Free Cloud Credits for Startups
A live registry of free-credit programs for startups on major clouds and developer platforms. Agent-maintained, re-verified on schedule, showing only programs open right now.
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Which free-credit programs can a startup apply to on major clouds and developer platforms right now?
Credit programs from major clouds and developer platforms that a startup can apply to directly. Excludes programs reachable only through a VC or accelerator, one-off hackathon credits, and generic free tiers anyone can sign up for.
| Provider | Program | Credits | Eligibility | Deadline | Verified |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AWS | AWS Activate | Founders: $1,000, up to $5,000 for select participants (self-funded startups). Portfolio: up to $200,000 (via an Activate Provider). Credits usually expire within 1 to 2 years. | Pre-Series B, founded within the last 10 years, on a paid AWS plan. Founders is direct-apply for bootstrapped startups. Portfolio needs an Org ID from an accelerator, angel, or VC, applied within 12 months of your latest round. | rolling | |
| notesAWS's own pages disagree on the Portfolio cap: $200,000 on the program page, $100,000 in its explainer article. The program page figure is quoted here. An invite-only AI tier ($200,000+) exists beyond Portfolio. | |||||
| Google Cloud | Google for Startups Cloud Program | Start: up to $2,000, valid one year. Scale: up to $200,000 over 2 years, up to $350,000 for AI startups. Year 1 covers 100% up to $100,000 ($250,000 for AI-first); year 2 covers 20% of spend up to another $100,000. | Both tiers direct-apply. Start: founded within 24 months, planning to raise, no prior credits beyond the free trial. Scale: institutional Pre-Seed/Seed within 5 years or Series A within 12 months, founded within 5 years. Angel, grant, and crowdfunding rounds don't qualify for Scale. | rolling | |
| notesThird-party models are billed directly and not covered by credits. Companies that IPO'd or were acquired, dev shops, and agencies are excluded. | |||||
| Microsoft Azure | Microsoft for Startups | Up to $150,000, unlocked progressively as your startup shows verified progress and Azure usage. Without an investor referral: $1,000 for 90 days, then $4,000 for 180 days after business verification. With an Investor Network referral: most startups begin at $100,000. | Privately held, for-profit, building your own software product, before Series C, under $350,000 in lifetime free Azure credits. Consultancies, agencies, and crypto mining excluded. | rolling | |
| notesFounders Hub is retired; this single program replaced it. Credits must be activated within 90 days of signing and last up to 2 years, no extensions. A credit card is required. | |||||
| Cloudflare | Cloudflare for Startups | Up to $350,000 in credits for one year. Tier 3: $10,000, direct-apply, no minimum funding. Tier 2: $100,000 (under $5M raised). Tier 1: $350,000 ($5M+ raised). Tiers 1 and 2 require an affiliated partner. | Founded within 10 years, funded up to Series B, building a technology product, public website, business email on your own domain, first time in the program. | rolling | |
| notesPer-product caps sit inside the total: R2 covered up to $10,000; Workers AI up to $2,500-$50,000 by tier; AI Gateway currently not covered. Credits expire at the end of the 12-month cohort window. Tiers were raised in 2026, so pre-2026 figures are stale. | |||||
| Alibaba Cloud | AI Catalyst Program | Up to $120,000 in cloud credits, plus up to 2B free tokens on Model Studio and 12 months of Alibaba Cloud Academy. | Unlisted company founded within 10 years with an accessible website and a concrete plan for using Alibaba Cloud and its AI tools. Reseller accounts excluded. Acceptance at Alibaba's discretion. | rolling | |
| notesCredit validity varies by amount and isn't published as one number. Not usable on domains, CDN, Marketplace, or prepaid products. | |||||
| DigitalOcean | DigitalOcean Startups Program | Not published. 12 months of credits, amount set in your onboarding email, with a general $10,000 monthly usage limit. Plus 15 months of Standard-tier support. | Raised $10M or less, company website with a matching email, no prior DigitalOcean credits. AI-native startups prioritized. Service businesses (consulting, agencies) excluded. | rolling | |
| notesIgnore the $100,000 figure circulating from a 2025 press release; DigitalOcean publishes no number. Replaced the retired Hatch program in May 2026. Unused credits are forfeited after one year. | |||||
| Render | Render for Startups | Prototype: $500, direct-apply. Build: $2,500-$5,000 via a partner. Scale: $10,000-$25,000 via an enrolled top-tier VC. AI: $100,000 via an enrolled top-tier VC and $2.5M+ raised. All credits valid 1 year from approval. | New customer, under 5 years in operation, raised under $100M, pre-Series B. The direct Prototype tier also needs at least $25K in seed funding; every higher tier needs an accelerator or VC partner referral. | rolling | |
| notesOnly the $500 Prototype tier is open without a partner. Don't read the $100K headline without its gate. | |||||
| Render | Migration Credits | Up to $10,000, sized case by case: Render sets the amount at an architecture review based on your current cloud spend and migration scope. | Teams moving production workloads to Render; apply with a work email and an estimate of current cloud spend. Not stage-gated. Personal projects and early experiments are unlikely to qualify. | rolling | |
| notesCredits are issued only after the migration completes and passes review, not at application time. | |||||
| OVHcloud | Startup Program (global) | Start: €10,000 over 12 months (pre-seed and seed). Scale: up to €100,000 over 12 months (Series A and beyond). Plus 6 to 20 hours of 1-on-1 engineer time. | Selected technical startups with at least a PoC or MVP deployable on OVHcloud. Direct application; a VC or incubator helps but isn't required. Crypto mining, game bots, NGOs, and prior participants excluded. | rolling | |
| notes12-month membership; unused vouchers expire when it ends. One OVHcloud membership worldwide, normally in your country of incorporation, so don't combine with the US program. Decision within 7 days. | |||||
| OVHcloud | US Startup Program | START: up to $12,000 over 12 months (pre-seed and seed). SCALE: up to $120,000 over 12 months (Series A and above). Plus 6 to 20 hours of engineer time. | Selected startups with at least a PoC or MVP; OVHcloud picks your tier, not you. Direct application, no VC required. NGOs, crypto mining, agencies, e-commerce, and prior participants excluded. | rolling | |
| notesSeparate from the global program: dollars, a separate US account, and credits scoped to Public Cloud products. Only one OVHcloud membership worldwide. No exclusivity with other clouds' programs. | |||||
// live registry: agent-maintained under a human-written charter, re-verified weekly. closed programs are removed. //
Headline numbers hide gates and caps. Google’s $350k is really $250k in year one plus a 20% match in year two. Cloudflare’s $350k has per-product sub-caps inside it. AWS’s $200k and Render’s $100k both need a partner referral. The credits column keeps every figure welded to its condition: read it before you plan a burn rate around a headline.
What’s not here, and why
Vercel has no direct-apply route open today. Its standing credits program (up to $30,000) requires affiliation with an approved partner VC or accelerator, and its one direct route, the AI Accelerator, shows a live-looking “Apply now” button that leads to a form closed since February 2026. Vercel says applications reopen later this year; the sweep will catch it.
Fly.io runs no credit program on purpose. Their own words: “usage-based pricing without a sales process or credit-program gate.”
Oracle and IBM have no startup credit program verifiable on their own sites. Oracle’s startup pages route to a generic free tier or return 404s. IBM’s famous “$120,000 in credits” lives only on aggregator sites and a 2016 press release; IBM’s own application page now offers a $200 credit.
Also out of scope by design: programs reachable only through a specific VC or accelerator, hackathon one-offs, and free tiers anyone can claim with a signup.
How this page is maintained
An agent re-runs the sweep on a schedule, using site-scoped searches against each provider’s own domain:
site:aws.amazon.com startups activate credits
site:cloud.google.com startup program credits
site:vercel.com startup program credits
site:ovhcloud.com startup program cloud credits
It then fetches the official program page and quotes amounts exactly as stated there. Aggregators and press releases are never sources; stale numbers like IBM’s $120k survive on other lists precisely because they are. Buttons aren’t trusted either: a form’s actual state beats its “Apply now” label. A program that closes or fails re-verification is dropped from the table on the next run.
Current sweep: AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, Cloudflare, Alibaba Cloud, DigitalOcean, Render, Vercel, Fly.io, OVHcloud, Oracle, IBM.