… More: ElevenLabs Startup Grants | No card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| $5,000one-time | Credits expire after 12 months · Founded in the last 2 years · Raised less than $5M in… More: Sentry for Startups | No card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| $1,000one-time | Start at $1,000; $2,500 unlocks at $1,000/mo spend; $5,000 at $2,500/mo spend · Open to… More: fal Startup Program | No card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| $1,000one-time | Starter: $1,000 in credits to get started · Aimed at pre-Series A startups with a… More: RunPod Startup Program | No card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| $1,000one-time | Starter: up to $1,000 in free credits, no deposit, awarded in $100 steps · Growth:… More: Runware Startup Program | No card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| $5001 month | Standard trial: 7 days; promotions may extend (currently advertised as 30 days) · Trial… More: UpCloud Free Trial Up to $500 in Credits | Card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| $300one-time | Consumed within the original 90 days · No automatic charges unless you explicitly… More: Google Cloud Free Program | Card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| $3001 month | US$300 of credit for up to 30 days · One Free Tier account per person · Always Free: 2… More: Oracle Cloud Free Tier | Card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| $300one-time | VULTRMATCH: first deposit matched dollar for dollar, up to $100, for new accounts ·… More: Vultr Free Trial Credits | Card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| $250one-time | Non-transferable, no cash alternative · Payment card must be added within 3 months of… More: Civo $250 Free Trial Credit | Card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| $200one-time | $200 credit valid for 30 days only · 40+ Lite-plan products stay free indefinitely | Card | Verified Oct 13, 2026 | |
| $200one-time | $200 in free compute included at sign-up · First 5 GiB of storage free, then $0.000108… More: Daytona Free Compute Credits | No card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| $2001 month | $200 free credit for 30 days · Starts as a limited-access test account · Payment details… More: IONOS Cloud Free Trial Credit | Card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| $100one-time | New customers only; no prior free trial signup · Valid 60 days (per Akamai's referral… More: Akamai Cloud $100 Free Credit | Card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| $100one-time | $100 one-time AI token credits per new account · Usable across all supported models in… More: AkashML $100 Free AI Token Credits | No card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| $100one-time | 1 month complimentary DeepLearning.AI membership · Monthly sweepstakes entry for an AMD… More: AMD AI Developer Program | No card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| $100one-time | $100 in Anyscale Credits for new accounts ('Get started with $100 in Anyscale Credits')… More: Anyscale $100 Free Signup Credit | No card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| $100one-time | Up to 20 concurrently running sandboxes · Up to 1 hour per sandbox session · 10 GiB… More: E2B Free Hobby Tier & $100 Usage Credits | No card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| $100one-time | $100 in API credits granted on approval · $5 company verification payment required… More: EmberCloud for Startups | Card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| $100one-time | $100 promotional credits after completing a quick account setup survey · No credit card… More: Novita Sandbox $100 Free Credits | No card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| $90one-time | 80+ products, most trials running 1-12 months · ECS: USD 90 free credits valid 3 months… More: Alibaba Cloud Free Trial | Card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| $5one-time | One-time $5 trial credit expires in 30 days · Free plan: $1 of monthly usage credit, no… More: Railway Free Plan and Trial Credits | No card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| 50B tokens | 50,000,000,000 tokens valued at DeepSeek V4 Flash prices · Credits expire 1 year after… More: DeepInfra DeepStart 50 Billion Free Inference Tokens | No card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| 15M tokens | 15,000,000 Free.ai tokens granted per accepted startup · Granted tokens have no expiry… More: Free.ai Startup Grant | No card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| 300 credits/monthresets monthly | 300 credits per month on the free plan, hard limit (no extra credits or auto recharge) ·… More: Netlify free plan | No card | Verified Oct 13, 2026 | |
| 30 hours/weekresets weekly (Sat) | Up to 30 hours/week GPU (resets weekly, sometimes higher with demand) · Up to 20… More: Kaggle Free GPU and TPU Notebooks | No card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| 30 credits | 5 free credits on registration; up to 30 free credits total · Credits expire after 12… More: Lightning AI Free Plan | No card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| 5 minutes/dayresets daily | Free account: 5 minutes/day GPU quota, medium queue priority; resets 24h after first GPU… More: Hugging Face ZeroGPU Free GPU Access on Spaces | No card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| Startup program | 12 months at $0, one enrollment per startup · Up to 50 seats for Jira, Confluence, Loom,… More: Atlassian for Startups | No card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| Startup program | 12 months (one year) · 100,000 monthly active users · 5 enterprise connections ·… More: Auth0 for Startups | No card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| Startup program | Up to 1 year free of Convex Professional · 30% off usage-based fees, capped at $30k in… More: Convex for Startups | Card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| Startup program | Up to 12 months of Customer.io free · Up to 30,000 customer profiles; $0.007 per… More: Customer.io Startup Program | Card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| Startup program | 12-month program · $10,000 monthly credit limit; overage billed · Credits distributed… More: DigitalOcean Hatch Startup Credits | Card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| Free credits | 20 EUR or 20 CHF depending on account currency · Credit card must be saved; Post-paid… More: Exoscale 20 EUR/CHF Free Trial Credit | Card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| Startup program | Build Credits expire after 1 year · Credits auto-apply to usage charges; pay-as-you-go… More: Fireworks for Startups | No card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| Free tierongoing | One free web service: 512MB RAM, 0.1 vCPU, 2GB SSD · Free web service only in Frankfurt… More: Koyeb Free Web Service and Postgres Tier | Card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| Startup program | Must be affiliated with an official Linear partner · Non-paying Linear users only ·… More: Linear Startup Program | No card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| Startup program | 12 months free for the current YC batch only · 50% off Pro for 12 months for startups… More: Mintlify Startup Program | No card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| Startup program | Credits are a one-time grant; no reapplying within a tier · Tier 1 (Seed to Series A):… More: Modal for Startups | Card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| Startup program | 12 months to activate the promo code · 12 months to use Atlas credits after activation ·… More: MongoDB for Startups | No card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| Free tierongoing | No expiration stated; always-on compute with no sleeping · 2 free services, 2 free cron… More: Northflank Developer Sandbox | Card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| Startup program | Free cloud credits from NVIDIA and partners (amount not fixed on the page) · Preferred… More: NVIDIA Inception | No card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| Startup program | Free API credits, rate limit upgrades, and time with solutions engineers for eligible… More: OpenAI for Startups | No card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| Startup program | Start tier: €10,000 of free cloud credits + 6 hours of 1-on-1 engineer time, 12-month… More: OVHcloud Startup Program Cloud Credits | No card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| Free tierongoing | No expiration stated for the Free plan · Free GPU covers basic instances only; other… More: Paperspace Gradient Free GPU Notebooks | Card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| Startup program | Fewer than 100 employees and Series A or earlier · Free Standard Tier access plus Pro… More: Pinecone for Startups | No card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| Free credits | Referred user must spend $10 before the bonus is granted · Bonus is randomized between… More: RunPod Referral Bonus Credits | Card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| Startup program | 6-12 months of credits matched to your scale · Up to 12 months of credits · Rolling… More: Sarvam AI Startup Program | No card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| Startup program | 12 months free Business Plan · New customers only; not service providers or consulting… More: Shortcut for Startups | No card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| Startup program | Free usage on the first contract (Startup Package) · No published credit dollar amount ·… More: Snowflake for Startups | No card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| Startup program | Invoicing fees capped starting at 0.4%, up to $10 per invoice · Program targets… More: Stripe for Startups | No card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| Free credits | EUR 250 starting credit for new customers · Voucher redeemable until 31 December 2026 ·… More: T Cloud Public €250 Starter Credit | No card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| Free tierongoing | New users of each product only · CVM S5 2C4G free for 3 months · Lighthouse 2C2G free… More: Tencent Cloud Free Tier | No card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| Free tierongoing | 1 instance: 1 vCPU / 512 MB RAM / 10 GB SSD · 2 TB of global bandwidth per month ·… More: Vultr Free Tier Program | No card | Verified Oct 12, 2026 | |
| Startup program | Current cohort is full; no new applications right now · Applications still in review… More: Claude for Startups | No card | Re-checking | |
| Free trial | Up to 12 months · 8,760 h ECS + 1,500 h RDS + 100 GB OBS for 12 months + OCR API calls | Card | Listed |
Top picks
- Google Cloud's AI startup program if you are AI-first - the biggest verified pool, $350,000 over two years; AWS Activate is the easiest to self-apply for (up to $200,000 at the funded tiers).
- Together AI's accelerator and Devin for Startups for model-heavy products - up to $50,000 of inference credits, and $15,000 upfront (up to $65,000 with matching).
- Microsoft for Startups and Cloudflare for Startups for infrastructure-heavy teams - $150,000 in Azure, and a year of platform credits up to $350,000.
- Oracle's free tier and Akamai's $100 credit if you are pre-seed or unincorporated - no funding stage required.
- Every offer tagged for startups in the full catalog, including grants this page leaves out.
How we verify
We read the program terms line by line, then apply or interview wherever possible.
- We record what each tier actually requires (incorporation, funding stage, YC or VC affiliation), how credits are disbursed, and how long they last.
- We re-check program sizes and eligibility rules monthly - startup programs change often - and the verified date on each row is the day we last confirmed the terms.
- We pull programs that advertise amounts they do not pay out, and name them on our scam list.
Frequently asked questions
How many AI startup credits does aifree.dev list?
82 right now: 80 verified by a person and 2 listed, waiting for a first check. By type: 53 startup programs, 14 credit grants, 8 free tiers, 6 free trials and 1 student program. The newest verification is from Oct 13, 2026.
Which startup credits need no credit card?
58 of 82, among them Google Cloud AI Startup Program, Microsoft for Startups and Together AI Startup Accelerator. 24 ask for a card, often to verify identity or to bill usage past the free part. The "Card?" column of the table marks each row.
What changed in AI startup credits this week?
In the 7 days to Oct 29, 2026: 10 with changed terms (E2B Free Hobby Tier & $100 Usage Credits, Convex for Startups and 8 more). Every change is on the hub's changes page and its RSS feed.
What do startup credit programs require?
Commonly: an incorporated company, a working product or site, and a funding stage check - self-certified for lower tiers, or documented (accelerator batch, VC portfolio) for the largest grants. Each offer page records the exact requirements we confirmed.
Do the credits expire?
Most run 12 months from acceptance, and some (Google's AI program) span two years. Expired credit is gone - plan spending before applying. The "Key limits" column states the duration each program gave us.
Do I need to be funded or in an accelerator?
No for most entry tiers - AWS Activate's founders tier, Neon, Render, and Akamai accept self-funded teams. The biggest amounts (Google's $350,000, Databricks' $200,000) typically require VC backing or an accelerator affiliation at the top tiers.
Are these credits only for AI startups?
The headline AI programs (Google's AI track, Together AI, Devin) are, but the general cloud programs - AWS, Azure, Cloudflare, Render - cover any early-stage company, including AI-first ones. This page lists both because most AI startups need the infra credits too.
Can one startup apply to several programs?
Usually yes - the programs are independent, and stacking a cloud program with a model-credits program (say AWS Activate plus Together AI) is common practice. Check each provider's terms for exclusivity clauses; we note them on the offer pages where stated.
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Last verified Oct 19, 2026 · 82 offers checked · 81 re-checked this month · Providers that fail our checks land on the scam list.