Free credits and startup programs for AI builders

Programs that are open right now, with the amount and the rules as each provider states them. No affiliate or referral links: every link goes to the provider’s own page.

Every entry checked Oct 16, 202611 open programs · 3 checked and left out

If you’re self-funded: Cloudflare ($10,000 tier), AWS Activate Founders ($1,000, up to $5,000 for some), Microsoft for Startups (starts small, grows with usage) and Google’s Start tier ($2,000) don’t need investors. Most bigger tiers need funding from a partner investor or accelerator. Almost all programs want a live website and an email address on your own domain, so set those up first.

Cloud and hosting credits

Cloudflare for Startups

$10,000, $100,000 or $350,000 in credits for one year, by tier

Who qualifies: $10k tier: bootstrapped or self-funded, or under $1M raised. Higher tiers: funded by a Cloudflare-affiliated partner. All: founded in the last 10 years, a live website, a public LinkedIn, X or GitHub presence, and a business email on your domain.
Covers: Workers, Pages, D1, KV, R2 (capped at $10k) and Workers AI (capped by tier). AI Gateway and domain registration aren’t covered.
Worth knowing: The only big cloud program on this list with a self-funded tier above $5,000.
Last checked: Oct 16, 2026, on www.cloudflare.com

Google for Startups Cloud Program

Start tier: $2,000. Funded tiers: $200,000–$350,000 over two years

Who qualifies: Start: founded in the past 2 years, a working MVP and plans to raise. Funded tiers: verifiable pre-seed to Series A funding. A business email matching your website domain.
Covers: Google-built Cloud products billed pay-as-you-go, including Gemini models. Third-party models and Marketplace products aren’t covered.
Worth knowing: Google says it screens applicant websites and may reject sites with a lot of AI-generated content.
Last checked: Oct 16, 2026, on cloud.google.com

AWS Activate

Founders (self-funded): $1,000, and up to $5,000 for select participants. Portfolio: up to $200,000

Who qualifies: Pre-Series B, founded in the last 10 years, an AWS account on a paid plan. Portfolio needs an Org ID from an Activate Provider (an accelerator, angel or VC).
Covers: AWS services, including Amazon Bedrock and Kiro.
Last checked: Oct 16, 2026, on aws.amazon.com

Microsoft for Startups

Up to $150,000 in Azure credits, unlocked over time

Who qualifies: A privately held, for-profit company building its own software product, not past Series B funding (no Series C or later), and under $350,000 in lifetime free Azure credits. No consultancies or agencies.
Covers: Eligible Azure services, including models in Microsoft Foundry.
Worth knowing: You start with a smaller credit; higher amounts unlock as you verify your business and use more Azure services. An Investor Network referral code unlocks more, sooner.
Last checked: Oct 16, 2026, on learn.microsoft.com

Vercel for Startups

Up to $30,000 in Flexible Commitment Amount, plus Enterprise-tier access

Who qualifies: Vercel says “eligible teams” but doesn’t publish the criteria. You apply through a contact form.
Covers: Vercel platform usage.
Last checked: Oct 16, 2026, on vercel.com

AI model and voice credits

NVIDIA Inception

Free membership; cloud credits from NVIDIA and partners (no amount published)

Who qualifies: Incorporated, under 10 years old, a working website, a clear use for NVIDIA technology, and at least one active founder. No consultancies, crypto companies or public companies.
Covers: Training, preferred pricing on some NVIDIA hardware and software, partner offers and investor introductions.
Last checked: Oct 16, 2026, on www.nvidia.com

ElevenLabs Grants

12 months and 33,000,000 characters (ElevenLabs puts the value at over $5,500)

Who qualifies: Startups with under 25 employees, a business or monetization plan and a business email. No agencies, consultancies, one-off projects or products for children.
Covers: The ElevenLabs platform: agents, text to speech, speech to text and more.
Last checked: Oct 16, 2026, on elevenlabs.io

OpenAI Researcher Access Program

Up to $1,000 in API credits, valid 12 months

Who qualifies: Researchers studying responsible AI deployment, risks or societal impact. Applications are reviewed in March, June, September and December.
Covers: OpenAI’s publicly available API models.
Worth knowing: For research projects, not product startups.
Last checked: Oct 16, 2026, on openai.com

Developer tools and open source

PostHog for Startups

$50,000 in PostHog credits for 12 months, plus about $12,000 in partner perks

Who qualifies: Company under 2 years old, under $5M raised, signed up from Jan 1, 2023, and a PostHog account on your company email domain.
Covers: Analytics, session replay, feature flags, error tracking and more. Since Sep 14, 2026, credits don’t cover PostHog’s AI tools.
Last checked: Oct 16, 2026, on posthog.com

Netlify Open Source plan

10,000 credits a month, unlimited team members

Who qualifies: Non-commercial open-source projects with an OSI-approved (or qualifying Creative Commons) license, a code of conduct, and a “powered by Netlify” link.
Covers: Netlify hosting for the project’s site (docs, blog, changelog).
Last checked: Oct 16, 2026, on www.netlify.com

For students

GitHub Student Developer Pack

Bundle of partner offers; examples below

Who qualifies: Verified students.
Covers: Copilot Student (unlimited code completions plus an allowance of GitHub AI Credits), $13/month of Heroku credit for 24 months, $50 in MongoDB Atlas credits, six months of Appwrite’s Education plan, and dozens more.
Last checked: Oct 16, 2026, on education.github.com

No application needed: free tiers

Gemini API free tier: free input and output tokens on some Gemini models, and Google AI Studio is free to use. On the free tier, your content is used to improve Google’s products, per its pricing page.
GitHub Copilot Free: limited chat and agent usage; GitHub’s FAQ states 2,000 completions and 50 chat requests a month (plans page).
For the tools we’ve tested, see the free tier cheat sheet.

Checked and left out

We only list programs you can apply to today. These came up often but didn’t make the list on Oct 16, 2026:

Claude Startups (Anthropic): Anthropic says its current cohort is full and it isn’t accepting new applications. (source)
Vercel Open Source Program: Vercel’s page says applications are currently closed. (source)
Supabase startup credits: We found no public startup credit program on Supabase’s own pages. Its free plan is still available. (source)

How we keep this list honest

Amounts and rules come from each provider’s own page, not from deal sites. We don’t round up “up to” figures.
We re-check every entry at least every 30 days and drop programs that close.
No provider paid to be here, and none of these links earn us anything.
Spotted a change? [email protected].

Programs change their terms often. Always read the provider’s page before you apply.