Startup credits and programs: 31 tools with startup perks

We checked 176 tools against their own startup and pricing pages and recorded what each one actually offers a young company, including when the honest answer is that there is no program at all.

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Most startup perk lists are copied from other lists and never rechecked. This one is built the other way round: every entry links the vendor’s own page and carries the date we read it. Where a tool is sold only through sales, or is open source and already free, we say that instead of inventing an offer. Follow any tool through for the full answer: who qualifies, how to apply, and the cheapest way in without the program.

Tools with a startup program (29)

Credits, discounts or a free period a founder can apply for directly on the vendor's site.

Airtable for startupsStartup program availableAirtable for Startups: Approved startups get $500 in free credit, plus exclusive startup content and educational materials.
Amazon Rekognition for startupsStartup program availableAWS Activate: Activate Founders gives self-funded startups $1,000 in AWS Activate Credits, and select participants can qualify for up to $5,000.
Appwrite for startupsStartup program availableAppwrite Startups Program: Appwrite Cloud Pro for 12 months plus cloud credits for Appwrite Cloud, unlimited team members, premium email support, workshops and training sessions, a private Slack channel with the Appwrite team, a dedicated program manager and founder swag.
AWS for startupsStartup program availableAWS Activate: Up to $200,000 in AWS Activate Credits.
Azure Face API for startupsStartup program availableMicrosoft for Startups: Up to $150,000 in Azure credits, with the higher tiers tied to a referral code from an investor, accelerator or VC in Microsoft's Investor Network.
Brex for startupsStartup program availableBrex Customer Perks: Brex customers get access to more than $350,000 in discounts and credits on AI and SaaS tools from partners such as AWS, Datadog and Carta.
Claude for startupsStartup program availableClaude Startups program, run by Anthropic: Free Claude API credits (Anthropic does not publish an amount) and an upgrade to Anthropic's highest API rate limits.
ClickUp for startupsStartup program availableClickUp for Startups: $3,000 in ClickUp credit with an upgraded Enterprise workspace, plus onboarding resources.
Cloudflare for startupsStartup program availableCloudflare for Startups: Up to $350,000 in credits for one year, in three tiers: $10k for bootstrapped or self-funded startups under $1M raised, $100k for startups under $5M raised and funded by an affiliated partner, and $350k for startups with $5M+ raised and funded by an affiliated partner.
Directus for startupsStartup program availableOpen Innovation Grant: Full access to Directus at no software cost, with unlimited seats, collections and flows, SSO and custom access policies, and bring-your-own LLM.
ElevenLabs for startupsStartup program availableElevenLabs Grants: 12 months of free access to the full ElevenLabs platform with 33,000,000 characters of usage, which ElevenLabs values at more than $5,500, plus access to founder events and startup support.
Firebase for startupsStartup program availableGoogle for Startups Cloud Program: Startups not yet backed by equity funding can receive up to $2,000 in credits to use over a year.
Framer for startupsStartup program availableFramer startups program: A free year of the Framer Pro plan, which Framer values at $360.
Gitea for startupsStartup program availableStartup and small-team discount on Gitea Cloud: A discount on Gitea Cloud for startups and small teams.
IBM Quantum for startupsStartup program availableIBM Quantum Startup Program: Resources and visibility to bring quantum software solutions to market faster: startups deliver software and services on IBM's quantum technology stack, partner with experts, and get support to scale from early-stage innovation to utility-scale deployment.
JetBrains AI for startupsStartup program availableJetBrains Startup Program: 50% off purchases of up to 10 IDE subscriptions, 10 paid team or learning tool subscriptions, and 10 JetBrains AI subscriptions over a five-year period.
LangChain for startupsStartup program availableLangSmith for Startups: Two tiers.
LlamaIndex for startupsStartup program availableLlamaParse startup program: $2K in free LlamaParse platform credits, available for one year, plus discounts on bulk credit purchases in production, a priority support Slack channel with a dedicated AI engineer, early access to pre-release features and a spotlight post on LlamaIndex social channels and newsletter.
Mercury for startupsStartup program availableMercury Perks: Partner credits and discounts, listed as 272 perks on Mercury's perks page, such as $5k in AWS credits, 50% off QuickBooks Online, 3 months free of Gusto and $10,000 in GitHub credits.
Microsoft Windows for startupsStartup program availableMicrosoft for Startups: Startup credits for eligible Azure services, available right away while eligibility is verified, with up to $150K in credits unlocked over time as the startup shows verified progress, service adoption and sustained Azure usage.
NVIDIA Jetson for startupsStartup program availableNVIDIA Inception: Free membership that includes free cloud credits from NVIDIA and partners, preferred pricing on select NVIDIA hardware and software, free self-paced technical courses, discounted expert-led workshops and, based on eligibility, exposure to investors in NVIDIA's VC network.
PayPal for startupsStartup program availablePayPal for Startups (the PayPal Fee Waiver Promotion for Startups): A 12-month waiver on PayPal Checkout and domestic card processing fees: up to $350,000 waived for VC-backed, seed-stage startups, or up to $500,000 for VC-backed, Series A startups.
Persona for startupsStartup program availablePersona Startup Program: 500 free verifications every month for a full year, limited to select services depending on the cohort.
Qiskit for startupsStartup program availableIBM Quantum Network Startup Program: IBM describes the program as giving startups "the resources and visibility" to bring quantum software to market faster.
Render for startupsStartup program availableRender for Startups: $500 in startup credits for startups that apply directly.
Replit for startupsStartup program availableReplit for Startups: Up to $25,000 in Replit credits for startups backed by a fund or accelerator on Replit's Select Partners list, such as a16z, Khosla or SVB.
Stripe for startupsStartup program availableStripe Startups: Credits that offset Stripe fees on products such as Payments, Connect, Billing, Tax and Sigma, plus a cap on Stripe Invoicing fees of up to $10 per invoice.
Weights & Biases for startupsStartup program availableEmergent Foundation Model Program: An exclusive 12-month plan with enterprise support and access to the full Weights & Biases platform.
Zoom for startupsStartup program availableZoom for Startups: Eligible startups get one year of Zoom Workplace Business Plus for up to 25 seats.

Startup perks through partners only (2)

The vendor offers startup perks, but only through accelerators, investors or other partners.

GitHub Copilot for startupsStartup perks through partnersStartups that come through a GitHub for Startups partner (VC firms, incubators and accelerators) receive $10,000 in GitHub credits for up to 12 months.
Linear for startupsStartup perks through partnersStartups backed by a partner investor, accelerator or startup community get free access to Linear's Business plan for up to 6 months.

No startup program, and the cheapest way in (105)

No startup offer on the vendor's site. Often the tool is already free or open source, so the real cost is your own hosting.

1Password for startupsNo startup programNo free business plan.
AutoGen for startupsNo startup programFree and open source, with code under the MIT License.
BeenVerified for startupsNo startup programNo free plan.
Binance for startupsNo startup programNo subscription plan: Binance charges per trade.
BYOBot for startupsNo startup programThe first build is free with no account needed.
CalyxOS for startupsNo startup programFree and open source: CalyxOS installs at no cost on supported Google Pixel, Motorola, Fairphone and SHIFTphone devices using the CalyxOS Web Installer or the device flasher tool.
CapRover for startupsNo startup programFree and open source under the Apache 2.0 license.
CashApp for startupsNo startup programA Cash App Business account is free to create and needs no extra hardware.
Ceramic Network for startupsNo startup programFree and open source: ceramic-one is released under the MIT license, so a startup pays only for the servers that run its own Ceramic node.
Character.AI for startupsNo startup programFree plan with unlimited messaging.
Civic for startupsNo startup programCivic Auth has a Free plan at $0 that includes 15,000 monthly active users, or 2,000 users with embedded wallets.
Codeberg for startupsNo startup programFree for everyone with no paid plans, but only for free and open-source work, and Codeberg does not offer private hosting for commercial projects.
Concordium for startupsNo startup programNo subscription plans.
Continue.dev for startupsNo startup programFree and open source under the Apache 2.0 license; the source code and documentation remain available on GitHub.
Coolify for startupsNo startup programFree and open source when self-hosted on your own server, with no feature restrictions.
Coral for startupsNo startup programCoral offers flexible reference designs and an open-source, RISC-V based architecture, with getting-started guides for software and hardware developers.
CrewAI for startupsNo startup programThe CrewAI framework is open source.
DeepFace for startupsNo startup programFree and open source under the MIT License; startups pay only for their own hosting and compute.
Discord for startupsNo startup programFree to use: Discord charges no fee for its basic functionality.
Dokku for startupsNo startup programFree and open source; teams pay only for their own server.
Dokploy for startupsNo startup programFree and open source to self-host, with the team handling maintenance and updates itself.
DuckDuckGo for startupsNo startup programDuckDuckGo Search, the DuckDuckGo browser and its browser extensions are free.
Element for startupsNo startup programThe Element app is free to download.
Evernote for startupsNo startup programFree plan with up to 50 notes, 1 notebook, 1 connected device and 1 GB of monthly uploads.
Flux.1 for startupsNo startup programThe FLUX API is pay as you go with no subscriptions or seat fees.
Google Chrome for startupsNo startup programChrome is downloaded from google.com/chrome.
Google Quantum AI for startupsNo startup programCirq, Google's open source Python framework for writing quantum programs, is free to use.
GPT4All for startupsNo startup programGPT4All is a free, open source desktop app for Windows, macOS and Linux that runs language models on the user's own computer with no API calls or GPU required, so the only cost is the hardware.
GrapheneOS for startupsNo startup programGrapheneOS is a non-profit open source operating system funded by donations, with no paid plans.
Gusto for startupsNo startup programNo free payroll plan.
Heroku for startupsNo startup programNo free plan.
HeyGen for startupsNo startup programFree plan with 3 videos per month, videos up to 1 minute and 1 custom video avatar.
Holonym for startupsNo startup programHolonym publishes no developer plans or prices.
Humane AI for startupsNo startup programThe official site now presents HP IQ, an AI platform for the workplace from HP's AI innovation lab, with no public plans or prices.
iCloud for startupsNo startup programFree plan with 5 GB of iCloud storage for every Apple Account. iCloud+ plans start at $0.99 per month for 50 GB in the US, rising to $59.99 per month for 12 TB.
Ideogram for startupsNo startup programFree plan with weekly credits for eligible accounts that sign in with Google, Apple or Microsoft (the amount may vary).
Instagram for startupsNo startup programInstagram is free to use, including for business profiles, and ads run on a budget the business sets.
Instant Checkmate for startupsNo startup programNo free plan.
Intelius for startupsNo startup programNo free plan.
IonQ for startupsNo startup programSimulator access on the IonQ Quantum Cloud is free to sign up for.
IPFS for startupsNo startup programFree and open source.
Jan for startupsNo startup programFree and open source desktop app.
Joplin for startupsNo startup programThe Joplin apps are free and open source, and notes can sync through services such as Dropbox and OneDrive.
Kairos for startupsNo startup programFree Identity Verification tier with 100 API transactions and no credit card required; the pricing page also labels this free tier a 2-week trial.
Kamal for startupsNo startup programFree and open source under the MIT License.
LM Studio for startupsNo startup programFree plan at $0 runs local LLMs on your own machine, and the desktop app is free to use at work as well as at home.
LocalAI for startupsNo startup programFree and open source under the MIT license.
Luma Dream Machine for startupsNo startup programSelf-serve plans start at $30 per month for Plus with 10,000 credits and commercial use, or $300 billed yearly.
Mastodon for startupsNo startup programFree and open source.
Matrix for startupsNo startup programMatrix is an open standard with open source software.
Megvii for startupsNo startup programMegvii's Face++ developer platform has a free plan to try all Face++ services with no credit card or upfront fee.
Meilisearch for startupsNo startup programFree and open source to self-host, with your team handling updates, backups and scaling.
Meta / Facebook for startupsNo startup programSetting up a Facebook Page is free.
Mullvad VPN for startupsNo startup programNo free plan.
Nostr for startupsNo startup programFree and open: Nostr is a network that nobody owns or controls, so there is no plan to buy.
Obsidian for startupsNo startup programFree for any purpose, including commercial use, with no account required.
Open Interpreter for startupsNo startup programThe Open Interpreter terminal agent is free and open source under the Apache 2.0 license, which allows commercial use.
Pasqal for startupsNo startup programFree Explorer plan with access to one of two emulators, community support, open-source software and the Pulser Studio visual platform.
Perplexity for startupsNo startup programFree plan for limited daily usage with citations and access to basic AI models.
PimEyes for startupsNo startup programFree plan with 10 searches per day: free searches show that matches exist, but access to the source links is limited.
PlanetScale for startupsNo startup programNo free plan.
Polygon ID for startupsNo startup programFree and open source: the identity stack continues as Privado ID, whose core tools are available under an open source license in a self-hosted setup.
Privado ID for startupsNo startup programFree and open source: the core Privado ID stack is available under an open source license in a self-hosted setup.
ProtonDrive for startupsNo startup programFree plan with 5 GB of storage for files, photos and documents.
ProtonMail for startupsNo startup programFree plan with 500 MB of mail storage (up to 1 GB after completing the Get started with Proton checklist), 1 user and 1 encrypted email address.
ProtonVPN for startupsNo startup programFree plan that secures 1 device at a time at medium speed, with servers in 10 randomly selected countries and no credit card required.
Qualcomm AI Hub for startupsNo startup programFree to use: Qualcomm AI Hub Workbench is currently free for compiling, profiling and running inference on hosted Qualcomm devices, and models listed as download now are free under each model's own license.
Rabbit r1 for startupsNo startup programThe r1 device costs $199 USD as a one-time purchase with no subscription. rabbit OS3 itself is free on the web, in Telegram or on r1; users bring their own API key and pay their chosen model provider directly for usage.
Railway for startupsNo startup programFree plan at $0 per month with $1 of monthly usage credits and up to 1 vCPU and 0.5 GB RAM per service.
Reclaim Protocol for startupsNo startup programFree Hacker plan with 25 included verifications per month and up to 100 zkFetches, no credit card needed.
Remitly for startupsNo startup programNo setup or monthly fees: Remitly Business charges a transfer fee per payment, shown upfront before each payment is confirmed, for business payments to 175+ countries.
Replicate for startupsNo startup programNo subscription is needed: Replicate bills pay as you go, either by hardware time or by model input and output, and the smallest listed hardware (CPU Small) costs $0.000025 per second.
Robinhood for startupsNo startup programStandard pricing charges $0 commissions on U.S. listed stocks, ETFs and their options for self-directed individual brokerage accounts.
Rocket.Chat for startupsNo startup programFree Starter plan: a self-managed workspace for up to 50 users, supported by community knowledge and self-serve documentation only.
SambaNova for startupsNo startup programThe Free plan requires adding a payment method and buying credits before the first request.
SenseTime for startupsNo startup programSenseTime's SenseNova model platform lists a free public beta plan at ¥0 per month with 60,000 credits every 5 hours on selected models; paid Lite and Pro plans are marked as coming soon.
Shufti Pro for startupsNo startup programFree Forever plan with up to 10 verifications a month, covering document verification and facial biometrics.
Signal for startupsNo startup programFree for everyone: messages, voice and video calls, photos and files cost nothing to send, and development is funded by grants and donations to Signal, a 501c3 nonprofit.
Slack for startupsNo startup programFree plan with 90 days of message history, up to 10 apps, and 1:1 meetings and 1:1 external messages only.
Socure for startupsNo startup programSocure Launch, the self-serve plan, includes $1,000 in free credits every month.
Spokeo for startupsNo startup programNo free plan.
Squarespace for startupsNo startup programNo free plan.
Stable Diffusion for startupsNo startup programStable Diffusion models are free to self-host, including for commercial use, for individuals and organizations with under $1M in annual revenue under the Stability AI Community License.
Standard Notes for startupsNo startup programFree plan with end-to-end encrypted plain text notes, unlimited device sync on web, desktop and mobile, and offline access.
Strapi for startupsNo startup programFree and open source: the self-hosted Community edition is free under the MIT license, and the startup pays only for its own hosting.
Substack for startupsNo startup programFree to start and free to run, with no limit on emails sent.
Sumsub for startupsNo startup programNo free plan.
Suno for startupsNo startup programFree plan with 50 credits per day, no monthly song downloads and no commercial rights.
Synthesia for startupsNo startup programFree Basic plan at $0 per month, no credit card required, with 1,200 credits per month usable for up to 10 minutes of video.
Todoist for startupsNo startup programFree Beginner plan with 5 personal projects, 3 filter views and 1 week of activity history.
Tor Browser for startupsNo startup programFree and open source: Tor Browser is free software from the nonprofit Tor Project, available for desktop and Android.
Trello for startupsNo startup programFree plan for up to 10 collaborators per Workspace, with up to 10 boards per Workspace.
Tresorit for startupsNo startup programNo free business plan.
TruthFinder for startupsNo startup programNo free plan.
Uber for startupsNo startup programUber for Business is free to sign up, with no signup fees, upfront costs or minimum spending.
Umami for startupsNo startup programFree Hobby plan on Umami Cloud with up to 100K events per month, 1 website and 6 month data retention.
United Healthcare for startupsNo startup programGroup plans for businesses with 2 to 50 employees have no prices listed on this page: cost varies by plan type, network coverage, benefits, location and employee ages, and employers compare plans in the online Small Business Store where it is available or request a quote.
Veilid for startupsNo startup programFree and open source: the Veilid framework is available to everyone to use and build upon, with no paid plan listed on the project's site.
Veramo for startupsNo startup programFree and open source; teams pay only for their own hosting and infrastructure.
Veriff for startupsNo startup programNo free plan.
Webflow for startupsNo startup programFree Starter plan with a webflow.io domain, 2 static pages, 1 GB of bandwidth and 50 form submissions.
WeTalkin for startupsNo startup programFree plan with end-to-end encrypted one-to-one chats, disappearing messages, cross-platform sync and basic file sharing.
Whitepages for startupsNo startup programBasic lookups of current addresses, landline numbers and resident details are free.
Wix for startupsNo startup programFree plan with no credit card required, including web hosting, the drag-and-drop editor and templates.
Yelp for startupsNo startup programA Yelp Business Page is free and includes 20+ free features.

Sold through sales, no public startup program (33)

No public plans or prices. A startup has to talk to the vendor's sales team.

Acxiom for startupsSold through salesAcxiom publishes no prices, free plan or self-serve signup.
Anomaly Six for startupsSold through salesNo public pricing, self-serve plan or trial.
Au10tix for startupsSold through salesNo self-serve plan or free trial.
Axon for startupsSold through salesNo public price list or self-serve plan.
Babel Street for startupsSold through salesNo public price list: Babel Street's platform is sold through demos with its sales team.
BriefCam for startupsSold through salesNo public prices or self-serve plan.
Cellebrite for startupsSold through salesNo public prices or self-serve plan.
CLEAR for startupsSold through salesCLEAR1, CLEAR's identity verification platform for businesses, has no public price list.
Clearview AI for startupsSold through salesClearview AI publishes no plans or prices.
Cognitec for startupsSold through salesNo public pricing, free plan or self-serve purchase.
Daon for startupsSold through salesNo public pricing, free plan or self-serve signup.
Dock.io for startupsSold through salesA 30-day free trial gives unlimited credential issuance and verification in a test environment, with no production credentials.
FaceFirst for startupsSold through salesFaceFirst publishes no pricing and offers no self-serve plan.
Flock Safety for startupsSold through salesNo public price list, free plan or self-serve signup.
Hikvision for startupsSold through salesHikvision sells through authorized channels rather than a self-serve store.
iProov for startupsSold through salesNo public pricing or self-serve plan.
Jumio for startupsSold through salesJumio publishes no prices and no self-serve plan.
LexisNexis Risk Solutions for startupsSold through salesNo public prices or self-serve plan.
Mitek Systems for startupsSold through salesNo public prices and no self-serve plan.
NEC NeoFace for startupsSold through salesNo public price list, free tier or self-serve plan.
NSO Group for startupsSold through salesNo public pricing and no plan open to companies.
Onfido for startupsSold through salesNo public pricing or self-serve plan.
Oosto for startupsSold through salesNo public pricing or self-serve plan.
Regula for startupsSold through salesRegula publishes no price list: pricing is quoted based on usage and business needs.
Rigetti for startupsSold through salesRigetti publishes no prices on its own site.
Sandvine for startupsSold through salesThere is no public pricing, self-serve plan or free trial.
SoundThinking for startupsSold through salesSoundThinking does not sell to the public.
Spruce ID for startupsSold through salesSpruceID's identity, wallet and verification services are aimed at government agencies and are arranged through the Get in touch form or a demo request, with no published prices.
Tabnine for startupsSold through salesNo public self-serve plan.
Trinsic for startupsSold through salesNo public pricing.
Trulioo for startupsSold through salesTrulioo publishes no plans or prices.
Verkada for startupsSold through salesNo free plan or self-serve checkout.
Voyager Labs for startupsSold through salesNo public pricing and no self-serve plan.

Not confirmed on the vendor's site (7)

We could not confirm a startup program on the vendor's own pages, so we do not claim one either way.

Arweave for startupsNot confirmedArweave has no subscription plans.
Fractal ID for startupsNot confirmedFractal ID's website currently shows only a notice that it is temporarily offline for maintenance, so it lists no plans or prices for a startup to compare.
KILT Protocol for startupsNot confirmedKILT Protocol publishes its blockchain node software and its JavaScript SDK on GitHub under the KILTprotocol organization.
Lovable for startupsNot confirmedFree plan with a daily grant of 5 build credits (up to 30 a month) plus 20 Cloud credits a month, and every plan allows unlimited members.
Phind for startupsNot confirmedPhind's website currently lists no product, plans or pricing.
Radaris for startupsNot confirmedRadaris.com shows only a court notice: under a final judgment of the New Jersey Superior Court, the domain was transferred to Atlas Data Privacy Corporation and is no longer under the control of its former operators.
Sismo for startupsNot confirmedThe sismo.io domain currently shows a domain parking page with no product, pricing or startup information.

Startup programs change without notice. Each tool’s page carries the source link and the date we last checked it, always confirm on the vendor’s own site before you rely on an offer.