Startup perks, without the expired numbers
31 programmes across cloud, AI, tooling, banking and formation. Each entry states who actually qualifies and links to the provider’s own page. Where a figure is gated behind an accelerator or an investor, we say so instead of printing the ceiling.
How to read the numbers. Amounts are the maximum the provider advertises, not a quote you have been given, and not something we redeemed. Eligibility changes more often than the headline. Confirm on the programme page before you plan around it.
Cloud and infrastructure
Compute, storage and edge. The biggest headline numbers live here, and they are also the most gated.
Up to $100,000 in credits
Two tracks: Founders (self-serve, smaller) and Portfolio (requires an accelerator, incubator or VC that is an AWS partner). Credits expire and cover specific services.
Partner-backedUp to $200,000 in credits
Start tier is self-serve with a smaller ceiling; Scale tier requires a qualifying investor or accelerator and unlocks the larger number.
Partner-backedMicrosoft for Startups Founders Hub
Azure credits by tier, up to $150,000
Tiers scale with stage and whether you are backed. Includes GitHub Enterprise and Azure OpenAI access at higher tiers.
Early-stageUp to $350,000 in credits across three tiers
The top tier is reserved for partner-backed companies. Bootstrapped teams get the entry tier. Credits apply to Workers, R2, and the developer platform.
Partner-backedPlatform credits and support
Applied through the startup programme; amounts vary by cohort. Best value is the Pro/Enterprise feature access rather than raw credit volume.
Early-stageUp to $100,000 in credits
Tiered by stage and backing, with a smaller self-serve entry. Simple pricing makes the credits stretch further than on hyperscalers.
Early-stageEU-hosted credits, tiered
Worth prioritising if data residency in the EU is a requirement rather than a preference. Ask specifically about the credit ceiling for your stage.
Early-stage
AI and model APIs
Inference credits and GPU access. Most require a partner or investor to unlock anything meaningful.
Free membership, GPU discounts, training credits
No funding requirement and about ten minutes to apply. The direct value is modest, but it is a credential that unlocks other programmes.
AnyoneClaude API credits via partner and VC programmes
Allocated through Anthropic’s investor and accelerator network rather than a public form. Ask your lead investor whether their fund is enrolled.
Partner-backedSelf-serve credit tier, larger allocations via partners
A small self-serve grant exists; the meaningful numbers come through VC and cloud partner channels. Often bundled with Azure or Brex/Ramp perks.
Early-stageUp to $150,000 in API credits
Speech-to-text and audio intelligence. One of the larger AI-API grants available without a hyperscaler relationship.
Early-stageCompute credits and enterprise discounts
Covers Inference Endpoints and Spaces. Useful if you are prototyping open models rather than renting closed APIs.
Early-stage
Developer tools
Seats, licences and observability. Usually the easiest to claim and the fastest to actually use.
Enterprise seats plus credits
Delivered through partner networks rather than a public signup. Includes Copilot and Advanced Security while the grant runs.
Partner-backedUltimate tier free for a limited period
Requires an early-stage company under the employee threshold. The CI minutes matter more than the licence itself.
Early-stageObservability credits over the first year
Aimed at funded companies. Worth taking before your first production incident rather than after.
FundedFree or discounted IDE licences
Straightforward application, no funding gate. Renews annually while you remain eligible.
Early-stageCredited Team and Business plans
Open to bootstrapped and pre-seed teams without a referral. One of the few programmes that does not require an accelerator.
Early-stage
Analytics and data
Product analytics and CDP credits. Real value if you instrument early; wasted if you do not.
Credits toward the Growth plan for a year
Requires a young company under the funding cap. Instrument early or the credits expire unused.
Early-stageOne year of paid Growth features
Application-based. The value depends entirely on whether you have the event taxonomy to use it.
Early-stage
Marketing and CRM
First-year discounts on the tools you would otherwise buy at month three anyway.
Discount on the first year, tiered by stage
Steepest discount goes to accelerator-backed companies. The renewal price is the number to model, not the discount.
Early-stageEarly-stage discount on the first year
Applied through their startup track. Check the seat model before committing — support tools scale with headcount.
Early-stageExtended free Business tier
One of the easiest to claim and genuinely useful. Requires a company domain and a size threshold.
Early-stage
Banking and spend
Business accounts and cards that bundle partner perks with the account itself.
US incorporation plus a partner perk bundle
The bundle is the real product: credits and discounts from dozens of vendors, worth materially more than the formation fee if you use them.
AnyonePartner perk bundle with a business account
Perks unlock after account opening. US entity required; read the deposit terms before treating the bundle as free.
AnyonePartner discounts and credits
Tied to the card programme. Eligibility has tightened over time, so check the current criteria rather than older blog posts.
Funded
Incorporation and legal
Formation providers that bundle tooling credits and discounts into the package.
Formation plus a startup perk package
US LLC or C-Corp packages that include vendor credits. Compare the total against forming directly with the state.
AnyoneUS formation with bundled partner offers
Includes EIN and registered agent in the base package. The perk bundle changes often; confirm what is current before paying.
AnyoneEstonian OÜ setup with tooling discounts
The EU-native alternative to a US LLC. Useful when you need EU banking and VAT reality from day one.
Anyone
Perk aggregators
Memberships that resell hundreds of negotiated deals. Useful, but check whether the underlying offer is public.
Paid membership reselling negotiated deals
Aggregates several hundred discounts across cloud, CRM, finance and HR. Worth it only if you would buy two or three of the underlying products anyway.
AnyonePerk membership for founders
Similar model to FounderPass. Compare the specific offers you want rather than the headline total.
AnyoneFree startup profile plus recurring deal listings
Also a useful entity anchor for search. The perk feed is uneven but occasionally carries genuinely large cloud offers.
Anyone
The order that actually works
Claim the ungated ones first
Developer seats, monitoring and analytics programmes usually have no partner requirement. An afternoon of applications, and they are live.
Then the cloud entry tier
AWS Founders, Google Start and the Cloudflare entry tier are self-serve. Small, but real, and they establish the account history you need later.
Then the partner stack
Inception, accelerator programmes and VC channels. These unlock the six-figure ceilings, and they require a credential rather than an application.
Only then the aggregators
A paid perk membership makes sense once you know which three products you would buy anyway. Before that, it is a subscription to discounts you never use.
Questions
- Why are so many startup perk directories out of date?
- Most are affiliate sites built to rank for headline figures. They publish the largest number a provider ever advertised and never revisit it. Programme terms, caps and eligibility change quietly, and the directory has no incentive to correct them.
- How do you verify the amounts listed here?
- Every figure is the maximum the provider publishes on its own programme page, and the provider name links to that page. We do not claim to have redeemed the credits. Where a programme has stopped publishing a number, we remove the number rather than keep a stale one.
- Which perks should a bootstrapped startup claim first?
- The ones with no partner requirement and no expiry pressure: developer tool seats, error monitoring, and the entry tier of a cloud programme. The six-figure cloud grants are gated behind accelerators or investors, so applying for them first wastes weeks.
- Do cloud credits expire?
- Almost always. Most run on a twelve to twenty-four month clock from approval, and some only cover specific services. Model the expiry against your burn rather than the headline total.
Found something stale? Tell us and we will correct it. See also the software directory.