Almost every major cloud provider runs a startup programme, but the largest amounts are reserved for startups backed by an affiliated investor or accelerator. If you are bootstrapped, expect credits in the thousands of euro or dollars, not hundreds of thousands. The sensible strategy is to pick a main provider for your architecture, apply now for the tier you qualify for today, and move up when your first affiliated investor arrives.
In short
- AWS Activate: Founders up to 5,000 dollars for self-funded startups; Portfolio up to 200,000 dollars through an Activate Provider.
- Google for Startups Cloud Program: Start with 2,000 dollars; funded tiers up to 350,000 dollars over two years for AI startups.
- Microsoft for Startups: the official page states up to 150,000 dollars in Azure credits.
- OVHcloud: Start with 10,000 euro for 12 months; Scale up to 100,000 euro.
- Scaleway: Founders up to 1,000 euro; Early Stage and Growth Stage with monthly amounts for 6 or 12 months.
- Cloudflare for Startups: from 10,000 to 350,000 dollars, valid for one year.
The programmes one by one
AWS Activate
From the official AWS page:
- Activate Founders: from 1,000 up to 5,000 dollars, for self-funded or bootstrapped startups.
- Activate Portfolio: up to 200,000 dollars, for pre-Series B startups backed by an Activate Provider; you apply with the provider's Org ID.
- AWS Credits for AI Startups: more than 200,000 dollars, invitation only.
Requirements: pre-Series B, founded in the last 10 years, an AWS account on a paid plan. You use an AWS Builder ID with a professional email; the answer arrives in 5-10 business days.
Google for Startups Cloud Program
From the official Google Cloud page:
- Start: 2,000 dollars, for startups founded in the last two years with a working MVP and plans to seek venture funding.
- Scale and Scale AI: for startups with verifiable funding from pre-seed to Series A. For AI startups, year one covers 100% up to 250,000 dollars and year two 20% up to a further 100,000 dollars, for a maximum of 350,000.
Watch the requirements: funding must come from a known investor; public grants, bank loans, crowdfunding or friends and family do not count for the Scale tier. You need an 18-character billing account ID, a business email on the same domain as your website, and a live website describing the company, team and product. Consultancies, agencies and dev shops, among others, are excluded. Credits do not cover third-party products, including Model Garden and Marketplace models.
Microsoft for Startups
The official page states "up to 150,000 dollars" in Azure credits, without detailing tiers or requirements. The Register reported that from 1 July 2025 the programme was reorganised into two tracks: up to 5,000 dollars for unfunded startups and from 100,000 dollars for startups backed by an affiliated investor. Check the current terms when you sign up.
OVHcloud Startup Program
From the programme page:
- Start: 12 months, 10,000 euro in cloud credits and 6 hours of one-to-one engineer time.
- Scale: 12 months, credits up to 100,000 euro and up to 20 hours of support.
OVHcloud's documentation states that credits mainly apply to Public Cloud and Hosted Private Cloud; they do not cover dedicated servers, VPS, Web Cloud services such as domains and hosting, or telecom. Only some specific GPU instances are eligible.
Scaleway Startup Program
From the official page:
- Founders Program: up to 1,000 euro, usable over one year.
- Early Stage: 1,500 euro a month for 6 months, 9,000 euro in total.
- Growth Stage: 3,000 euro a month for 12 months, 36,000 euro in total.
Requirements: less than 5 years old, fewer than 50 employees, not already a Scaleway customer. Applications are reviewed weekly. Note: the page shows different amounts in its FAQ, so check the figures when you apply.
Cloudflare for Startups
From the official page, credits valid for one year:
- Tier 3: 10,000 dollars, for bootstrapped startups or those that raised less than 1 million.
- Tier 2: 100,000 dollars, less than 5 million raised and funded by an affiliated partner.
- Tier 1: 350,000 dollars, more than 5 million raised from an affiliated partner.
Requirements: incorporated no more than 10 years ago, funded up to Series B with funding in the last 12 months, a technology product, a public website, a business email. Consultancies, agencies, MSPs and resellers are excluded. The benefit is one-off and credits cannot be extended.
The most common pitfalls
- Email domain: Google and Cloudflare require business emails matching your website. A personal address does not meet the requirement.
- Empty website: Google notes that empty, placeholder or heavily AI-generated sites may be rejected.
- Public funding: for Google's Scale tier, public grants and bank loans do not count as funding.
- Excluded services: OVHcloud charges non-eligible products to your payment method; Google excludes third-party products. Check before spinning up expensive resources.
- Expiry: credits have a lifetime. Activating them too early, before you have real workloads, wastes them.
- Consultancies and agencies: several programmes explicitly exclude them.
What to do this week
- Pick your main provider based on architecture, not just credits.
- Sort out website, domain and business email before applying.
- Apply for the tier you qualify for today: usually Founders or Start.
- Ask your investor or accelerator whether it partners with AWS Activate, Google, Microsoft or Cloudflare.
- Put the credit expiry date in your calendar and set spending alerts.
- If you are weighing cloud architecture and costs, contact us.
Sources
- AWS Activate, credits
- Google for Startups Cloud Program
- Microsoft for Startups
- The Register, changes to Microsoft for Startups (July 2025)
- OVHcloud Startup Program
- OVHcloud, products available with credits
- Scaleway Startup Program
- Cloudflare for Startups
Amounts and requirements change often: always check the official page when you apply.
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