Startup perks and credits 2026: what to claim right now

Founders of early-stage tech companies want to know which startup credits and perks are live right now, and what conditions come attached. The list covers the Stripe Atlas $500 offer, Cloudflare, Anthropic’s Claude programme, PostHog, AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft and a few smaller ones, plus a section for founders whose company sits outside the US.

Every offer was checked against the provider’s own page on 11 November 2026 and is linked in the sources. Offers change without notice. Where I could not confirm something on an official page, I say so rather than repeat a number from a deal-aggregator site.

The short version

Programme	Headline offer	Who qualifies	Status on 11 Nov 2026
Stripe Atlas	$500 Treasury reward, $1,000 to $1,500 spend reward, $2,500 Stripe credits	New Atlas companies incorporated after 31 Oct 2026	Open
Cloudflare for Startups	$10k, $100k or $350k in credits for one year	Founded in the last 10 years, tech product, live website, domain email	Open
Claude for Startups	Partner offers worth up to $45k, up to $100k API credits through a partner VC	Early-stage founders building on Claude	Closed to new applicants
PostHog for Startups	$50,000 credits for 12 months, plus $12,000 in partner perks	Under 2 years old, under $5m raised	Open
AWS Activate	Up to $5,000 (Founders), up to $200,000 (Portfolio)	Pre-Series B, founded in the last 10 years	Open
Google for Startups Cloud Program	$2,000 (Start), $200k to $350k over two years (Scale)	Start: under 2 years with an MVP. Scale: VC-funded, pre-seed to Series A	Open
Microsoft for Startups	Up to $5,000 after business verification, up to $150,000 over time	Early-stage startups building software	Open
Vercel for Startups	Up to $30,000 in Flexible Commitment Amount	“Eligible teams” (criteria not published)	Contact form live
Notion for Startups	Up to 6 months of the Business plan with Notion AI	Non-paying teams under 100 people	Open

Stripe Atlas and the $500 Treasury offer

What Atlas costs. Atlas forms a US company for you. Stripe’s Atlas page lists a one-time setup fee of US$500, which includes government fees and the first year of registered agent service, then US$100 a year from the second year. You can apply “from almost anywhere in the world”, according to the same page.

The $500 offer running now. This is the one most founders are asking about, and the details matter. Stripe’s offer terms say eligible Atlas users “will receive 500 USD, or USD-backed stablecoins, when they open a Stripe Treasury account within 7 calendar days of incorporating their company with Stripe Atlas.” The terms apply to Treasury accounts opened on or after 1 November 2026. Stripe’s Atlas perks page describes the same offer as available when you incorporate with Atlas after 31 October 2026.

The conditions, from the terms page:

• The 7-day window starts at incorporation, not at application. Have your Treasury details ready before the company is formed.
• The reward is paid into your Treasury financial account within 30 days of meeting the requirements, as an electronic deposit.
• The account must be open and in good standing when you qualify and on the reward date.
• It is paid in the primary currency of your account, which is either USD or a USD stablecoin.
• No end date is published. Stripe “reserves the right to alter, change or end this offer at any time”.
• Any tax on the reward is your responsibility.

In practice the $500 cancels out the $500 setup fee, but it is a separate reward, not a fee refund.

Spend rewards on top. Stripe’s Atlas perks page lists further Treasury rewards for spending 5,000 USD within 90 days: an extra 1,500 USD for C corporations and an extra 1,000 USD for LLCs. That makes the Treasury total up to 2,000 USD for a C corp and 1,500 USD for an LLC. Atlas companies also get US$2,500 in Stripe product credits for their first year after incorporation.

The older version you will still see. Stripe’s “Stripe perks for startups” support page, last updated 3 September 2025, still describes an Atlas fee refund for holding 5,000 USD in a Treasury account within 90 days. Many blogs repeat it. For a company incorporated now, the 1 November 2026 offer terms are the ones that apply. Stripe says the Perks tab in your Atlas dashboard has the current list, so check it before you rely on either.

Partner perks inside Atlas. The Atlas perks page lists, among others, 5,000 USD in AWS Activate credits for new users, 100,000 USD in Cloudflare credits, 50,000 USD in PostHog credits and a 1,500 USD Ramp sign-up bonus that needs a US bank account holding more than 25,000 USD. The Atlas page quotes both “over $50,000” and “over $200K” for partner offers, so read the list, not the headline.

Catches. Atlas gives you a US company, and a US company has its own US tax and filing obligations every year. Take advice on that before you form one just for the perks. Treasury availability also depends on where you live, which the section for non-US founders below covers.

Cloudflare for Startups

Cloudflare now runs three tiers. Credits last one year or until used up, whichever comes first, and the page says extensions are not currently approved.

Tier	Credits	Who it is for
Tier 3	$10,000	Bootstrapped or self-funded, under $1M raised. “No minimum funding required.”
Tier 2	$100,000	Under $5M raised and funded by an affiliated partner
Tier 1	$350,000	$5M or more raised and funded by an affiliated partner

Who qualifies. The page lists these criteria: incorporated no more than 10 years ago, funded up to Series B, actively building a technology product, a live website Cloudflare can verify, a public presence on LinkedIn, X or GitHub, first-time applicant, and a business email on your own domain. The general list also says “funded within the last 12 months”, which sits awkwardly with the no-funding $10k tier. If you are bootstrapped, apply for Tier 3 and let the review decide.

What the credits cover. Usage-based products such as Workers, Durable Objects, D1, Queues, R2 (up to $10,000), Pages and Stream. All tiers also include three enterprise domains and Pro and Business plans at no cost.

Catches.

• Workers AI: “Effective Dec 1 and for all incoming startups: Workers AI is not covered by credits.” AI Gateway is temporarily not covered either.
• Domain registration and renewals are not covered.
• A card on file is required, overages bill automatically, and the card is charged after credits expire.
• It is one-time only and credits cannot move between accounts.
• Consultancies, agencies, MSPs, resellers and personal blogs are not eligible.

Stripe’s Atlas perks page lists Cloudflare at 100,000 USD, which is the Tier 2 amount that Cloudflare reserves for partner-backed startups. That suggests Atlas counts as a partner route. Confirm it in your Atlas Perks tab before you plan around it.

Cloudflare says review takes up to 48 hours. If you are new to the platform, my guide to hosting a website free on Cloudflare Workers shows how far the free tier goes before you need credits at all.

Claude for Startups (Anthropic)

Closed to new applicants.

Anthropic’s programme page says: “Our current cohort is now full, and we’re not accepting new applications right now.” There is no reopening date. The page asks you to subscribe to the Claude Startup newsletter to hear when the next cohort opens.

What happened: on 6 October 2026 Anthropic expanded the programme with a free year of Claude Team (up to five premium seats) and $1,000 in API credits, for companies founded in the last five years or funded in the last two, as TechCrunch reported. Demand far exceeded what Anthropic expected, it paused those two offers within days, and the page now says the cohort is full.

What current members get, according to the official page:

• Discounts and credits “worth up to $45,000 from companies building with Claude”.
• Live group sessions with Anthropic’s Applied AI team, held every other week.
• For founders backed by a partner VC: “up to $100K in additional API credits, claimed through your VC.”

What to do now. If you have a VC, ask whether they are in Anthropic’s partner network, since that route is separate from the open application. Do not assume cloud credits will pay for Claude instead: Microsoft states its startup credits do not cover third-party models, naming Anthropic, and on AWS and Google Cloud you should check the terms first. For how Claude Code compares in daily use, see Claude Code vs Codex CLI.

PostHog for Startups

PostHog offers $50,000 in credits for 12 months, $12,000 in partner benefits (including $1,500 off Incident.io) and PostHog merch.

Who qualifies. The company must be less than 2 years old and have raised less than $5m. You must have signed up to PostHog on or after 1 January 2023, and your account must use your company email domain. Gmail and Outlook addresses are refused. If an established company owns the new product or brand, it does not qualify.

How to apply. Upgrade to a paid plan (you are only charged for usage), then fill in the application from your company-domain account. PostHog applies the credit automatically if you are accepted.

Catches.

• Credits are issued once per founder and once per organisation.
• They cannot be used on PostHog’s AI tools: PostHog Desktop, the Slack app, Replay Vision, PostHog AI and Inbox.
• Startup-plan teams get normal priority and community support, with no account manager.
• Y Combinator companies have a separate deal, and the two do not stack.
• When the 12 months or the $50,000 run out, you move onto a normal paid plan.

AWS Activate

Tier	Credits	Requirement
Founders	Start with $1,000, select participants up to $5,000	Self-funded or bootstrapped
Portfolio	Up to $200,000	An Organization ID from an Activate Provider (accelerator, angel investor or VC)
AI Startups	$200,000+	Invite only, through your account manager

Who qualifies. Pre-Series B, founded in the last 10 years, an AWS account on a paid plan, and either new to Activate credits or asking for more than you received before.

How to apply. Create an AWS Builder ID with your work email, pick a tier, describe your product and funding, link an AWS account and submit. AWS says to expect a reply in 5 to 10 business days.

Catches. The credits page does not state an expiry period. Credits fall under the AWS Promotional Credit Terms, so read them for expiry and excluded services before you plan a launch around them.

When the credits run out, my AWS cost optimisation checklist covers keeping the bill down.

Google for Startups Cloud Program

• Start tier ($2,000): for startups “founded in the past 2 years, with a working MVP, a clear business model, and plans to seek venture funding soon.”
• Scale tiers ($200,000 to $350,000): for startups with verifiable pre-seed to Series A funding. The $350,000 figure applies to AI startups. Credits run over two years, and the Scale stage also includes 12 months of Google Workspace Business Plus.

Catches.

• Non-venture funding does not count for Scale: grants, bank loans, government programmes, crowdfunding and friends and family are excluded.
• Your email must match your website domain, and the billing account must be owned by a user on that domain.
• Google screens for AI-generated websites and may reject applications with a lot of AI-generated content. Placeholder sites are not considered.
• Credits cannot be spent on third-party offerings, including Google Cloud Marketplace.
• Agencies, consultancies and dev shops are excluded.

Google says most applicants hear back within 5 to 7 days.

Microsoft for Startups

Microsoft’s page says approved startups can start building straight away, receive up to $5,000 in credits after business verification, and can receive up to $150,000 over time as their Azure usage grows. The page does not publish the usage thresholds for each step.

Catches, from Microsoft Learn:

• Third-party models, “including Anthropic”, Microsoft Marketplace purchases, support plans and non-Azure products are not covered.
• GitHub usage (Copilot, Codespaces, Actions) is only covered after you connect your Azure subscription as a GitHub payment method.
• A credit card is required. When credits run out, the subscription moves to pay-as-you-go automatically.

Microsoft advises budget alerts at 50, 80 and 100 percent of expected credit burn, which suits every programme here.

Other perks worth a look

Vercel for Startups. The page offers “eligible teams up to $30,000 in Flexible Commitment Amount, Enterprise-tier access, and startup-focused support”. It does not publish eligibility criteria or a duration. You apply through a contact form that asks for company size, website and country.

Notion for Startups. Up to 6 months free on the Business plan with Notion AI. The 6-month tier needs a Notion startup partner and fewer than 100 employees; the 3-month tier is for tech startups under 100 employees. Agencies, solo applicants and small businesses under 10 people get 1 month. You must be a non-paying customer with no previous Notion promotion. The page does not say what happens to billing afterwards, so set a reminder.

Mercury Perks. Mercury’s perks library listed 267 entries, including $10,000 in GitHub credits, $5k in AWS credits, $300 in Supabase credits and 6 months of Notion. You need a Mercury account, and Mercury needs a company registered in the US. Founders do not have to be US citizens or residents, but Mercury will not open accounts for founders living in its prohibited countries.

What I could not confirm

• OpenAI for Startups. The official page blocked automated checks on 11 November 2026, so I could not verify what it offers or who qualifies. Third-party guides say it works through partner VC referrals only. Ask your investor directly.
• Supabase. Supabase’s startups page did not describe a credits programme or an application when checked. The only Supabase credit I could confirm was the $300 listed in Mercury Perks.

Notes for founders outside the US

My company, NoDowntime Technologies FZCO, is a free zone company licensed by IFZA in Dubai, so I read these terms from that angle. Here is what the official pages say, and what they leave out.

Most programmes look at the company, not the country. None of the official pages for Cloudflare, PostHog, AWS Activate, Google or Microsoft lists US incorporation as a requirement. What they do ask for is consistent:

• A business email on your own domain (all of them).
• A live website that describes the company, team and product (Cloudflare, Google).
• A public company presence on LinkedIn, X or GitHub (Cloudflare).
• For Google, a location where Google Cloud is generally available and sold self-service.

Stripe Atlas works differently. Atlas forms a US company, and the Treasury account you get depends on where the account representative physically is. A representative with a physical US address may get a USD account. A representative outside the US may get “a stablecoin Treasury account, with balances held in OUSD or USDC rather than USD”, which still comes with USD account and routing numbers. Stripe adds that a US registered agent or virtual mailing address does not count as a physical US location.

Stripe publishes two restricted country lists for the stablecoin account. One covers the address in your Atlas submission and the other covers representatives and owners. The United Arab Emirates did not appear on either list when I checked on 11 November 2026, but Stripe says being outside the lists does not guarantee approval. Because the reward is paid in your account’s primary currency, a UAE-based founder who qualifies should expect the $500 in USD-backed stablecoin rather than dollars.

Mercury and Ramp need a US entity. Mercury requires a US-registered company. Ramp’s 1,500 USD bonus in the Atlas list needs a US bank account holding more than 25,000 USD. Mercury vs Brex covers the eligibility rules in detail.

Partner tiers come through your network. The large tiers (Cloudflare $100k and $350k, AWS Portfolio, Notion 6 months, Claude’s VC credits) all need a partner. I have been a member of Dubai Founders HQ since April 2026, and the habit worth having anywhere is to ask every hub, accelerator and investor you deal with which of these programmes they partner with.

When to claim

Most of these clocks start on approval, not on first use: one year at Cloudflare, 12 months at PostHog, two years for Google’s Scale credits. Several are one-time only, so applying for everything on day one is the easiest way to waste them.

A sensible order:

1. First, a company domain, a work email on it and a real website. Every programme checks these.
2. If you need a US entity, form it through Atlas and open Treasury within 7 days.
3. Claim credits for the platform you run on this month, not the one you might move to.
4. Apply for PostHog at launch, while the company is still under 2 years old.
5. Apply for partner tiers after you raise, using your investor’s code.

When credits run out you drop onto normal pricing, often with a card already on file. My notes on money habits for freelancers and founders cover the budgeting side.

Checklist

• Company domain, work email and a live website with real content
• Stripe Atlas: incorporate, then open Treasury within 7 calendar days for the $500
• Atlas Perks tab checked for the current partner list
• Cloudflare: Tier 3 ($10k) if bootstrapped, a partner tier if backed
• PostHog: under 2 years old and under $5m raised, applied from a company-domain account
• AWS Activate, Google or Microsoft: apply for the one you will use now
• Claude for Startups: newsletter subscribed, VC asked about partner credits
• Budget alerts set at 50, 80 and 100 percent of credit burn
• A reminder for every credit expiry date