Startup credits, and what it takes to qualify.

Startup credits are a balance a provider adds to your account to spend on its own product: cloud compute, AI model usage, databases, monitoring or developer tools. They cost nothing to receive, and they expire, usually within twelve to twenty-four months.

It depends on the tier. Entry tiers are typically worth one to a few thousand US dollars. Tiers for funded startups, or for startups referred by a partner investor or accelerator, run into the hundreds of thousands. The listings here give the amount per tier, because the tier is what decides it.

Usually, yes. Most programmes do not ask what other providers have given you, though many exclude a company that has already received that same provider's credits through another route. Plan around the expiry dates: credits that lapse unused are simply lost.

You move to standard pricing on whatever you are running, which is what the provider is counting on. Build with an eye on what the architecture will cost at full price. Each listing's cost line says what applies after the credit ends.