Awesome Builder Programs

A list of programs that provide credits, grants, or tools for people building things.

Includes programs for:

• students
• startups
• open-source maintainers
• independent developers

Only official program pages are listed.

Program availability and benefits can change. Verify the provider page before applying.

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Contents

• Students
• Open source
• Startups
• AI and developer credits
• Ambassadors
• Paused programs
• Contributing

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Students

Program	Provider	Benefit
Codex for Students	OpenAI	$100 in Codex credits (US & Canada students only)
ElevenLabs for Students	ElevenLabs	Expanded free plans; 1 year of ElevenReader Ultra with .edu (or equivalent) email
Figma for Education	Figma	Free design tools for students
Firecrawl Student Program	Firecrawl	10,000 free credits (academic email; coupon STUDENTEDU)
GitHub Student Developer Pack	GitHub	Developer tools bundle (~$10k value)
GitLab for Education	GitLab	Free GitLab Ultimate for education
Google AI Pro for Students	Google	1 year of Google AI Pro (US) or AI Plus (many other countries); claim window through end of 2026
Google Summer of Code	Google	Stipend and mentorship for students contributing to OSS
JetBrains Student Pack	JetBrains	Free IDE licenses
Kiro for Students	Kiro (AWS)	1,000 credits/month free for 1 year (participating universities; SheerID verification)
LFX Mentorship	Linux Foundation	Paid remote OSS mentorship (stipends vary by region)
Manus Campus for Students	Manus	Campus access; 1,000-credit referral reward per invited student
Microsoft Azure for Students	Microsoft	Azure credits and dev tools
MLH Fellowship	Major League Hacking	12-week remote fellowship with stipend
Outreachy	Software Freedom Conservancy	Paid remote OSS internship (~$7,000 stipend)
TinyFish for Students	TinyFish	$35 wallet credits for eligible students; gift cards for approved builds
v0 for Students	Vercel	1 year of free v0 Premium (limited partner universities)
YC AI Student Starter Pack	Y Combinator	Credits and tools (~$25k value; requires attending a YC student event)
Zed Student Plan	Zed	All Zed Pro features for 12 months

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Open Source

Program	Provider	Benefit
Atlas Cloud for Open Source	Atlas Cloud	Up to $1,500/mo AI credits (400+ models) for active OSS maintainers
Capy AI OSS	Capy AI	Full platform access for open-source projects
Catalyst	Open Core Ventures	$10,000 sponsorship + 3-month program for eligible OSS authors and maintainers
Claude for Open Source	Anthropic	6 months of Claude Max
GitHub Secure Open Source Fund	GitHub	$10,000 project funding, $10,000 Azure credits, Copilot Pro, and a 3-week security program
Honeycomb for Builders	Honeycomb	Free long-term Pro Bronze (Pro500) for open-source, nonprofit, and academic projects; early-stage startups get Pro Silver (Pro750) at 50% off for 1 year; Pro Gold free for 1 year for recognized accelerator participants using OpenTelemetry
Kilo Open Source Sponsorship	Kilo	Enterprise seats and code reviews; select projects get up to $200/mo credits (OSS license, public repo; application-based)
Microsoft FOSS Fund	Microsoft	Up to $12,500 USD for selected projects
Mintlify OSS Program	Mintlify	Mintlify Pro free for non-commercial OSS (recognized license; not VC-backed or company-owned)
Ona for Open Source	Ona	Up to $200/mo AI credits for OSS maintainers and contributors
OpenAI Codex for Open Source	OpenAI	6 months of ChatGPT Pro with Codex, plus API credits
Snyk for Open Source	Snyk	Full Snyk platform free for qualifying OSS maintainers

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Startups

Program	Provider	Benefit
Algolia Startup Program	Algolia	$10,000 in credits for 12 months (under 7 years old, raised under $15M, new customers only)
AssemblyAI Startup Program	AssemblyAI	12 months free credits for voice/speech AI
AWS Activate	AWS	Up to $5,000 in Founders credits; up to $200,000 in Portfolio credits (Activate Provider Org ID required)
Cartesia Startups Grant	Cartesia	12 months of Scale, 8 million Sonic/Ink credits per month, plus $299/month in Managed Agents credits (any stage; logo use and social posts may be required)
CircleCI for Startups	CircleCI	Up to $20,000 in compute credits
Clerk for Startups	Clerk	Clerk Pro at a discount for early-stage startups
Cloudflare for Startups	Cloudflare	Up to $350,000 in Cloudflare credits
Convex for Startups	Convex	Up to 1 year of Professional free, no seat fees, and 30% off usage up to $30,000 (Series A or earlier, under 20 employees, under 3 years old, raised under $3M, live site or MVP)
Databricks Startup Program	Databricks	Up to $200k in credits across Databricks and Neon
Datadog for Startups	Datadog	A year of free Datadog Pro
Daytona	Daytona	Up to $100k in Daytona credits
Deepgram for Startups	Deepgram	Up to $100,000 in voice AI credits
Devin for Startups	Cognition (Devin)	$65,000 in credits and grants, direct support, free swag
DigitalOcean Hatch	DigitalOcean	Up to $100,000 in cloud credits
E2B for Startups	E2B	One-time $20,000 in credits and the Pro tier (raised under $5M, under 3 years old, first-time E2B user; limited capacity)
ElevenLabs Startup Grants	ElevenLabs	33 million characters over 12 months (more than $5,500; under 25 employees, business email, and a monetization plan; not agencies, consulting firms, or SMBs; no products for ages 18 or under; one application per company)
fal for Startups	fal	Starts at $1,000 in credits, rising to $2,500 and $5,000 as monthly spend grows (Europe and Asia only; generative media must be core; real users, traction, revenue, or institutional investors)
Fly.io for Startups	Fly.io	Up to $15,000 in credits and a shared Slack channel (Seed or Series A, VC- or accelerator-backed)
Google Cloud AI Startup Program	Google	AI startup credits (up to $350k)
Google Cloud Startup Program	Google	Cloud credits and support
Kiro for Startups	Kiro (AWS)	Up to 1 year of Kiro Pro+ credits (early stage to Series A; not stackable with active AWS Activate)
Langfuse for Startups	Langfuse	50% off Langfuse Cloud for 12 months (bootstrapped or raised up to $5M, incorporated within 5 years, privately held and independent)
LiveKit Startup Program	LiveKit	Up to $23,000 in Cloud Scale, LiveKit credits, and inference credits (voice/video/physical AI; under 50 employees, under $5M, pre-Series A)
Microsoft for Startups	Microsoft	Azure credits
Mintlify for Startups	Mintlify	50% off Mintlify Pro for 12 months (founded within 2 years, raised under $2M); current YC batch gets 12 months free
Miro for Startups	Miro	$500–$1,000 in credits
Mixpanel	Mixpanel	First year of Mixpanel free
Modal	Modal	Free credits and technical support
MongoDB for Startups	MongoDB	Atlas credits and technical advisors
Nebius for Startups	Nebius	$5,000 AI credits + discounts on GPU compute
Notion for Startups	Notion	Business plan free for up to 6 months (incl. Notion AI)
NVIDIA Inception	NVIDIA	Free program: partner cloud credits, training, preferred GPU/software pricing
OVHcloud Startup Program	OVHcloud	€10,000 for Start level; up to €100,000 for Scale level, plus technical support
Phala Startup Program	Phala	Up to $1,000 in credits for CVM, GPU TEE, and private model API (pre-seed to Series A, private or verifiable AI; open worldwide; no equity)
PlanetScale for Startups	PlanetScale	Serverless MySQL database credits
PostHog for Startups	PostHog	Product analytics credits (up to ~$50k)
Render	Render	Up to $100,000 in credits
Retool for Startups	Retool	Free Retool access for early-stage startups
Runpod Startup Program	Runpod	Starter $1,000 (raised under $1M); Venture $5,000 for a16z, Neo, or South Park Commons portfolio (raised under $5M); credits valid 1 year (company email and a real GPU workload; existing customers not eligible for free tiers)
Sail for Startups	Sail Research	Up to $10,000 in credits for AI inference and Sailboxes, plus direct Slack support (bootstrapped and funded startups eligible; application-based)
Sentry for Startups	Sentry	Up to $5,000 in credits and priority support
Speechmatics Startup Program	Speechmatics	Up to $50,000 in usage credits (raised under $10M; MVP or launch in 1–2 months)
Stripe Atlas	Stripe	Company formation and partner perks
Temporal Cloud for Startups	Temporal	$6,000 Temporal Cloud credits (funded startups, $30M or less raised)
TinyFish for Startups	TinyFish	Up to $12,000 estimated value; tier-based credits and API benefits (eligibility applies)
Vercel Startups	Vercel	Hosting credits
Y Combinator	Y Combinator	Selective accelerator with funding and partner credits
ZAI Startups	Z.AI	Free API credits for Z.AI models

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AI and Developer Credits

Program	Provider	Benefit
Hugging Face Startups	Hugging Face	AI infrastructure support
OpenAI Startup Program	OpenAI	API credits
OpenRouter for Startups	OpenRouter	Up to $5,000 in inference credits, 0% fees for a year (pre-Series B)
Runware Grant Program	Runware	Up to $30,000 in API credits for 12 months
Together AI Research Credits Program	Together AI	Research credits for AI projects
Together AI Startup Accelerator	Together AI	Up to $50k in credits (funding-gated)

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Ambassadors

Program	Provider	Benefit
Claude Campus Ambassadors	Anthropic	Campus club lead; USD 3,600 stipend (18+)
Claude Community Ambassadors	Anthropic	API credits, event support
Devin Ambassadors	Cognition (Devin)	Community benefits
Kimi Ambassadors	Kimi	Credits and early access
Mistral AI Ambassadors	Mistral	Studio API credits, early access
Qoder Ambassador Program	Qoder	1 year free Qoder Credits (Ultra equivalent), early access, event support
TinyFish Ambassadors	TinyFish	Signup and referral credits; rewards for approved builds (terms apply)
Qwen Ambassadors	Alibaba Qwen	API credits ($50–$100/month)

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Paused Programs

These programs are not currently accepting applications. Check the official pages for reopening dates.

Program	Provider	Benefit and status
Anthropic Startup Program	Anthropic	Public applications closed; eligible VC-backed startups may still receive credits through participating VCs
Cursor Campus Leads	Cursor	6 months Cursor Ultra and event funding; applications reopen January 2027
OpenAI Student Collective	OpenAI	Campus Lead role: ChatGPT + Codex credits, event funding, and stipend; Fall 2026 applications closed (interest registration available)
Upstash for Open Source	Upstash	$1,000 monthly credit grant; applications closed

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Contributing

Contributions are welcome!

Before adding a program:

• Link to the official program page
• Make sure the program is still active
• Note geographic or school eligibility limits when they apply
• Avoid affiliate or referral links
• Keep each section alphabetically sorted by program name

Format for adding a new program:

| [Program Name](https://official-page.com) | Provider | Description of benefits |

Submit a pull request to add new programs.

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