the directory · 62 programs · verified Oct 9, 2026
Startup credits directory: 62 programs, $2.6M+ in credits
Every credit and perk program a startup can apply for, in one table: 62 programs across cloud, AI models, GPU compute, data, dev tools, security and business, worth $2.6M+ in credits at the top tiers. Cloud credits for startups from AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure and Cloudflare sit next to AI model, GPU and dev-tool credits. Each row shows the real maximum, who qualifies, whether a referral is needed and how hard the application is.
Kept honest the boring way: every amount links to the official program page and carries the date we last checked it (Oct 9, 2026), and changes go in a dated change log. 6 programs we could not confirm from an official source are left out. You apply for every program here yourself. For AWS, CloudRoute also matches you with a vetted AWS partner who can file MAP, POC or IW funding, the AWS money only partners can request. The Who files it column shows which is which.
Click a program to expand eligibility and tiers. Who files it says whether you apply alone or an AWS partner can file part of it. Details opens the full page; Apply goes to the official form.
Up to $350,000 in Cloudflare credits for one year, plus three Enterprise-plan domains and core CDN, DNS, WAF and DDoS protection free at every tier, including the no-referral $10,000 tier.
who files it: You apply directly. The base tier needs no code; the top tier needs an investor or partner referral.
you likely qualify if
Company was incorporated no more than 10 years ago
Funded up to Series B and funded within the last 12 months, as worded on the official page (the $10k tier states no minimum funding is required, so bootstrapped companies are the intended fit for it)
You are actively developing a technology product (software)
Up to $350,000 in Google Cloud credits over two years for VC-funded AI-first startups ($200,000 for other VC-funded startups, $2,000 for pre-funding startups). Scale-tier members also get $10,000 of partner-model credits (Anthropic, Mistral, AI21) in Model Garden, according to a Google perk sheet.
who files it: You apply directly on the provider's site. No referral or partner code is needed.
you likely qualify if
Company is a technology startup (software/digital-native), not a services firm
You have an 18-character Google Cloud billing account ID in good standing, and the billing account owner's email domain matches your company domain
You apply with a business email whose domain matches your public company website domain (personal email addresses are not accepted)
tiers
Start tier Up to $2,000 in Google Cloud credits valid for one year (credits cover Google's proprietary models)
Scale tier Up to $200,000 over 2 years: Year 1 covers 100% of spend up to $100,000
Scale tier for AI startups (AI-first) Up to $350,000 over 2 years: Year 1 covers 100% of spend up to $250,000 (the standard $100,000 plus an extra $150,000)
Ecosystem tier (accelerator/incubator route) Google Cloud credits starting at $25,000 and up to $250,000 based on funding and spend milestones (Google's two-pager gives no duration)
Up to $200,000 in AWS credits for pre-Series B startups backed by an AWS Activate Provider (VC, accelerator or angel); bootstrapped startups get $1,000 self-serve (select ones up to $5,000); an invite-only AI tier starts at $200,000 and goes higher.
who files it: You apply for Activate yourself. A matched AWS partner files MAP, POC or IW funding when the workload qualifies and AWS approves it.
you likely qualify if
Company is pre-Series B (bootstrapped, pre-seed, seed or Series A); for Portfolio, the most recent funding round closed within the last 12 months, if you raised one
Company was founded within the last 10 years
Company has a functioning public website or public company profile
tiers
Activate Founders $1,000 to start
Activate Portfolio Up to $200,000
AWS Credits for AI Startups $200,000 or more (no cap published)
Kiro Startup Credits (separate offer; applications 7 April to 31 December 2026) Up to 1 year of Kiro Pro+ for up to 2, 10 or 30 users (no dollar value published)
Up to $200,000 in combined Databricks and Neon credits, valid 12 months from acceptance, for early-stage venture-backed startups that have raised $1M+ or are in a recognized accelerator.
who files it: You apply directly on the provider's site. No referral or partner code is needed.
you likely qualify if
You are an early-stage company building a product on data and/or AI (Databricks says the program is 'purpose-built for early-stage, venture-backed startups').
You have raised institutional funding at pre-seed, seed or Series A (Databricks' stated target range).
For the up-to-$200K tier: you have raised at least $1M, OR you are currently in a recognized accelerator such as Y Combinator (threshold published on the Databricks-owned neon.com/startups page).
tiers
Venture-Backed Up to $200,000 in Neon + Databricks credits (one combined pool), plus onboarding support, early access to new features, speaking opportunities at Neon developer events and co-marketing with Neon
Self-Funded Up to $1,000 in Neon credits, plus onboarding support from the Neon product team and early access to new Neon features
Up to $200,000 in combined Neon and Databricks credits for startups that have raised $1M+ or are in a recognized accelerator; self-funded teams under $1M get up to $1,000 in Neon credits.
who files it: You apply directly on the provider's site. No referral or partner code is needed.
you likely qualify if
Self-Funded tier: your company has raised less than $1M in total and is building an early-stage product or MVP.
Venture-Backed tier: your company has raised at least $1M from VCs, OR is a participant in a recognized accelerator (e.g. Y Combinator), and is building an early-stage product or MVP.
Databricks' consolidated program announcement (June 16, 2026) targets early-stage, venture-backed companies, especially those that recently raised institutional funding from pre-seed through Series A and are building on data and AI.
tiers
Self-Funded Up to $1,000 in Neon credits, onboarding support from the Neon product team, early access to new Neon features
Venture-Backed Up to $200,000 in combined Neon and Databricks credits, onboarding support, early feature access, speaking opportunities at Neon developer events, co-marketing
Up to $150,000 in Azure credits unlocked over time; a referral code from a Microsoft Investor Network partner (VC, accelerator) starts you at $100,000, while startups without a code get a published $5,000.
who files it: You apply directly. The base tier needs no code; the top tier needs an investor or partner referral.
you likely qualify if
Your company builds a software-based product or service that it owns (not licensed from someone else)
Your company is privately held and for-profit
Your company is an independent business, not a subsidiary of a larger organization
tiers
Starter credits (instant) $200 in Azure credits per Microsoft's Sept 2026 application guide, unlocked by LinkedIn verification on the no-code path
Self-service offer (no investor code) $1,000 valid 90 days, then another $4,000 valid 180 days after business verification (up to $5,000 total), per Microsoft's FAQ
Investor offer Most startups start at $100,000 in Azure credits
Investor offer extras Azure Standard Support (normally $1,200 a year), access to technical experts, go-to-market support, and discounts or free offers on GitHub Enterprise (20 seats, 1 year), Microsoft 365 Business Premium (50 seats, 1 year), Visual Studio Enterprise (5 seats), LinkedIn Premium Business (1 seat, 75% off for 4 months), Dynamics 365 and Power Platform
Up to $120,000 in IBM Cloud credits over 12 months ($1,000/month standard, $10,000/month Premium at IBM's discretion), but IBM has removed the public program page and applicants reported sign-up errors in 2026.
who files it: You apply directly. The base tier needs no code; the top tier needs an investor or partner referral.
you likely qualify if
Company was founded or incorporated within the 5 years before applying
Revenue in the 12 months before applying is under US$1,000,000
Company runs its own public website on its own domain and applies with a contact email on that domain
tiers
Builder (standard) $1,000/month in IBM Cloud credits for 12 months ($12,000 total)
Builder (6-month option) $3,000/month in IBM Cloud credits for 6 months ($18,000 total)
Premium (upgrade) $10,000/month in IBM Cloud credits for the remainder of the 12-month term
Up to €100,000 in OVHcloud cloud vouchers (up to $120,000 through OVHcloud US) valid for 12 months, plus up to 20 hours of 1-on-1 engineer time, with no equity taken and no exclusivity.
who files it: You apply directly on the provider's site. No referral or partner code is needed.
you likely qualify if
You run an innovative technical project with growth potential that is linked to a professional startup or business activity.
You already have at least a proof of concept (POC) or minimum viable product (MVP) that can be deployed on OVHcloud Public Cloud or Hosted Private Cloud (US program: US public cloud products).
You need cloud infrastructure soon: vouchers must be used within the 12-month window or they are lost.
tiers
Start €10,000 in vouchers (OVHcloud US: up to $12,000), 12 months, 6 hours of 1-on-1 engineer time, Standard support
Scale Up to €100,000 in vouchers (OVHcloud US: up to $120,000), 12 months, up to 20 hours of 1-on-1 engineer time, Business support, personalised quotes via Sales
Enabler-referred (accelerator, incubator, VC partner) Same ceilings as above: up to €100,000 and up to 20 hours
Anthropic's Claude startup program, Claude for Startups, gives up to $100,000 in extra Claude API credits if a VC in Anthropic's partner network backs you. Members get partner offers worth up to $45,000 and office hours with Anthropic's Applied AI team. The free year of Claude Team (up to 5 Premium seats, about $6,000) and $1,000 API credit announced on 6 Oct 2026 are over capacity as of 10 Oct 2026, and Anthropic is re-reviewing all applications.
who files it: You apply directly. The base tier needs no code; the top tier needs an investor or partner referral.
you likely qualify if
Your company was founded within the last 5 years, or closed a funding round within the last 2 years (Anthropic announcement, 6 Oct 2026).
You do not need VC funding: the program is open to bootstrapped, pre-seed and venture-backed startups.
You sign in to, or create, a Claude Console account (platform.claude.com) and submit the application there.
tiers
Direct applicant (announced 6 Oct 2026; over capacity as of 10 Oct 2026) Free year of Claude Team for up to 5 Premium seats (Anthropic values this at $6,000: 5 seats x $100 per seat per month, billed annually) plus a one-time $1,000 Claude API credit available once approved
Partner-VC tier Up to $100,000 in additional Claude API credits
Claude Startup Stack Discounts and credits from partner companies worth 'up to $45,000' at partner list prices (Sept 2026), including ClickHouse $5K Cloud credits, ElevenLabs 12 months free plus 33M characters, Hex 6 months free on Enterprise, Granola 3 months of Business free (up to 10 seats), Augment Code $100 in Cosmos credits, Attention 20% off the first year, Gamma 25% off the first year of Pro annual, Emergent 20% off the first 6 months, Firecrawl 2.5x monthly credits for a year
Member perks (non-cash) Higher API rate limits, 45-minute Applied AI office hours every other week, help getting a connector or plugin listed on Claude Marketplace, Claude Startup events and hackathons (Claude Founder House in San Francisco ran 6-8 Oct 2026 and has ended), Startup Newsletter
Up to $100K in Datadog Pro credits for one year, for Series A-or-earlier startups that are new to Datadog and come in through a referral partner (AWS Activate is one of them).
who files it: You apply directly, but only with a referral or code from an investor, accelerator or partner.
you likely qualify if
Your company has raised Series A or earlier (pre-seed, seed, or Series A)
You were referred by one of Datadog's partners (a VC, accelerator, hyperscaler program such as AWS Activate, or another vendor startup program) and can select that partner in the application dropdown
You have never been a Datadog customer (current or past)
tiers
Standard partner referral Up to $100K in credits
AWS Activate route One full year of Datadog Pro credits (AWS lists estimated value $100,000)
Named VC/accelerator routes (e.g. Maple, Sequoia India) One full year of Datadog Pro credits, or until your next funding round
Free, no-equity membership for incorporated AI startups under 10 years old, with free Deep Learning Institute courses, rebate pricing on select NVIDIA hardware, and eligibility-based VC introductions. Bigger credits are separate gated requests: NVIDIA says qualified members can get up to $100,000 in DGX Cloud H100 credits (criteria unpublished), NVIDIA Cloud Partners issue their own credits, and an NVIDIA-issued AWS Activate Org ID lets members apply to AWS's Portfolio tier, where AWS decides the amount.
who files it: You apply directly on the provider's site. No referral or partner code is needed.
you likely qualify if
Company is officially incorporated and can supply its incorporation date (unincorporated teams cannot apply)
Company is less than 10 years old
Company employs at least one developer
tiers
Base membership Free: codes for free self-paced NVIDIA Deep Learning Institute courses, discounted instructor-led workshops, latest SDKs and model libraries, NVIDIA Developer Forums access, preferred pricing on a subset of enterprise GPUs and select software (a rebate deducted from the standard supplier price
NVIDIA DGX Cloud credits Up to $100,000 in DGX Cloud credits for dedicated NVIDIA H100 GPU capacity, plus expert office hours for members approved for the benefit (announced at GTC, March 25, 2025)
NVIDIA Cloud Partner credits Free cloud credits from NVIDIA Cloud Partners (the March 2025 GTC announcement named Nebius, Scaleway and Lintasarta for free credits, and Yotta and Lambda for credits)
AWS Activate via Inception NVIDIA is listed as an AWS Activate Provider: approved members request the AWS benefit in the portal, receive an Organization ID, and apply to AWS Activate Portfolio
Up to US$60,000 in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) credits per Oracle's June 2026 announcement (the binding rules allow US$5,000 to US$100,000, at Oracle's discretion) for startups with a validated product and customers, launched first for Brazil, Argentina and Colombia; the old global "Oracle for Startups" sign-up page no longer exists.
who files it: You apply directly on the provider's site. No referral or partner code is needed.
you likely qualify if
Legally registered technology startup building a software, data or AI product or platform with scalable cloud usage (rules section 3.1; program page)
Product already validated in the market and with customers (program page)
Workloads compatible with OCI, and a commitment to build or migrate them on OCI (program page; rules section 3.2)
tiers
OCI cloud credits US$5,000 to US$100,000 in OCI universal credits per the program rules (sections 2 and 8)
Assessment funding (alternative to credits) Up to US$60,000 in funding for technical and business evaluations on OCI
Ecosystem benefits (not guaranteed) Hands-on OCI engineering support, Oracle Marketplace listing (subject to Marketplace requirements), Oracle-led go-to-market activities, matchmaking with Oracle customers (the announcement says at certain eOPN levels), pitch days, VC introductions, PR, mentoring
Oracle Cloud Free Tier (not a startup program) US$300 trial credit valid for 30 days, plus Always Free services with no time limit
full details →official page ↗stage fit: Startups with a product in market and paying customers. Oracle publishes no stage bandno equity
Up to $100,000 in Render credits for AI-native startups with $2.5M+ from an enrolled top-tier VC; $500 with no referral; $2,500 to $5,000 via an enrolled accelerator or VC; $10,000 to $25,000 via a top-tier VC.
who files it: You apply directly. The base tier needs no code; the top tier needs an investor or partner referral.
you likely qualify if
You are a new Render customer.
You have at least $25,000 in outside funding (the application page says the program requires this minimum).
Your company has been operating for less than 4 years (less than 5 years for the Scale tier).
tiers
Prototype (Founder credit) $500 in credits + startup-specific onboarding resources
Build $2,500 in credits (startups from any enrolled partner) or $5,000 (select partners), plus onboarding resources and exclusive startup events
Scale $10,000 (under $1M in funding) or $25,000 ($1M or more in funding), plus onboarding resources and exclusive startup events
AI $100,000 in credits, 1:1 onboarding and migration session, free dedicated support Slack for 1 year, AI case study eligibility for co-marketing, exclusive startup events
$50,000 in PostHog credits for 12 months (analytics, session replay, feature flags, experiments, error tracking, surveys, LLM observability) plus ~$12,000 in partner perks and founder merch for companies under 2 years old that have raised under $5M.
who files it: You apply directly on the provider's site. No referral or partner code is needed.
you likely qualify if
Your company was founded less than 2 years ago
Your company has raised less than $5M in total funding
Your PostHog account uses your company's own email domain (e.g. you@yourstartup.com), not a personal address
tiers
PostHog for Startups (standard) $50,000 in PostHog credits valid for 12 months from application, plus exclusive founder merch pack (up to 4 packs for co-founders) and ~$12,000 in partner perks ($1,500 off an Incident.io teams plan, 50% off Speakeasy for 6 months, $5,000 of Depot credit)
PostHog for Y Combinator (separate deal) $50,000 in credits per year, auto-renewing while the company stays eligible (under $25M raised)
Post-credit bonus One-time $500 credit bonus offered when your startup credits are fully used or expire (per PostHog handbook
Open-source expiry waiver The 12-month credit expiry can be waived on request to support
Up to $50,000 in Together AI platform credits plus up to 10 hours of forward-deployed engineering time, with the amount set by how much your startup has raised.
who files it: You apply directly on the provider's site. No referral or partner code is needed.
you likely qualify if
You are a startup building an AI-native application (Together's own wording).
Your tier is set by total funding raised: up to $5M (Build), $5M to $10M (Scale), over $10M (Grow).
Stage range listed by Together: pre-seed to growth-stage AI startups.
tiers
Build Up to $15K in platform credits + 3 hours of forward-deployed engineering
Scale Up to $30K in platform credits + 6 hours of forward-deployed engineering
Grow Up to $50K in platform credits + 10 hours of forward-deployed engineering
Up to €36,000 in Scaleway cloud credits (€3,000 a month for 12 months) for seed to Series A startups, €9,000 over 6 months for pre-seed to seed, a one-time €1,000 voucher for founders, and up to €42,000 for new members who are also in NVIDIA Inception.
who files it: You apply directly on the provider's site. No referral or partner code is needed.
you likely qualify if
Company is less than 5 years old
Company has fewer than 50 employees
Company is not yet a Scaleway client (Scaleway does not define the term; the application still asks for a Scaleway organization ID, so a free account is needed first). Founders Program members may move up to a later program
tiers
Founders Program One-time €1,000 voucher, valid 12 months
Early Stage Program €1,500 a month for 6 months = €9,000 total
Growth Stage Program €3,000 a month for 12 months = up to €36,000 total, delivered as 12 monthly vouchers
NVIDIA Inception members Up to €42,000 in cloud credits (versus €36,000 for regular members), plus 12 months of Advanced Support (about €700 a year in value), one Scaleway Foundation Certification, invitations to community events and one social media mention
Up to $30,000 in Runware API credits (image, video, audio, LLM, 3D and avatar models), equity-free, for pre-Series A teams with a working product, covering 12 months of API access.
who files it: You apply directly on the provider's site. No referral or partner code is needed.
you likely qualify if
You have a working product or a credible MVP that exists today (an idea on paper does not qualify)
Your company has not raised a Series A; pre-seed, seed and bootstrapped teams all qualify
You plan to build or launch on Runware within the next 6 months
Up to $30,000 in Vercel usage credits over one year, plus Enterprise-tier access and a Slack line to the Vercel team, for startups backed by an approved VC or accelerator partner.
who files it: You apply directly, but only with a referral or code from an investor, accelerator or partner.
you likely qualify if
Your company is backed by, or enrolled in, a VC firm or accelerator on Vercel's approved Startup Partner list (the apply form has a dropdown of well over 100 partners, e.g. Y Combinator, Sequoia, Accel, General Catalyst, Founders Fund, Kleiner Perkins, Index, Bessemer, GV, Kaszek).
Your most recent round is a Series A or earlier (pre-seed, seed, Series A).
You apply within 12 months of your most recent funding round.
tiers
Vercel for Startups (Flexible Commitment) Up to $30,000 Flexible Commitment Amount, valid 12 months, on Enterprise terms
Vercel AI Accelerator (separate annual cohort) Announced in Feb 2026 as over $6M in credits across 40 teams
Free Redis for qualifying early-stage startups: Redis publishes 6 months free (usage limits apply) on its latest English and German pages, plus a basic support plan and monthly office hours. Partner perk listings report up to $25,000 in Redis Cloud credits ($3,000 if bootstrapped), but Redis publishes no dollar amounts on redis.io.
who files it: You apply directly on the provider's site. No referral or partner code is needed.
you likely qualify if
Seed stage or earlier. Redis's Oct 2024 launch release says venture-backed companies at the pre-seed and seed stage; partner listings say 'seed and below' and give bootstrapped startups the smaller tier.
New customers only: partner listings say current or past Redis customers are excluded (this rule is not stated on redis.io).
Intended for Redis Cloud (the launch release describes free Redis Cloud access; the reported credits are Redis Cloud credits).
tiers
Bootstrapped tier (unofficial figure) $3,000 in Redis Cloud credits, as reported by partner perk listings
Funded tier (unofficial figure) $25,000 in Redis Cloud credits, plus technical and AI support and co-marketing / go-to-market opportunities, as reported by partner perk listings and Google-perk aggregators
Program benefits (published by Redis) Free Redis for 6 months with usage limits (latest English page per Wayback snapshots from 2025-05-01 to 2026-06-20, and the German page)
$25,000 in Resend email credits for current YC batch founders (12 months), $15,000 for YC alumni; VC and accelerator partner deals exist but Resend does not publish their benefit or amount.
who files it: You apply directly, but only with a referral or code from an investor, accelerator or partner.
you likely qualify if
You are a founder in the current Y Combinator batch (qualifies for the $25,000 tier)
OR your company is a YC alumni company from a past batch (qualifies for the $15,000 tier)
You can generate a YC verification link at ycombinator.com/verify (requires a YC founder login)
tiers
YC current batch $25,000 in credits, valid for 12 months
YC alumni $15,000 in credits (duration not stated)
VC / accelerator partner deals Benefit and amount not published
Everyone else Standard free tier only: 3,000 emails/month (100/day cap) and 1,000 marketing contacts, no credits
full details →official page ↗stage fit: Best for pre-seed/seed founders in the current YC batch. YC alumni at any stage get $15no equity
Up to $25,000 in bonus GPU credits when you prepay $50,000 on a 12-month commit (Growth Tier), or $1,000 in free credits with no prepay for pre-Series A teams (Starter Tier).
who files it: You apply directly on the provider's site. No referral or partner code is needed.
you likely qualify if
You are an AI startup with a GPU workload that fits one of: production inference at scale (API-based AI products), model training or fine-tuning pipelines, or compute-intensive R&D with a clear path to production.
You are new to Runpod. Existing customers whose spend is below the Growth Tier threshold may be considered case by case; others are routed to their account manager.
You are ready to onboard now (Runpod's words: not 'in 6 months') and GPU infrastructure is a current bottleneck.
tiers
Growth Tier $25,000 in bonus credits added to a $50,000 upfront deposit on a committed 12-month agreement ($75,000 total credits, $50,000 of which is your own money)
Starter Tier $1,000 in free credits, no deposit mentioned
Up to $20,000 in Confluent Cloud credits (managed Kafka + Flink) for up to one year, plus two expert sessions and bi-weekly office hours, for startups at Series B or earlier founded in the last 5 years.
who files it: You apply directly on the provider's site. No referral or partner code is needed.
you likely qualify if
Your company has raised a Series B round or earlier (bootstrapped, pre-seed, seed, A or B); the Google Form says 'Series B and before with exceptions'.
Your company was founded within the last 5 years (the landing-page form's year-founded picklist runs 2018-2026).
You are ready to start using the credits within the next 12 months.
tiers
Confluent for Startups (standard) Up to $20,000 in Confluent Cloud credits (a cap
AI Accelerator Everything in the standard tier plus a highly selective 10-week virtual program: 1:1 technical mentorship from a senior Confluent AI technology leader, coaching and feedback on your business model and pitch deck from venture-backed entrepreneurs, early access to new tools and AI/ML features, marketing exposure on Confluent channels, and product credits/discounts from partner vendors (MongoDB and Anthropic were named at launch, Oct 2024
Up to $16,000 in Neo4j Aura (managed graph database) credits for startups at Series B or earlier. Credits last about 12 months from when Neo4j creates your credit record, which starts after you email your Aura Organization ID.
who files it: You apply directly on the provider's site. No referral or partner code is needed.
you likely qualify if
Your company is at Series B or earlier
You build a single product for many customers, not a custom product for individual customers
You have a live, functioning website
tiers
Aura credits Up to $16,000 in Neo4j Aura credits
1:1 technical consultations Personalized sessions with Neo4j graph engineers to validate GenAI and GraphRAG architecture and data models
Co-marketing and exposure Co-marketing ventures, customer references, speaking opportunities, GTM partnerships and content collaboration with Neo4j
Partner track Separate application form for VCs, accelerators and incubators to bring portfolio companies in
Up to 6 months free on Notion's Business plan with Notion AI included: 6 months via a partner (AWS Activate counts), 3 months applying direct, 1 month for very small or service businesses.
who files it: You apply directly. The base tier needs no code; the top tier needs an investor or partner referral.
you likely qualify if
Your company has fewer than 100 employees.
You are not currently paying for Notion and have never been a paying Notion customer (Notion's current terms: 'currently a non-paying, and were never in the past a paying, Notion Customer').
You are moving to a net-new Notion Business plan (the offer cannot be applied to an existing Plus, Business, or Enterprise subscription).
tiers
6 months free (partner-affiliated) 6 months of the Business plan with Notion AI
3 months free (direct, no partner) 3 months of the Business plan with Notion AI (about $6,000 at 100 seats by the same arithmetic
1 month free (SMB / unverified) 1 month of the Business plan with Notion AI
$10,000 of Algolia search usage, valid 12 months, for startups under 7 years old that have raised under $15M and never paid Algolia before.
who files it: You apply directly on the provider's site. No referral or partner code is needed.
you likely qualify if
Your company was incorporated as a legal entity no more than 7 years before the date you apply.
Your company has raised less than $15,000,000 in equity funding.
Your company has never been a paid Algolia subscriber (being on the Free plan is fine).
tiers
Startup Program credits Up to $10,000 of Algolia services at list price on the Grow or Grow Plus pay-as-you-go plan, usable for 12 months from acceptance into the program
full details →official page ↗stage fit: Pre-seed through Series A/early Series B: any company incorporated no more than 7 years ago with under $15M in equity raised that hasn't paid Algolia before.no equity
$10,000 in GitHub credits, valid for up to 12 months, spendable on GitHub Enterprise seats, Copilot, Advanced Security and other metered add-ons.
who files it: You apply directly, but only with a referral or code from an investor, accelerator or partner.
you likely qualify if
Your investor, accelerator or incubator is a GitHub for Startups partner (listed at github.com/enterprise/startups/partners; roughly 1,500 entries including YC, Techstars, 500 Global, a16z, Sequoia, Accel, Antler).
You have received outside funding and are at Series B or earlier. Non-equity credits do not count as outside funding.
You have not been on a GitHub Enterprise plan in the past six months.
tiers
GitHub for Startups credits (single tier) $10,000 in GitHub credits applied to your Enterprise Cloud account, valid up to 12 months from approval
Groq offered $10,000 in GroqCloud inference credits (expiring 90 days after award) to hand-selected scaling startups and VC partners, but the program appears to be withdrawn: as of October 9, 2026 both the program page and the application page redirect to groq.com and no intake is open.
who files it: You apply directly on the provider's site. No referral or partner code is needed.
you likely qualify if
You are a startup Groq would call 'scaling' (the official wording is 'hand-selected scaling startups'). Groq published no hard criteria; third-party trackers report the application asked for a working product or clear GroqCloud use case and an estimate of expected inference volume.
Or you are a VC partner applying for access on behalf of portfolio companies (named explicitly on the official page).
You have, or will create, a GroqCloud account at console.groq.com, because credits are attached to that account rather than issued as a code.
tiers
Groq Startup Program (single tier) $10,000 in GroqCloud inference credits, applied to your GroqCloud account
full details →official page ↗stage fit: Groq's own wording was 'scaling startups' with live inference workloadsno equity
Twilio no longer hands out blanket startup credits. Its official startups page states "We do not offer additional credits to startups at this time." The only official credit route is the annual AI Startup Searchlight awards (30 winners get up to $5K or $10K in one-time Twilio credits plus a Ramp gift card, and OpenAI API credits per the main page and blog), and the 2026 round closed in September 2026.
who files it: You apply directly on the provider's site. No referral or partner code is needed.
you likely qualify if
Searchlight: your startup has raised less than $200M in venture funding
Searchlight: you have a Twilio account (free signup is fine)
Searchlight: you have a product already in the market and a working, functional demo, not just an idea or prototype
tiers
Standard free trial (everyone) 30-day trial with free product units, no dollar credit: 100 SMS, 100 WhatsApp messages, 75 voice minutes, 3,000 emails, 40 Verify checks, 100 Lookups
AI Startup Searchlight 2026, Track 1 Breakthrough Builders Up to $5,000 one-time Twilio credits + up to $2,500 one-time OpenAI API credits (listed on the main page and blog, not in the FAQ prize list) + Ramp gift card up to $2,500 + $150 swag, media feature, 1:1 with Twilio Ventures, TwilioWorld showcase and co-marketing opportunities
AI Startup Searchlight 2026, Track 2 Scaling Visionaries Up to $10,000 one-time Twilio credits + up to $2,500 one-time OpenAI API credits (listed on the main page and blog, not in the FAQ prize list) + Ramp gift card up to $5,000 + $300 swag, media feature, 1:1 with Twilio Ventures, TwilioWorld showcase, co-marketing, extra prizes for the 10 best demos, Founders Connect Fellowship (invite-only) consideration
Twilio for APJ Startups promo code Promo code emailed with redemption instructions to applicants who are deemed eligible
full details →official page ↗stage fit: Searchlight Track 1: pre-seed to seed with a live product. Track 2: seed to growthno equity
33,000,000 free text characters (ElevenLabs states "$5,500+ in value", about 680 hours of Agents usage) plus 12 months of free access to the full ElevenLabs platform for startups with fewer than 25 employees.
who files it: You apply directly on the provider's site. No referral or partner code is needed.
you likely qualify if
Company has fewer than 25 employees at the time ElevenLabs receives the application
Product has a business or monetization strategy and is one the company intends to take to market long term (no short-term or one-off projects or campaigns)
Product is a new or early-stage product or business model powered by ElevenLabs AI voice (agents, text to speech, or speech to text)
tiers
Startup Grant 33,000,000 text characters and 12 months of free platform access (Agents/Conversational AI, Text to Speech, Speech to Text and more)
VC partner route Fast-tracked access to "exclusive perks like ElevenLabs credits, access to events and product updates" for portfolio companies of VCs that have signed up as ElevenLabs VC partners
$5,000 in ClickHouse Cloud credits valid for 12 months, plus Basic Support, a joint blog post, and speaking slots at ClickHouse events, for startups under three years old that come through a partner accelerator or VC.
who files it: You apply directly, but only with a referral or code from an investor, accelerator or partner.
you likely qualify if
Your company is less than three years old.
You have not raised a Series D or later funding round.
You have never been a paid ClickHouse Cloud customer.
tiers
Startup Offer $5,000 ClickHouse Cloud credits, valid 12 months, plus ClickHouse Basic Support, a joint blog post promoted on ClickHouse channels, and speaking opportunities at ClickHouse community events
Free US payroll for founders, your first 5 seats free for life if you have raised $500k+, and up to $5,000 in Deel credits (12-month validity) if you come through AWS Activate.
who files it: You apply directly on the provider's site. No referral or partner code is needed.
you likely qualify if
You are a founder who will run US payroll for yourself through Deel's US Payroll product.
For the 5 free seats: your company is venture-backed and has raised at least $500,000, and that raise can be verified on Crunchbase.
For the up-to-$5,000 AWS credits: your startup is an active AWS Activate member and you claim the Deel offer through the AWS Startups portal or Deel's AWS partner page.
tiers
Free founder US payroll US payroll for founders, free for life (Deel's partner pages say 'for a limited time')
First 5 seats free for life First 5 seats on Deel free for life
AWS Activate exclusive offer Up to $5,000 Deel credits (previously $1,500)
Partner-channel perks Brex: Brex's page says up to $5,000 in Deel credits or 50% off the first year, while Deel's Brex page says up to $1,500 in credits
full details →official page ↗stage fit: Pre-seed to Series A. The founder payroll perk has no stated funding minimumno equity
Free MongoDB Atlas credits (MongoDB publishes no tier amounts; Google Cloud's partner page cites up to $5,000), plus Voyage AI tokens, a free 2-hour technical advisor session, and a referral code for up to $5,000 in AWS Activate credits.
who files it: You apply directly on the provider's site. No referral or partner code is needed.
you likely qualify if
Company is less than 7 years old
Funding stage is Series A or earlier for the base tier (the application form also offers 'Series B or higher', but MongoDB does not explain how those applicants are treated)
You build a single software-based product or service that can scale
tiers
Inspire Baseline Atlas credits (amount not published)
Grow Expanded Atlas credits plus hands-on technical support (amount not published)
Innovate Additional Atlas credits plus access to expanded expertise (amount not published)
Scale Maximum Atlas credits, priority support and expert guidance (amount not published)
$5,000 in Sonar API credits plus free Perplexity Enterprise Pro for up to 50 seats, for startups backed by an approved VC or accelerator partner. As of October 2026 the official page redirects away and the application form is closed, so treat it as paused until Perplexity says otherwise.
who files it: You apply directly, but only with a referral or code from an investor, accelerator or partner.
you likely qualify if
Your startup has raised no more than $20M in equity funding (grants and non-equity money do not count toward the cap; the application form asks for equity raised in full dollars and says to exclude grants and non-equity funding). The $20M cap comes from the archived March 2026 program page.
Your company was founded less than 5 years ago (archived March 2026 program page)
Your startup is backed by, or part of, one of Perplexity's approved Startup Partners (roughly 250 VCs, accelerators and hubs per the archived program page, including Y Combinator, a16z, Sequoia, Accel, 500 Global, Antler, Plug and Play, Entrepreneurs First, Seedcamp, Speedinvest, Techstart Ventures, Blume Ventures, T-Hub, Astana Hub, Hult Prize Foundation and JPMorgan)
tiers
Startup track (via approved partner) $5,000 in Perplexity Sonar API credits + free Enterprise Pro for up to 50 seats for 3 months (the official page said 6 months from April 2025 until at least August 2025
Y Combinator alumni Additional Perplexity perks claimed through YC's Bookface deals page, no application form needed
HubSpot for Startups perk (separate partner channel, still live Oct 2026) 3 months of free Perplexity Enterprise Pro for up to 50 seats per company
full details →official page ↗stage fit: Pre-seed through Series A: under $20M in equity raised and under 5 years oldno equity
Up to $5,000 in Sentry credits plus priority support for startups under 2 years old that have raised less than $5M and are new to paying for Sentry.
who files it: You apply directly on the provider's site. No referral or partner code is needed.
you likely qualify if
Your company was founded within the last 2 years.
You have raised less than $5M in venture capital.
You are new to paying for Sentry (prior use of the free Developer plan is fine).
tiers
Sentry for Startups (standard) Up to $5,000 in Sentry credits, expiring 12 months after you join, plus priority support (the help article also lists Sentry swag)
YC / a16z speedrun deal A separate Sentry deal listed on YC Bookface or the a16z speedrun deals portal
full details →official page ↗stage fit: Pre-seed to seed: companies under 2 years old that have raised less than $5M. Series A companies usually exceed the funding cap.no equity
$1,000 in Lambda Cloud credits for on-demand GPU instances (B200, H100, A100, GH200) and persistent storage, for startups that are NVIDIA Inception members, valid 12 months.
who files it: You apply directly on the provider's site. No referral or partner code is needed.
you likely qualify if
Your company is a current member of NVIDIA Inception (free; NVIDIA requires an incorporated company under 10 years old, with at least one developer and a working website; any funding stage, no revenue requirement).
Your company has not already received a Lambda Inception grant (one grant per company).
You are located in, and pay with a credit card issued in, one of: Australia, Canada, Chile, European Union (except Lithuania), Iceland, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Puerto Rico, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, or United States.
tiers
NVIDIA Inception member grant $1,000 in Lambda Cloud credits, one grant per company
Lambda Research Grant (separate program, context only) Up to $5,000 in Lambda Cloud credits
$1,000 off Vanta for new customers who request a demo, or 25% off through partner programs like HubSpot for Startups, Mercury, Ramp and SVB.
who files it: You apply directly. The base tier needs no code; the top tier needs an investor or partner referral.
you likely qualify if
You are a new Vanta customer (not a current customer)
For the $1,000 offer: you have not already been engaged with Vanta's sales team before claiming it. The offer page lists no startup, funding, revenue or headcount requirement
For Vanta's generic 'startup-specific pricing': Vanta says it is for early-stage companies but publishes no funding, revenue or headcount cutoff
tiers
Direct offer ($1,000 off) $1,000 off a new Vanta subscription, 'for a limited time'
Partner-program discount 25% off via HubSpot for Startups, Mercury, Ramp and SVB (Mercury and SVB state first year
Y Combinator pricing Fixed first-year pricing: Essentials $7,200 or Plus $9,600 if under $1M ARR or under 20 employees
Free production trial Typically 5-7 day free trial on a real Vanta instance
full details →official page ↗stage fit: Early-stage companies buying Vanta for the first time ahead of a first SOC 2 or ISO 27001. Vanta publishes no stage cutoffno equity
$300 in Supabase credits spread over 12 months through AWS Activate or Mercury; any larger amount is set per accelerator or investor partner and is not published, and there is no public application on supabase.com.
who files it: You apply directly. The base tier needs no code; the top tier needs an investor or partner referral.
you likely qualify if
You can claim through a partner channel: an AWS Activate account, a Mercury account, or an accelerator/VC that lists Supabase in its perks portal (there is no direct application on supabase.com)
AWS Activate route: your startup has institutional VC backing from a recognized firm
AWS Activate route: your stage is pre-seed to Series A
tiers
AWS Activate offer $300 Supabase credits over 12 months
Mercury perk $300 Supabase credits over 1 year
Accelerator / investor partner tier Amount not published by Supabase (third-party listings cite figures such as up to $3,000 over 12 months or 6 months of the Team plan, but none appears on a Supabase page and the figures conflict, so treat them as unverified)
First year of Amplitude's full Growth plan 100% free (up to 100M events/month, unlimited teammates, no credit card; Amplitude calls it a $60,000 value), then 40% off the annual Plus plan in year two.
who files it: You apply directly on the provider's site. No referral or partner code is needed.
you likely qualify if
Your company has fewer than 20 employees AND has raised less than $10M in total funding (both must hold)
You have or can create an Amplitude account (no credit card required) and submit the in-product Startup Plan application (shown after signup, or under Settings > Plans & Billing)
Existing customers: Free-plan accounts can apply directly; monthly Plus customers must cancel and wait for the downgrade to Free; annual Plus/Growth customers must email scholarship@amplitude.com so the team can cancel the contract before they can apply
tiers
Startup Plan, Year 1 100% off the full Growth plan for 12 months: product analytics, session replay, experimentation/feature flags, MCP and agents, unlimited teammates, up to 100M events/month or 200K monthly tracked users, no credit card
Year 2 40% off the annual Plus plan
Alumni discount (ongoing) Standing startup discount off list price on Plus and Growth annual plans
Venture portfolio discount (partner track) Up to 50% off the first year of the Growth plan (not free), per Amplitude's partner page (undated)
full details →official page ↗stage fit: Pre-seed to seed and early Series A: under $10M raised and under 20 employees. Larger companies can only get partner-referral discountsno equity
Up to 50 seats each of Jira, Confluence, Loom and Bitbucket Premium (plus smaller Jira Service Management, Customer Service Management and Jira Product Discovery allowances) at $0 for 12 months, for startups that are VC funded or tied to a partner accelerator/incubator and have raised no more than US$10M.
who files it: You apply directly on the provider's site. No referral or partner code is needed.
you likely qualify if
Your company is not an existing Atlassian paid customer
Your company is VC funded, OR is associated with an Atlassian partner accelerator and/or incubator (the application form requires you to name your venture investor or accelerator/incubator; the July 2026 anniversary post names Y Combinator, a16z Alpha and Speedrun, Menlo Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures and 20VC among 215+ VC, accelerator and incubator partners; the June 2024 launch post names AWS Activate, Accel, Blackbird and Menlo Ventures)
Your company has not raised more than US$10 million in external funding
tiers
Core Premium products $0 for 12 months, up to 50 seats each: Jira Premium, Confluence Premium, Loom Business + AI, Bitbucket Premium
Service Collection $0 for 12 months, up to 10 seats: Jira Service Management and Customer Service Management
Jira Product Discovery Premium $0 for 12 months, up to 10 creator seats plus unlimited contributor seats
One free year of Auth0's B2B Professional plan (up to 100,000 monthly active users, enterprise SSO/MFA, unlimited organizations) for venture-backed startups under $5M raised, under $1M ARR and under two years old.
who files it: You apply directly on the provider's site. No referral or partner code is needed.
you likely qualify if
Your company is venture-backed and has raised less than $5M USD in total funding
Your annual recurring revenue (ARR) is less than $1M USD
Your company was incorporated less than two years ago
tiers
Standard application (direct) 12 months of B2B Professional free: 100k MAUs, Enterprise MFA, unlimited Organizations (subject to system limits), 5 enterprise connections (SAML/OIDC), inbound SCIM, 3 third-party APIs via Token Vault, plus support tickets, use-case workshops, Developer Advocate access and early feature access
Partner route (AWS Activate, MongoDB, Mercury, Brex, Secret, TLDR, F6S, VIP, etc.) Same offer: 12 months of B2B Professional free with 100k MAUs
Open a Brex card or business account and unlock over $350,000 in advertised partner discounts and credits, including up to $5,000 in AWS credits for new customers (subject to AWS Activate eligibility), $1,000 in OpenAI credits, up to 20 free GitHub Enterprise seats for qualifying startups, plus an occasional time-boxed sign-up bonus.
who files it: You apply directly on the provider's site. No referral or partner code is needed.
you likely qualify if
Your company has a US EIN issued by the IRS and valid US incorporation with US operations
Your company has a US physical address Brex can verify (virtual address only if a beneficial owner or control officer has a verifiable US presence; no PO boxes or private mailboxes)
Your industry is not on Brex's restricted list
tiers
Partner perks (Brex customers) Brex advertises over $350,000 in discounts and credits on AI and SaaS tools
Day Zero Stack: AWS credits Up to $5,000 in AWS credits for new Brex customers, depending on AWS Activate eligibility
Day Zero Stack: AI and dev tools OpenAI $1,000 credits (1 yr)
Other listed partners Google Cloud/Firebase costs covered up to $200,000 over 2 years (Google's own eligibility applies)
Free cap table, equity issuance and SAFE fundraising tools for startups with up to 25 stakeholders and under $1M raised. No credit card, self-serve, set up in minutes.
who files it: You apply directly on the provider's site. No referral or partner code is needed.
you likely qualify if
Your cap table has 25 or fewer stakeholders (aggregate security holders). Carta's FAQ says 'under 25' and its pricing page says 'up to 25'; the binding Launch Plan Terms make 'exceeding twenty-five (25) aggregate Security Holders' the upgrade trigger.
Your company has raised less than US$1,000,000 in total equity or debt financing (or the equivalent in other currencies), counting all rounds, SAFEs and notes to date, regardless of instrument type.
Your company is legally incorporated and you can upload its certificate of incorporation.
tiers
Launch (free) $0, no credit card
Build (paid) Per-stakeholder pricing with an annual minimum (contact sales)
Discounted Clerk Pro for startups up to 1 year after launch with up to $5M in venture funding, on top of a free Hobby tier that already covers 50,000 monthly retained users.
who files it: You apply directly on the provider's site. No referral or partner code is needed.
you likely qualify if
Your company launched 1 year ago or less (Clerk: 'up to 1 year after launch')
You have raised $5 million or less in venture funding
You have a Clerk account with at least one application created
Startup discount on Pro Clerk Pro features at a discount (SMS codes, allowlists/blocklists, RBAC, custom session duration, device tracking and revocation, and more)
Partner pre-negotiated discounts Pre-negotiated startup discounts through Clerk's partners
Closed: it offered a 25% discount on Cohere's models for one year (not free credits) to startups at Series B or earlier, but Cohere's own post says applications closed for 2024 and the program pages now redirect to the homepage.
who files it: You apply directly on the provider's site. No referral or partner code is needed.
you likely qualify if
Company has raised Series B or less (bootstrapped, pre-seed, seed, Series A, or Series B)
Company is an early-stage startup, not an established enterprise
Company is working on AI applications or products where Cohere's technology could help (Cohere's team reviewed each application to decide fit)
tiers
Cohere Startup Program (2024 cohort, now closed) 25% discount on the AI models on Cohere's platform for one year, plus access to Cohere technical experts, logo and use-case showcase on cohere.com, and joint webinars and co-marketing opportunities
12 months of DigitalOcean credits, with the amount set per partner and stated in your onboarding email (generally a $10,000 monthly usage limit), plus 15 months of free Standard support and GPU credits by invitation.
who files it: You apply directly on the provider's site. No referral or partner code is needed.
you likely qualify if
Your company has raised $10 million or less in total funding
You build a product (software, AI, SaaS, etc.), not a service business
You have a live company website and a company email address on that same domain
tiers
Core credits 12 months of DigitalOcean credits
GPU credits (Early-Stage Boost) Separate GPU credit package
Support 15 months of Standard-tier paid support at no cost, plus one-on-ones with DigitalOcean product managers and engineers
One year of Fireworks inference and fine-tuning credits (dollar amount not published) plus direct access to applied-AI engineers, for venture-backed AI startups that have raised more than $500k.
who files it: You apply directly. The base tier needs no code; the top tier needs an investor or partner referral.
you likely qualify if
Your company is legally registered and has a functional website.
Your company is privately held and for-profit.
Your company was founded within the last 5 years.
tiers
Fireworks for Startups (build credits) Credits for on-demand usage (serverless text/vision inference, image generation, speech-to-text, embeddings, fine-tuning, on-demand GPU deployments), options for higher rate limits, applied-AI engineer access, roadmap sessions, community events, joint marketing
AWS x Fireworks startup acceleration (separate joint track) Funded proof-of-concept plus hands-on model customization and deployment support from Fireworks and the AWS Generative AI Innovation Center Startup Team
Up to 90% off HubSpot Professional or Enterprise products in year one for pre-seed to Series A startups, stepping down to 50% in year two and 25% in year three (30%/15% for members of approved entrepreneurial organizations).
who files it: You apply directly on the provider's site. No referral or partner code is needed.
you likely qualify if
You have raised a Pre-seed, Seed or Series A round and have NOT raised Series B or later.
You are either affiliated with one of HubSpot's approved partners (VC, accelerator, incubator or entrepreneurial organization; the startups page says 4,000+, the partner directory listed 3,877 on Sept 28, 2026) OR your venture funding is visible on Crunchbase, PitchBook or Harmonic so HubSpot can verify it.
You are buying net-new Professional or Enterprise level HubSpot products. HubSpot's startups page does not list specific hubs. Upgrading an existing Starter subscription is explicitly allowed on the Bootstrap Program page; confirm with HubSpot before assuming it applies to the funded tier.
tiers
Funded startup tier 90% off year 1, 50% off year 2, 25% off year 3 (annual commitment, net-new Professional/Enterprise products only)
Entrepreneurial organization tier 30% off year 1, 15% off year 2
HubSpot Bootstrap Program (sibling program) 30% off HubSpot paid tools in year 1
93% off Intercom's Advanced helpdesk plan in year 1 (you pay $65/mo against a $903/mo list price), then 50% off year 2 and 25% off year 3, plus 300 free Fin AI Agent outcomes a month in year 1. Startups referred by a VC or accelerator partner get year 1 at 100% off instead.
who files it: You apply directly. The base tier needs no code; the top tier needs an investor or partner referral.
you likely qualify if
You have raised $10M or less in total funding (direct track).
You have fewer than 15 employees (direct track).
You are not currently an Intercom customer: no active subscription or annual plan at the time you apply.
tiers
Early Stage (apply directly) 93% off year 1 ($65/mo vs $903 list), 50% off year 2 ($451.50/mo), 25% off year 3 ($677.25/mo)
Startup Partner track (referred) 100% off year 1 ($0 vs $903 list), 50% off year 2 ($451.50/mo), 25% off year 3 ($677.25/mo)
full details →official page ↗stage fit: Pre-seed to Series A. Direct track: $10M or less raised and under 15 people. Partner track: up to Series A and under 25 people.no equity
A free period on Linear's Business plan (list price $16 per user per month billed yearly), typically 3 to 6 months depending on the partner, for non-paying startups with fewer than 50 employees that come in through one of Linear's roughly 490 investor, accelerator or community partners.
who files it: You apply directly, but only with a referral or code from an investor, accelerator or partner.
you likely qualify if
Your company is affiliated with an official Linear partner (portfolio company of a listed VC, alumni or current cohort of a listed accelerator, or member of a listed community); about 490 partners are listed at linear.app/startups/partners
Your company has fewer than 50 employees
You are a non-paying Linear user: partner offer pages state the workspace must never have paid for Linear, with one offer per workspace (new workspaces and Free-plan workspaces that have never paid qualify)
tiers
Partner-affiliated startup Linear Business plan free for 3 to 6 months from the date you redeem, with the exact length set on your partner's own Linear offer page (for example 6AM Accelerator offers six months, Mamram Alumni Association offers three months)
No partner affiliation Standard Free plan only: 2 teams, 250 issues (archived issues are unlimited), unlimited members
full details →official page ↗stage fit: Any early-stage company with fewer than 50 employees that has never paid for Linear and has a listed partnerno equity
Open a free Mercury business bank account and unlock 270+ partner deals, including up to $5,000 in AWS Activate credits, $10,000 in GitHub credits, up to $5,000 in Azure credits, and single-partner offers worth up to $100,000 (Datadog, Agency).
who files it: You apply directly on the provider's site. No referral or partner code is needed.
you likely qualify if
You have an approved Mercury business account (perks are redeemed from the Perks page in the dashboard; the base plan is $0/month).
Your company is formed and registered in a US state or US territory and can provide state-filed formation documents (Articles of Organization/Incorporation or Certificate of Formation) plus an IRS EIN document (CP575, 147c or SS-4).
Your company has existing or planned operations in the US.
tiers
AWS Activate via Mercury Up to $5,000 in AWS Activate credits
GitHub for Startups via Mercury $10,000 in GitHub credits (Enterprise licenses, Copilot, Codespaces, Advanced Security, larger runners)
Microsoft for Startups via Mercury Up to $5,000 in free Azure credits plus AI models and templates
Google Cloud via Mercury Paused: "Offer temporarily unavailable
full details →official page ↗stage fit: Idea stage through Series B. The AWS and most software perks need no fundingno equity
One free year of Mixpanel's Startup Plan, 1 billion events, Session Replay and every add-on included, which Mixpanel's marketing page values at $145,000. No referral needed.
who files it: You apply directly on the provider's site. No referral or partner code is needed.
you likely qualify if
Your company was incorporated or founded less than 5 years ago (checked at sign-up).
You have raised no more than $8 million USD in total funding (checked at sign-up).
You have never been on a paid Mixpanel plan and are not a paid Mixpanel customer today (existing free-plan users can apply).
tiers
Startup Plan (current program, since Sept 2024; announced as a revamp in the Jan 21, 2025 changelog) First year free
Legacy credit program (closed before Sept 4, 2024) $50,000 in credits applied to an annual Growth plan plus Group Analytics and Data Pipelines add-ons
Free Modal serverless GPU/CPU compute credits for new-to-Modal startups backed by a Modal partner VC or accelerator, or with more than $1M of VC funding. Modal no longer publishes a dollar amount ('thousands of free GPU credits'); credits last 1 year.
who files it: You apply directly on the provider's site. No referral or partner code is needed.
you likely qualify if
New to Modal: only customers new to Modal can apply. Credits are a one-time grant and you cannot reapply once you have received credits in a given tier.
Seed to Series A tier: raised any amount of VC funding from one of Modal's 40+ partner VCs and accelerators, OR raised more than $1M in VC funding from any fund. The application form says it only accepts applicants funded by Modal's partners or with more than $1M raised, counting funding for the current company only.
Scaling and Series B+ tier: raised more than $30M or completed a Series B, AND a VC on the cap table is in Modal's partner network.
tiers
Seed to Series A Free compute credits
Scaling and Series B+ Custom credit amount for rapidly growing AI-native companies
Modal for Academics (separate program) Up to $10,000 ('Unlock up to $10k of credits')
Free New Relic observability for 5 full-platform users plus hands-on New Relic engineers, for vetted startups at Series A or earlier that are building with AI.
who files it: You apply directly on the provider's site. No referral or partner code is needed.
you likely qualify if
Your company has raised a Series A or earlier (pre-seed, seed, or Series A). New Relic's wording (DevRel blog, June 23, 2026): "Open to qualified Series A and earlier startups." Note that the newrelic.com/startups page itself lists no criteria; the rules come from the press release and blog.
You are an early-stage company building on AI: your product uses LLMs, agents, or AI-generated code. The June 2026 press release positions the program for "early-stage companies building on AI."
You can pass New Relic's vetting. The press release says the program is "available to vetted, early-stage startups"; New Relic's team reviews every registration before confirming a place.
tiers
New Relic for Startups (single tier) 5 full-platform users and "generous data ingest per month," free (no GB figure published)
Baseline if you are not admitted: New Relic standard free tier 100 GB data ingest per month + 1 full-platform user, perpetual, no credit card
Free OpenAI API credits (no global dollar amount published), rate-limit upgrades and time with OpenAI solutions engineers, unlocked with a referral code from a partner VC such as Sequoia, a16z, Thrive Capital, Kleiner Perkins or Conviction. Australia has a separate program with up to US$15,000 in credits per OpenAI.
who files it: You apply directly, but only with a referral or code from an investor, accelerator or partner.
you likely qualify if
Your startup has raised from a VC that is in OpenAI's partner network (OpenAI names Thrive Capital, Sequoia, a16z, Kleiner Perkins and Conviction Partners as examples; the full list is not published, so ask your VC). VC firms can apply to join via OpenAI's VC Partnership Application
Your VC has given you a unique referral code for the OpenAI credits application
You have an OpenAI platform account and can supply its Organization ID (Settings > Organization settings > General)
tiers
VC partner route (the credits program) Free OpenAI API credits (OpenAI publishes no global dollar figure), rate-limit upgrades, time with solutions engineers and technical staff, invite-only events, direct line to the Startup team, dedicated technical and GTM support
Open resources (no referral needed) Free Build Hours (live technical sessions), starter repos and cookbooks on GitHub, founder events (Builder Lounges, campus events), Startup Drop monthly newsletter
Australia startup program (regional) Up to US$15,000 in API credits, technical mentorship and workshops, per OpenAI's Dec 4, 2025 'Introducing OpenAI for Australia' page
OpenAI Grove 5-week program at OpenAI's San Francisco HQ (first and last week in person, travel covered
Free Pinecone Standard tier plus Pro Support (list prices: $50/mo minimum usage + $250/mo Pro Support), plus usage credits and discounts whose amount and term Pinecone does not publish.
who files it: You apply directly on the provider's site. No referral or partner code is needed.
you likely qualify if
Your company has fewer than 100 employees (official)
Your company is Series A or earlier (official wording: "You're Series A or earlier"; Pinecone does not say how bootstrapped, pre-seed or seed companies are treated, though they are below Series A)
Reported by third-party directories but not stated on the official page: you are building an AI product that uses Pinecone's vector database, e.g. RAG, semantic search or recommendations
tiers
Pinecone for Startups (single tier) Free access to Standard tier and Pro Support (any cloud/region, RBAC, backups, import, Prometheus metrics, dedicated Slack channel) plus usage credits and discounts
Free hands-on database migration (assessment through cutover) for Y Combinator companies and select high-growth startups, and often discounted migration for others. No credit amount is published, there is no free tier, and paid plans start at $5/month.
who files it: You apply directly on the provider's site. No referral or partner code is needed.
you likely qualify if
You already run a production Postgres or MySQL-compatible database elsewhere (RDS, Aurora, Cloud SQL, Supabase, Neon, Heroku, MariaDB, Azure Database for MySQL, etc.) that you intend to move to PlanetScale.
For the complimentary migration services: you are a Y Combinator portfolio company, or PlanetScale judges you a 'select high-growth startup' after you get in touch (no published threshold).
You can give the contact form your work email, company, product interest (Vitess, Neki, Postgres, Multiple or Not sure), current database size and details of your setup.
tiers
Complimentary migration services Free hands-on migration by PlanetScale specialists: requirements call, Discovery Tool assessment, environment setup, data transfer, validation and cutover
Migration credits (unconfirmed) An archived 15 Nov 2025 version of planetscale.com/startups said PlanetScale could provide credits to offset migration costs
Standard self-serve pricing Single-node Postgres from $5/month
full details →official page ↗stage fit: No stage criteria published. Best fit is a startup that already has a production database to move and is a YC company or fast-growing.no equity
Free corporate cards (Ramp Free plan, $0/user/month), business banking and spend management, plus a partner-rewards marketplace Ramp values at $350K+ (AWS Activate credits, Datadog, Google Cloud, OpenAI, Retool, Stripe and more). No personal guarantee; Ramp states a 1-2 business day decision.
who files it: You apply directly on the provider's site. No referral or partner code is needed.
you likely qualify if
Your business is registered in the United States as a corporation, LLC or LP (nonprofits are welcome).
You have an EIN (Ramp says this cannot be waived).
You have at least $25,000 in cash in a US business bank account that you link to the application.
tiers
Ramp Free plan $0/user/month
Partner rewards marketplace $350K+ total claimed by Ramp
Cash sign-up bonus (partner channels) Varies by channel
Accelerator pre-qualification Startups in a Ramp-partner accelerator 'may already be pre-qualified' for approval
Salad publishes no startup credit program on its own site. A third-party directory lists $1,000 in SaladCloud credit (valid 24 months), rising to $5,000 with a published case study, for pre-seed to Series B startups running containerized GPU workloads, and a 2024 Salad blog post describes a separate SSAP track of up to $10,000 for 2 months for AI companies with 10+ GPUs.
who files it: You apply directly on the provider's site. No referral or partner code is needed.
you likely qualify if
Company stage is pre-seed, seed, Series A or Series B (the request form also offers 'Bootstrapped').
Your workload runs in Docker containers on GPUs, for example image, video or LLM inference, batch or async GPU jobs, transcription, scientific compute.
Your company is not already a paying SaladCloud customer.
Case-study upgrade (third-party listing) Raised to $5,000 total
SSAP (Salad Solutions Architect Program), separate official track Up to $10,000 in credits for a 2-month duration, plus a dedicated solutions engineer for coding and migration help and GPU benchmarking
Free Snowflake usage on your first contract (Snowflake publishes no amount; VC partner portals cite about $20,000 for backed startups), a selective six-month Accelerator with AWS-funded Snowflake credits and engineering support, and a shot at up to $500,000 of investment (up to $1 million across the winner and top two finalists) through the annual Startup Challenge.
who files it: You apply directly. The base tier needs no code; the top tier needs an investor or partner referral.
you likely qualify if
Your product stores or processes its data in Snowflake, or you are about to build on it. Snowflake's own fit test: data is a core component of the product, you use AI/ML, or you handle large or complex datasets.
Startup Package: you are signing your first Snowflake contract (portal listings say you cannot already be a capacity customer).
Early stage: Snowflake's pages publish no cutoff. Portal listings say Seed to Series B for the general checklist, Seed or Series A for VC-track listings (Balderton, Kalaari), and Series C or earlier for the Startup Package listing. The Startup Challenge allows no equity funding beyond a Series A round.
tiers
Startup Package (direct) Free usage on your first Snowflake contract, as stated on Snowflake's program page
VC Community (Venture Advantage track per portal listings) Free Snowflake usage for eligible portfolio companies of select partner VCs
Startup Accelerator Snowflake credits to build, test and launch (no per-startup amount published)
Startup Challenge (annual competition) Investment opportunity, not guaranteed: the winner may receive up to $500,000 and each of the two other finalists up to $250,000 (up to $1 million in total, the figure Snowflake's page headlines)
Incorporate a Delaware company from anywhere for $500 and get $2,500 in Stripe fee credits plus $50K+ in partner perks, including $5,000 in AWS Activate credits.
who files it: You apply directly on the provider's site. No referral or partner code is needed.
you likely qualify if
You are forming a brand-new Delaware C corporation, Delaware LLC, or C-corp subsidiary of an existing company (Atlas only forms Delaware entities).
Every founder is 18 or older.
Founders can live in any country (Stripe says startups in 175+ countries have used Atlas); a US Social Security Number is not required.
tiers
Atlas Stripe fee credits (incorporated on/after Oct 16, 2025) $2,500 in Stripe fee credits, valid 1 year from incorporation
Atlas legacy offer (incorporated before Oct 16, 2025) Stripe payment processing fees waived on first $100,000 of revenue, 1 year from incorporation
Atlas partner perks Stripe says $50,000+ in partner discounts
Atlas fee refund via Stripe Treasury $500 Atlas fee refunded when you fund a Stripe Treasury account with $5,000 within 90 days
full details →official page ↗stage fit: Idea-stage and pre-seed founders who need a US company and bank accountno equity
Not a credits program you apply to: WorkOS's "for Startups" page is its standard free tier, which gives AuthKit user management free up to 1 million monthly active users with no application; staging needs no payment method, and production needs a payment method on file even while your usage stays free.
who files it: You apply directly on the provider's site. No referral or partner code is needed.
you likely qualify if
You can create a WorkOS account at workos.com/signup; there is no application form, approval step or review.
Your app's AuthKit / User Management usage is at or below 1,000,000 monthly active users; above that you pay $2,500/mo per extra 1M MAUs. The allowance applies in production as well as staging.
You are not yet running Enterprise SSO or Directory Sync (SCIM) connections in production; those are billed per connection from the first one ($125/connection/month at 1-15 connections).
tiers
AuthKit / User Management free tier First 1,000,000 monthly active users free
Radar (bot and fraud protection) free allowance First 1,000 checks free
Staging environments Free for testing with no payment method needed
Vercel AI Accelerator (partner cohort, not a WorkOS program) WorkOS contributed $600K in credits to the cohort's shared pool
Up to 2 years of Zendesk Suite Professional free for up to 50 agents (6 months standard), with AI Agents, Copilot and App Builder included.
who files it: You apply directly. The base tier needs no code; the top tier needs an investor or partner referral.
you likely qualify if
Your company is a brand-new Zendesk subscriber: no current or past paid Zendesk plan (an unconverted 14-day free trial is fine)
You have fewer than 250 employees; if you have 50 or more, you must be referred by a Zendesk VC or accelerator partner
You have raised no more than a Series B (bootstrapped companies are accepted)
tiers
Standard track 6 months of Zendesk Suite Professional free for up to 50 agents, including AI Agents, Copilot and App Builder, plus a dedicated Account Executive, onboarding help and office hours
Partner track (VC / accelerator referred) Up to 2 years of the same Suite Professional plan and 50-agent cap
Membership perks Startups Digital Hub community, exclusive partner discounts from AWS, GitHub, Notion and others (each vendor sets its own redemption rules), founder events, access to Zendesk Labs and Zendesk Ventures
Start with the no-referral tiers. Cloudflare's base tier, NVIDIA Inception (up to $100K), Google's Start tier and most of the data and dev-tool programs take a form and a business email. Nothing stops you from holding all of them at once, and none of them takes equity. Do these in one afternoon.
Then use your investor. The big tiers (Cloudflare up to $350K, Google Cloud up to $350K, Microsoft up to $150K, AWS Portfolio up to $200K) unlock through a VC or accelerator on the provider's partner list. One email to your lead investor asking which programs they are a partner of can surface several codes. Apply to the biggest ceiling first; credits are one-time per company.
Treat AWS differently. You apply for AWS Activate yourself: Founders ($1,000 to start, up to $5,000) is self-serve, and Portfolio (up to $200K) needs an Org ID from your investor or accelerator. For most startups the bigger money is the funding only an AWS partner can request: MAP funding for a migration, POC funding to test something, IW funding for new work on AWS. $50K to $150K for startups. Depends on the workload; AWS approves. CloudRoute matches you with a vetted partner who can file it, for free. Every AWS route side by side: AWS credits for startups.
A program where a vendor gives early-stage companies free usage, credits, a free plan or a discount in exchange for a short application, not equity. This directory lists 62 of them across 7 categories: cloud, AI models, GPU compute, data, dev tools, security and business. Programs that only open through an investor or partner are marked in the Referral column.
Do any of these programs take equity?
No. None of the 62 programs listed take equity; they are credits, free plans or discounts. The catch is usually time: most credits expire 12 months after approval, and a few need a paid plan or a card on file for overages. Each program page lists the expiry rule.
Can I apply to several programs at once?
Yes. Most of these programs sit alongside each other; the usual rule is one grant per company per program, not one program per company. Each program page has a "stacks well with" section and a FAQ on combining it with AWS credits. The practical cap is your team's time, which is why the playbooks order the applications by value and effort.
Which programs need a referral or partner code?
8 of the 62 programs require a referral or partner code to apply at all, 41 need none, and the rest open their top tier only through an investor or accelerator. Filter the table by Referral to see each group. If you are VC-backed, ask your lead investor which partner programs they belong to; one email usually surfaces several codes.
How is this directory kept honest?
Every amount was read from the provider's official page on Oct 9, 2026, each row links to that page, and every program page shows the verification date and the sources checked. 6 programs that circulate on other lists could not be confirmed from an official source, so they are left out rather than guessed. Changes are logged with dates on the change log page. Programs change; confirm on the official page before you plan around a number.
How do I get AWS startup credits?
Apply for AWS Activate yourself at aws.amazon.com/startups/credits. Self-funded startups apply for AWS Activate Founders: $1,000 to start, up to $5,000. Startups backed by an AWS Activate Provider (a VC firm, accelerator or angel) apply for AWS Activate Portfolio, up to $200,000, with the provider's Org ID. AWS decides each application. The AWS Activate page in this directory lists every tier and rule. The bigger AWS route for most startups is funding only an AWS partner can request: MAP for a migration, POC for a test, IW for new work on AWS. $50K to $150K for startups. Depends on the workload; AWS approves. CloudRoute matches you with a vetted partner who can file it, for free.
Does CloudRoute file any of these applications?
No. You apply for all 62 programs yourself, AWS Activate included: Founders ($1,000 to start, up to $5,000) is self-serve, and Portfolio (up to $200,000) needs an Org ID from your investor or accelerator. AWS is the one provider where part of the money can only be requested by a partner: MAP funding for a migration to AWS, POC funding to test something, and IW (incremental workload) funding for new work on AWS. $50K to $150K for startups. Depends on the workload; AWS approves. CloudRoute matches you with a vetted AWS partner who can file it. For the other 61 programs, apply directly with the links in the table; some need an investor or partner code first.
How does CloudRoute make money, and who runs it?
CloudRoute is a free referral service that matches startups with vetted AWS consulting partners. The partner files the AWS funding only partners can request (MAP for migrations, POC for tests, incremental workload funding for new work on AWS) when the work qualifies and AWS approves it. Startups pay nothing. Partners pay CloudRoute a monthly membership plus 10% of AWS-approved funding. CloudRoute is not part of AWS and does not issue credits.
the AWS route
Get matched with an AWS partner who can file it.
MAP funding for a migration to AWS, POC funding to test something, IW funding for new work on AWS. Only an AWS partner can file them. $50K to $150K for startups. Depends on the workload; AWS approves. You still apply for Activate yourself.
