AI credits for startups (2026)
Usage credits and discounts from companies that sell model APIs and AI infrastructure: LLM APIs, voice and speech AI, inference platforms, vector databases, agent sandboxes and AI observability tools. Credits are usually tied to one vendor account and expire after a set period, so apply when you are ready to build.
We track 43 programs in this category from 42 providers: 41 open now and 2 paused until their next round. 42 are open to startups worldwide and 1 is limited to specific countries or regions. The largest headline value among open programs is Hub71+ AI from Hub71 (Abu Dhabi) (AED 250,000 (~$68k) in-kind incentives + compute access + AED 250,000 (~$68k) cash via…). Across the 27 open programs with a stated value, the median is $10,000. Most common types: Voice AI (12), Inference platform (5), LLM observability (3), Vector DB (3). 4 do not require a registered company, and 1 accepts students or researchers.
Guides: Free AI credits for startups (2026): every program compared · Free GPU credits for startups (2026): Runpod, Lambda, NVIDIA, EuroHPC and more
All 43 programs, open first and largest first
| Program | What you get | Where | Status | Verified |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hub71+ AIHub71 (Abu Dhabi) | AED 250,000 (~$68k) in-kind incentives + compute access + AED 250,000 (~$68k) cash via SAFE + up to AED 250,000 top-up | Worldwide | Open | 2026-10-22 |
| BytePlus V-Start AI Startups AcceleratorBytePlus (ByteDance) | $2,000 non-threshold AI model credits + up to $100,000 in AI model credits, plus workshops, expert support and investor access | Worldwide | Open | 2026-10-30 |
| Daytona Startup ProgramDaytona | $10K credits upfront, up to $100K | Worldwide | Open | 2026-10-22 |
| Deepgram Startup ProgramDeepgram | Up to $100,000 in Deepgram credits (amount depends on stage, use case and partner referral) | Worldwide | Open | 2026-10-22 |
| Speechmatics Startup ProgramSpeechmatics | Up to $50,000 in usage credits + office hours and co-marketing | Worldwide | Open | 2026-10-22 |
| Together AI Startup AcceleratorTogether AI | Up to $15K (≤$5M raised), $30K ($5–10M) or $50K (>$10M) in platform credits + forward-deployed engineering hours | Worldwide | Open | 2026-10-22 |
| Firecrawl Startup ProgramFirecrawl | 2x your plan's monthly credits for 12 months (extra usage capped at $2.5k/month, $30k/year) plus a Slack Connect channel. | Worldwide | Open | 2026-10-23 |
| Resemble AI Builder's GrantResemble AI | $500 to $30,000 in Resemble AI credits (voice generation, deepfake detection, watermarking APIs), sized by use case, stage and expected… | Worldwide | Open | 2026-10-23 |
| Baseten for StartupsBaseten | Up to $25,000 for Dedicated Inference/Training + up to $2,500 for Model APIs | Worldwide | Open | 2026-10-22 |
| LiveKit Startup ProgramLiveKit | Up to ~$23K: free year of Scale plan (~$6K), $10K LiveKit Cloud credits, $7K partner inference credits | Worldwide | Open | 2026-10-22 |
| Cerebras YC Startup DealCerebras | Up to $22,500 in inference on Cerebras Cloud + priority support and co-marketing | Worldwide | Open | 2026-10-22 |
| E2B for StartupsE2B | One-time $20,000 in E2B credits + Pro tier | Worldwide | Open | 2026-10-22 |
| Telnyx Startups Program (Voice AI)Telnyx | $20,000 in Telnyx credits for voice AI (speech-to-text, text-to-speech, LLM inference) + 3 months of engineering support | Worldwide | Open | 2026-10-23 |
| LangSmith for Startups — ScaleLangChain | $10,000 in LangSmith credits + office hours, events and founder Slack | Worldwide | Open | 2026-10-22 |
| Novita AI Startup ProgramNovita AI | Up to $10,000 across Model APIs and Agent Sandbox ($1K upfront, then spend-matched) | Worldwide | Open | 2026-10-22 |
| Smallest.ai Startup Grants for Voice AISmallest.ai | $10,000 in Voice Agent Platform credits (from a $500K total pool) | Worldwide | Open | 2026-10-22 |
| ElevenLabs Grants for StartupsElevenLabs | 33M characters (~680 hours of Agents usage, >$5,500 value) for 12 months | Worldwide | Open | 2026-10-22 |
| Corti for StartupsCorti | Up to $5,000 in API credits across Corti models, agents and speech APIs, valid 12 months | Worldwide | Open | 2026-10-30 |
| fal Startup Programfal | $1,000 starter pack, growing to $2,500 and $5,000 as monthly fal spend rises | Europe, Asia | Open | 2026-10-22 |
| OpenRouter for StartupsOpenRouter | Up to $5,000 universal inference credits (500+ models) + 0% platform/BYOK fees for 12 months | Worldwide | Open | 2026-10-22 |
| Runway Builders ProgramRunway | Up to 500,000 Runway API credits (~$5,000 at $0.01/credit) + Tier 5 rate limits | Worldwide | Open | 2026-10-22 |
| Gladia Startup StudioGladia | $3,000 in credits for 12 months ($3,500 if referred by a Gladia VC partner) + dedicated Field Developer Engineer | Worldwide | Open | 2026-10-22 |
| LlamaIndex Startup Program (LlamaParse)LlamaIndex | $2,000 in LlamaParse platform credits + bulk discounts and priority support | Worldwide | Open | 2026-10-22 |
| Requesty Startup ProgramRequesty | $1,000 in AI credits + no gateway fee for 6 months | Worldwide | Open | 2026-10-22 |
| Runware Startup ProgramRunware | Starter tier: up to $1,000 in free credits, no deposit (awarded in $100 steps). Growth/Scale tiers add $10k/$30k bonus credits on top of a… | Worldwide | Open | 2026-10-30 |
| You.com Startup GrantYou.com | Up to $1,000 in API credits (plus $100 sign-up credit) | Worldwide | Open | 2026-10-22 |
| Roboflow for StartupsRoboflow | One free year of Roboflow Core plan (valued $948) + upfront platform credits | Worldwide | Open | 2026-10-22 |
| AssemblyAI Startup ProgramAssemblyAI | 12 months of recurring free credits (amount not published) + startup discounts | Worldwide | Open | 2026-10-22 |
| Braintrust for StartupsBraintrust | 6 months of Pro plan (12 months for startups funded by Braintrust partner VCs) plus office hours and events; dollar value not stated. | Worldwide | Open | 2026-10-23 |
| Cartesia Startups GrantCartesia | 12 months of the Scale plan: 8M Sonic/Ink credits per month + $299/month Managed Agents credits (dollar value not stated) | Worldwide | Open | 2026-10-22 |
| Composio Startups ProgramComposio | 6 months of Composio Pro plan free (1,500+ tool integrations, unlimited seats, monthly usage credit) | Worldwide | Open | 2026-10-22 |
| DeepInfra DeepStartDeepInfra | ~50 billion free tokens (valued at DeepSeek V4 Flash prices); USD value not stated | Worldwide | Open | 2026-10-23 |
| Fireworks AI for StartupsFireworks AI | Inference credits (amount not published) | Worldwide | Open | 2026-10-22 |
| Fish Audio Startup ProgramFish Audio | 3 months free with 12M characters/month (~240+ hours of audio per month) + premium support | Worldwide | Open | 2026-10-22 |
| Grok for StartupsSpaceXSI (formerly xAI) | Credits sized to cover 6–12 months of real usage across Grok, Grok Build, Grok Bot and the Grok API (amount not published) | Worldwide | Open | 2026-10-30 |
| Langfuse Startup ProgramLangfuse | 50% off the entire Langfuse Cloud bill for 12 months | Worldwide | Open | 2026-10-22 |
| LangSmith for Startups — BuildLangChain | Discounted LangSmith seat pricing (discount not published on page) | Worldwide | Open | 2026-10-22 |
| Pinecone for StartupsPinecone | Free Standard tier + Pro Support, plus usage credits and discounts (amount not published) | Worldwide | Open | 2026-10-22 |
| Qdrant for StartupsQdrant | 20% off Qdrant Cloud for 12 months + expert sessions and partner perks | Worldwide | Open | 2026-10-22 |
| Tavily Startup ProgramTavily | Up to 100,000 Tavily API credits (6 months) + engineering support | Worldwide | Open | 2026-10-22 |
| Weaviate Startup DealWeaviate | Discounted Weaviate Cloud products/services (rate not published) | Worldwide | Open | 2026-10-22 |
| Claude for StartupsAnthropic | Up to $45,000 in partner discounts/credits (Claude Startup Stack); VC-partner-backed founders may get up to $100,000 in extra Claude API… | Worldwide | Paused: next round TBA | 2026-10-23 |
| Vapi Startup ProgramVapi | 7,500 free voice-agent minutes per month for 12 months (vs. 100 for regular users). | Worldwide | Paused: next round TBA | 2026-10-23 |
Other categories
Cloud credits for startups · GPU credits for startups · Free developer tools for startups · Data & analytics perks for startups · Security & compliance perks for startups · Business software perks for startups · Banking & payments perks for startups · Cash grants & prizes for startups · Government grants for startups · Research & student founder programs · Equity-free accelerators & incubators
Program terms change often. Open a program to see its official source and verification date, and confirm on the provider's page before you apply. Spotted something out of date? Report a correction.