Developer tool credits for startups

The tools your engineers live in (hosting, CI/CD, databases, monitoring, error tracking) almost all run a startup plan. Getting on the right one early keeps your build costs near zero while you find product-market fit.

Here are the developer-tool programs we track, and the amounts are not trivial: Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub reaches $150k in Azure credits with Azure OpenAI access, DigitalOcean Hatch goes to $100k over a year, and GitHub gives partner startups Enterprise free for year one. Open any listing for the offer, who qualifies, and the direct application link.

See which ones you qualify forBrowse the full directory

Developer tool credits for startups

227 programs

Open to all

DigitalOcean Hatch

DigitalOcean

Up to $100k in cloud credits over 12 months (top tier, via a VC or accelerator)

$100k in credits

CloudDevTools
Open to all

NVIDIA Inception

NVIDIA

Free membership with preferred pricing on select NVIDIA hardware and software, free cloud credits from NVIDIA and partners, and free self-paced technical training.

$100k in credits

GPUAI creditsDevTools
Open to all

Anthropic for Startups

Anthropic

Up to $25k+ in Claude API credits

$25k in credits

AI creditsDevToolsAPI
Open to all

OpenAI for Startups

OpenAI

Up to $5k+ in API credits (partner-routed); $50k via OpenAI Grove

$5k in credits

AI creditsDevToolsAPI
Open to all

Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub

Microsoft

Up to $150k in Azure credits, plus Azure OpenAI access

$150k in credits

CloudAI creditsDevTools
Open to all

AWS Activate

Amazon Web Services

Up to $200k in AWS Activate credits

$200k in credits

CloudAI creditsDatabase
Open to all

JetBrains AI for Startups

JetBrains

JetBrains startup credits and perks

AI creditsDevTools
Open to all

Windsurf for Startups

Windsurf (Cognition)

Windsurf (Cognition) startup credits and perks

AI creditsDevTools
Open to all

Travis CI for Startups

Travis CI

Travis CI startup credits and perks

DevTools
Open to all

Contentstack for Startups

Contentstack

Contentstack startup credits and perks

DevToolsSaaS
Open to all

Terra API for Startups

Terra

Terra startup credits and perks

DevToolsAPI
Open to all

Twitch for Developers Startups

Twitch (Amazon)

Twitch (Amazon) startup credits and perks

DevToolsAPI
Open to all

LiveKit for Startups

LiveKit

LiveKit startup credits and perks

DevToolsAPI
Open to all

Agora for Startups

Agora

Agora startup credits and perks

DevToolsAPI
Open to all

Daily for Startups

Daily.co

Daily.co startup credits and perks

DevToolsAPI
Open to all

BunnyCDN for Startups

BunnyCDN

BunnyCDN startup credits and perks

CloudDevTools
Open to all

KeyCDN for Startups

KeyCDN

KeyCDN startup credits and perks

CloudDevTools
Open to all

Shapeways for Startups

Shapeways

Shapeways startup credits and perks

DevTools
Open to all

SolidWorks for Startups

Dassault Systemes

Dassault Systemes startup credits and perks

DevToolsDesign
Open to all

Onshape for Startups

PTC (Onshape)

PTC (Onshape) startup credits and perks

DevToolsDesign
Open to all

Autodesk Fusion for Startups

Autodesk

Autodesk startup credits and perks

DevToolsDesign
Open to all

Meilisearch for Startups

Meilisearch

Meilisearch startup credits and perks

DevToolsAPI
Open to all

Typesense for Startups

Typesense

Typesense startup credits and perks

DevToolsAPI
Open to all

Elastic Cloud for Startups

Elastic

Elastic startup credits and perks

DevToolsAnalytics

Showing 24 of 227. See them all in the directory, or sign up free for the ones matched to you.

Common questions.

Straight answers. For the full picture, read the FAQ.

Hosting and infrastructure providers, database platforms, observability and CI/CD tools frequently offer credits or extended free tiers to early-stage startups. The list below is filtered to those we actively track.

More than most founders expect: Microsoft’s Founders Hub goes up to $150k in Azure credits, DigitalOcean Hatch up to $100k over 12 months, and Retool offers up to $25k, which makes it free for roughly a year. Datadog adds observability free for about a year on top.

Usually the credit applies to a tool you adopt or already use, so the best picks are programs covering your existing stack: GitHub for source and CI, Vercel for hosting, Linear for issue tracking. Migrating just to chase a credit rarely pays back the engineering time.

Keep exploring

AI & model credits

AI credits for startups

Cloud infrastructure

Cloud credits for startups

GPU & compute

GPU credits for AI startups

See all guides