AWS startup credits come in three tiers, from 1,000 USD to 200,000 USD and beyond. One eligibility rule trips most people: the account must be on a paid tier plan, which conflicts with starting on the free plan. And whether your accelerator or investor is an Activate Provider decides which tier you can apply for.
AWS startup credits (Activate) can reach 200,000 USD or more, and generative AI startups may qualify for more still. Yet there is little structured Chinese-language material on it, and most of what exists says "apply to AWS" - when in reality it has tiers, hard eligibility rules, and one requirement that stops a lot of people.
This page follows the order you actually apply in: find the tier you can apply for, check eligibility, then work through the process.
One distinction first: credits and discounts are not the same thing, and treating them as one leads to the wrong conclusion. That distinction gets its own page: AWS credits and discounts are not the same thing.
The tiers: from 1,000 USD to 200,000 USD and beyond
There are three tiers, and what puts you in one is your funding stage, not the size of the company:
| Tier | Who it is for | Amount | How to apply |
|---|---|---|---|
| Activate Founders | Self-funded / unfunded | Up to 5,000 USD (starting at 1,000 USD; some participants qualify for more) | Apply directly, no endorsement needed |
| Activate Portfolio | Startups at pre-Series B | Up to 200,000 USD | Requires an Org ID from an Activate Provider (accelerator, angel or VC) |
| AWS Credits for AI Startups | AI startups past Portfolio, ready to scale | 200,000 USD+ | Invitation only, via your account manager |
What matters most here is not the amount but the route in: Founders can be self-applied, while Portfolio requires endorsement from an Activate Provider. The providers listed officially include a16z, Sequoia, Y Combinator and Greylock - which means the accelerator or investor you choose partly determines which tier you can reach. That is a decision dimension people routinely overlook.
The offers page also carries a sentence that is easy to misread: Activate corresponds to "1,000 to 100,000 USD in credits" plus "80+ exclusive offers - third-party offers, membership benefits and education programmes - with a total value of up to 800,000 USD". That 800,000 figure needs reading correctly; see the fifth section.
Eligibility: four rules, and the one that trips most people
The official criteria list four rules - two about the company, two about the account:
- Funding stage at pre-Series B or earlier (self-funded or funded both qualify).
- Founded within the last 10 years.
- The AWS account must be on a paid tier plan.
- Either new to Activate, or requesting more credits than previously received.
⛔ The third rule is the one that catches people, and it directly conflicts with "just open a free account for now". Plenty of teams pick the free plan when signing up, then discover at application time that the account does not qualify - and the account plan is not something you casually switch later. If your company satisfies the first two rules, put the account on a paid plan from the start. The difference between the two free-tier plans is in AWS Free Tier for new accounts.
The fourth rule is worth noting too: this is a one-shot opportunity, not something you re-apply for repeatedly. "Requesting more than you previously received" is the only reason to reapply, so sizing the request correctly the first time is worth more than probing repeatedly.
How to apply: four steps
The official process has four steps. None is complicated, but the order matters:
- Create an AWS Builder ID using your work email (a professional address, not a personal one), then complete and verify your profile.
- Choose your tier: self-funded goes to Founders and can self-apply; if you have VC or accelerator backing, first confirm they are an Activate Provider, then apply to Portfolio with their Org ID.
- Describe your company and product: AWS asks about the product, funding stage and company profile in order to confirm eligibility - this step is verification, not paperwork.
- Link your AWS account and submit: connect the account to your Builder ID and submit.
On timing, two official pages differ slightly: one says 5-10 business days, the other 7-10 business days. Plan for a fortnight and watch for the email decision.
One thing worth preparing in advance: a company website or public company profile. The official criteria include having one - if you do not yet, build it before applying rather than after being sent back.
An alternative path: Kiro startup credits
AWS also runs a separate route for eligible startups that do not currently hold Activate credits (aimed at developer-tooling use). The point is this: if your application is pending, or you do not fit one Activate tier, that does not mean there is nothing available to you.
Separately, if what you are considering is migrating an existing business to AWS rather than starting from zero, AWS offers a path that offsets one-off migration costs in the form of credits or partner investments. Routes like this usually begin with an assessment, and suit teams with real scale and quantifiable migration cost.
What they share: none of them is granted automatically. Each requires an application and a clear description of your company. Rather than hunting for "something I can get without applying", work down the paths on the official site and match them against your situation.
Once you have it: credits buy time, not a cost structure
This section covers what the official pages do not emphasise but what decides whether the money was worth having:
Credits buy time, not a long-term cost structure. They offset a dollar amount, carry an expiry, and once used up or expired, all usage returns to on-demand pricing. Without a long-term arrangement in place by then, the bill steps up on a specific date.
So the right way to use credits is to buy a stretch of time in which cost is not your concern, and use it to settle the long-term structure:
- Right-size before committing: do not skip utilisation review because "the credits are paying anyway". Once an over-provisioned instance is locked into a commitment, the waste lasts as long as the commitment does.
- Cover steady-state load with commitment discounts: credits and commitment discounts coexist (credits offset the bill, discounts lower the unit price) - they do not compete.
- Put the expiry date in your calendar: treat it as a date that requires action in advance, not something you notice when the bill changes.
The "total value of up to 800,000 USD" figure also needs reading correctly: it counts the face value of credits plus third-party offers, membership benefits and education programmes combined - it is not cash you can withdraw, and not every benefit is relevant to you. What actually reaches your account is the subset you qualify for and can genuinely use. The full distinction is in AWS credits and discounts are not the same thing.
Why applications get stuck
Working backwards from the stated criteria, the blockers cluster in four places:
| Blocker | How to avoid it |
|---|---|
| Account not on a paid tier plan | Choose the paid plan at sign-up; do not start on the free plan |
| Company older than 10 years | Nothing to be done - which is why it is the earliest and most overlooked disqualifier |
| Wanting Portfolio but no Provider Org ID | Confirm whether your investor or accelerator is an Activate Provider; if not, apply to Founders directly |
| No company website or public profile | Build the site or public company page first - it is one of the criteria |
One more note: this is an official startup programme, so its rules and terms are set by AWS and may change. The value of this page is helping you decide which tier to apply for and what to prepare first - the amounts, criteria and terms themselves are on the official pages.
FAQ
Can I apply without funding?
Yes. Activate Founders exists precisely for self-funded and unfunded teams: a smaller starting amount, but you can apply directly, with no institutional endorsement required. For most individual developers and small teams, this is the first tier you can reach.
I already have an AWS account - can I still apply?
Yes, provided you satisfy "either new to Activate, or requesting more than previously received". If you already received Activate credits and are not asking for more, reapplying achieves nothing; but having an existing account is not itself a barrier.
Can credits be used for third-party software on Marketplace?
Under the usual terms, service credits offset eligible AWS service usage; whether third-party Marketplace purchases qualify depends on the specific benefit. The official terms are authoritative - if you intend to cover third-party software with credits, confirm this first.
Do credits expire?
Service credits generally carry an expiry date. The specific month counts circulating online come from third-party write-ups and are not official - use the terms you receive. What is certain: plan it as a budget with a deadline, not as money you can spend slowly.
Can I reapply after being rejected?
If the rejection was for an eligibility reason (company older than 10 years, account plan mismatch), reapplying usually achieves nothing - those are hard rules. If it was for incomplete material (no company profile, missing details), completing and resubmitting is reasonable. Self-check against the four rules in the second section first.
What happens when the credits run out?
Usage returns to on-demand pricing, so the long-term arrangement needs to be in place already. Two paths run in parallel: official commitment discounts (Savings Plans, reservations) lower the unit price, while a channel lowers what you actually pay - different layers, and they stack. See how to buy AWS Savings Plans and AWS discounts and reseller pricing; the mechanism differences across all five providers are in cloud discount mechanisms compared.