AI & ML Credits for Startups

Up to $200,000 in Google Cloud credits over 2 years for Seed to Series A startups, up to $350,000 on the AI track, and $2,000 for pre-funded startups.

Eligibility

• Start tier ($2,000 for 1 year): pre-funded, founded within the last 24 months, and no Google Cloud credits beyond the free trial
• Scale and AI tiers: Seed to Series A, founded within the last five years, and no more than $5,000 in Google Cloud credits received before
• AI tier: Gemini is the foundation of your core product, and Pre-Seed/Seed raised within five years or Series A within 12 months
• Must have a company website

Programs

• Google for Startups Cloud Program
  Up to $200,000
• Google for Startups Cloud Program (AI track)
  Up to $350,000

Up to $200,000 in AWS credits through AWS Activate. Self-funded startups can get up to $5,000; startups backed by an Activate Provider can get up to $200,000. Credits also cover third-party models on Amazon Bedrock.

Eligibility

• Pre-Series B and founded in the last 10 years
• AWS account on the Paid plan. Accounts on the 6-month Free plan can't receive Activate credits, so upgrade first
• New to Activate credits, or requesting more credits than you received before
• Portfolio tier: an Org ID from your Activate Provider (accelerator, angel investor, or VC firm)

Programs

• AWS Activate Portfolio
  $200,000
• AWS Activate Founders
  Up to $5,000
• AWS Credits for AI Startups
  $200,000+

Databricks for Startups gives early-stage venture-backed startups up to $200,000 in credits across Databricks and Neon.

Eligibility

• Early-stage, venture-backed startup that recently raised institutional funding
• Pre-seed through Series A; no accelerator required

Programs

• Databricks for Startups
  Up to $200,000

Grok for Startups from SpaceXSI (formerly xAI) gives venture-backed startups one credit balance across Grok, Grok Build, Grok Bot and the Grok API. Credits are sized by funding, revenue and current AI spend, aiming for about six months of real usage.

Eligibility

• Venture backing and a live product
• A company email that matches your website domain (personal emails are not approved)
• One grant per company; disclose any credits you already received from xAI or SpaceXSI
• Credits expire six months after they are applied unless your approval says otherwise
• Not available in countries under comprehensive U.S. sanctions

Programs

• Grok for Startups
  Sized to 6+ months of your usage
• VC and accelerator partners
  Depends on the partner

Microsoft for Startups: $200 in Azure credits at signup, $5K after business verification, scaling up to $150K as Azure usage grows; investor-referred startups get a $1K starter grant and review for up to $150K. Pre-seed to Series B B2B startups.

Eligibility

• B2B startup building software, AI or tech; privately held, not a subsidiary, in a supported region
• Pre-seed through Series B
• Sign up with a personal Microsoft account (work, school and company-domain emails are rejected)
• No-investor offer: LinkedIn identity verification for the first $200, business verification for $5,000
• Investor offer: a referral code from a participating investor, accelerator, incubator, angel network or university

Programs

• Microsoft for Startups Investor Offer
  Up to $150,000
• Azure startup credit offer (no investor)
  $200 to $150,000

Claude for Startups: a free year of Claude Team, $1,000 in Claude API credits, higher rate limits and up to $45K in partner offers for startups founded in the last five years or funded in the last two. Bootstrapped founders qualify. Partner-VC-backed teams can get up to $100K more in API credits.

Eligibility

• Founded in the last five years or funded in the last two years; bootstrapped, pre-seed and venture-backed startups all qualify
• Claude Console account and a company email that matches your website domain
• The extra up-to-$100K in API credits is claimed through an Anthropic partner VC
• Credits apply to the first-party Claude API only (not Bedrock, Vertex AI or Foundry)

Programs

• Claude for Startups
  $1,000 - $100,000+

AI acceleration cloud offering tiered platform credits up to $50K plus dedicated AI engineering support for inference, fine-tuning, and clusters.

Eligibility

• Startup building generative AI applications on the Together AI platform
• Tier set by fundraising: Build under $5M, Scale $5M-$10M, Grow over $10M
• Selection-based: Together AI reviews each application

Programs

• Together AI Startup Accelerator
  Up to $50,000 in platform credits

Vercel for Startups: up to $30,000 in Vercel usage credit (valid up to 1 year) plus Enterprise-tier access, for Series A-or-earlier startups backed by an approved Vercel Startups Partner, applying within 12 months of their last round.

Eligibility

• Affiliated with an approved Vercel Startups Partner (screenshot proof)
• Series A or earlier, applying within 12 months of your most recent round
• No prior Vercel credits
• Company website and an email on the matching domain

Programs

• Vercel for Startups
  Up to $30,000
• Vercel AI Accelerator
  Annual cohort

Neo4j's Startup Program gives early-stage teams Aura credits for a fully managed, production-ready graph database, plus technical enablement and go-to-market support for building GraphRAG and AI apps.

Eligibility

• Series B or earlier, building a single product for many customers (dev shops, consultants, and marketing agencies are not eligible)
• Live, functioning website and a valid company LinkedIn profile with a direct association to the applicant

Programs

• Neo4j Startup Program
  Up to $20,000 in Aura credits

33 million characters (over 680 hours of Agents usage) for 12 months, worth $5,500+, for startups with fewer than 25 employees.

Eligibility

• Fewer than 25 employees when you apply
• A business or monetization strategy
• A valid business email
• No short-term or one-off projects, no projects targeting children 18 or under, and no agencies, consulting firms or SMBs
• One application per company; existing enterprise customers aren't eligible

Programs

• ElevenLabs Startup Grants
  $5,500+ (33M characters)

3 months of Enterprise Pro (up to 50 seats) plus $5,000 in API credits for startups affiliated with an approved Perplexity startup partner.

Eligibility

• Affiliated with an approved Perplexity startup partner
• Raised $20M or less in equity funding
• Company less than 5 years old
• Not an existing Enterprise Pro customer

Programs

• Perplexity for Startups
  $5,000

ML experiment tracking and LLM evaluation platform offering startups discounted Pro access, mainly through Microsoft and Google Cloud partner programs.

Eligibility

• New W&B customer (Microsoft offer is new-customers-only)
• Member of a qualifying partner program (Microsoft for Startups or Google Cloud Startup Perks)

Programs

• W&B for Startups (via partners)
  50% off Pro for 1 year (~$3,000)

Open-source AI hub offering startups free PRO access for a limited time, distributed via partner perk marketplaces and promo codes.

Eligibility

• Early-stage AI startup building on Hugging Face infrastructure
• Eligible HF account with the perk or promo applied before upgrading

Programs

• Hugging Face PRO for Startups
  Free PRO ($9/mo value) for a limited time

OpenAI has no public self-serve credit application. Startups get API credits through an OpenAI partner VC (OpenAI names Thrive, Sequoia, a16z, Kleiner Perkins and Conviction) with a referral code. OpenAI does not publish the credit amount.

Eligibility

• Backed by an OpenAI partner VC and holding a referral code from that VC
• An OpenAI platform account and org ID
• A business email and basic funding details
• No public self-serve application

Programs

• OpenAI for Startups
  Varies (via VC partners)

Offers usage credits, discounts, Pro support, and access to all regions for vector database infrastructure.

Eligibility

• Series A or earlier; <100 employees.

Programs

• Pinecone for Startups
  Varies

MongoDB for Startups gives Atlas credits, Voyage AI access and go-to-market support across four tiers: Inspire (self-funded), Grow (early-funded), Innovate (venture-funded) and Scale.

Eligibility

• Early-stage startup with an active LinkedIn profile
• Apply directly or through a VC or accelerator referral; existing Atlas users are eligible
• Credits must be activated within 12 months and used within 12 months of activation

Programs

• MongoDB for Startups
  Varies

Snowflake runs several startup routes: a Startup Package with free usage on your first contract, a 6-month Startup Accelerator for customer-facing apps on the AI Data Cloud, free usage for portfolio companies of select VCs, and the Startup Challenge with up to $1M in investment.

Eligibility

• Building on the Snowflake AI Data Cloud
• Startup Accelerator: building a customer-facing app on the AI Data Cloud
• VC Community: a portfolio company of a participating VC firm

Programs

• Snowflake Startup Package
  Free usage
• Snowflake Startup Accelerator
  Credits + GTM support
• Snowflake VC Community
  Free usage

Fireworks for Startups gives venture-backed startups (over $500K raised, before Series D) credits for its fast-inference platform. Fireworks does not publish the credit amount.

Eligibility

• Registered, private, for-profit company with a working website
• Founded within the last 5 years
• Venture-backed with more than $500K raised; not Series D or later

Programs

• Fireworks for Startups
  Credits (amount not published)

Serverless GPU and CPU compute platform. Startups backed by Modal's VC partners, or that raised over $1M from any fund, can get thousands in free GPU credits plus engineering support and a founder community.

Eligibility

• New to Modal (not an existing paid customer)
• Seed to Series A: raised from a Modal VC partner, or over $1M from any fund
• Series B+ or over $30M raised: backed by a VC in Modal's partner network

Programs

• Modal Startup Program
  Thousands in GPU credits

Nirvana Labs Startup Credits give early-stage teams $1,000 in cloud credit with no investor needed, up to $25,000 for backed startups, and up to $50,000 for teams whose core product is agents or retrieval. Credits cover Nirvana compute, storage, managed Kubernetes and agent sandboxes, and no equity is taken.

Eligibility

• Privately held, pre-Series B and under 10 years old
• If funded, your latest round closed within the last 12 months
• A company-domain email and a valid payment method
• Portfolio and Agents: investor, accelerator or incubator backing
• Prior-credit restrictions apply; architecture reviews are decided case by case

Programs

• Founders tier
  $1,000
• Portfolio tier
  Up to $25,000
• Agents tier
  Up to $50,000

Unified AI inference API for image, video, audio, LLM and 3D generation. Early-stage teams can get up to $1K in free credits, or add bonus credits on top of a prepaid deposit: $10K on a $25K deposit, or $30K on a $50K deposit.

Eligibility

• Series A or earlier (bootstrapped teams welcome)
• A Runware account, a business email on your company domain and a live website
• Growth and Scale: the deposit is paid before bonus credits are issued
• Deposits and bonus credits are non-refundable and non-transferable

Programs

• Runware Starter
  Up to $1,000 in free credits
• Runware Growth
  $10,000 bonus on a $25,000 deposit
• Runware Scale
  $30,000 bonus on a $50,000 deposit

Distributed GPU cloud running inference and batch workloads on 60,000+ consumer GPUs at a fraction of hyperscaler pricing. Startups get $1,000 in SaladCloud credit valid for 24 months, rising to $2,000 with a published case study.

Eligibility

• Early-stage startup, pre-seed to Series B
• A workload suited to containerised GPU compute
• Not an existing paying SaladCloud customer

Programs

• Salad for Startups
  $1,000 in GPU credits, up to $2,000 with a case study