AWS Activate Credits
Eligible startups can get $1,000 up to $200,000 in AWS Activate credits, usable on Amazon Bedrock foundation models (incl. Claude) and Kiro.
- Free credit
- $200,000
- Card required
- Yes
AWS Activate Credits scores 9.9/10 for free value in LLM. The main constraint: Self-funded founders: start with $1,000, up to $5,000 in Activate credits. VC/accelerator-backed: up to $200,000 with an Org ID. Usable on Bedrock model inference.
Free value score
9.9 / 10Show the math
Key metrics
Models
0 free · 113+ totalLimits may be stale — last re-verified outside this section's freshness window.
| Model | Family | AA | Access |
|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Opus 4.7 | Claude | 42.7 | paid |
| GLM 5 | GLM | 39.5 | paid |
| Kimi K2.5 | Kimi | 38.1 | paid |
| Claude Opus 4.6 | Claude | 37.8 | paid |
| Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Claude | 35.9 | paid |
| Claude Opus 4.5 | Claude | 34.7 | paid |
| GLM 4.7 | GLM | 33.8 | paid |
| DeepSeek V3.2 | DeepSeek | 24.7 | paid |
| gpt-oss-120b | GPT | 23.8 | paid |
| DeepSeek-R1 | DeepSeek | 20.1 | paid |
| Kimi K2 Thinking | Kimi | 19.4 | paid |
| Mistral Large 3 (675B) | Mistral | 16.2 | paid |
| gpt-oss-20b | GPT | 14.9 | paid |
| Meta Llama 4 Maverick 17B | Llama | 14.3 | paid |
| Meta Llama 4 Scout 17B | Llama | 10 | paid |
| AI21 Jamba 1.5 Large | Jamba | — | paid |
| Amazon Nova 2 Lite | Nova | — | paid |
| Amazon Nova 2 Sonic | Nova | — | paid |
| Amazon Nova Lite | Nova | — | paid |
| Amazon Nova Micro | Nova | — | paid |
| Amazon Nova Premier | Nova | — | paid |
| Amazon Nova Pro | Nova | — | paid |
| Amazon Titan Text Embeddings V2 | Titan | — | paid |
| Claude 3.5 Haiku | Claude | — | paid |
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | Claude | — | paid |
| Claude Sonnet 4.5 | Claude | — | paid |
| Google Gemma 3 27B IT | Gemma | — | paid |
| Meta Llama 3.1 70B Instruct | Llama | — | paid |
| Meta Llama 3.1 8B Instruct | Llama | — | paid |
| Meta Llama 3.3 70B Instruct | Llama | — | paid |
| MiniMax M2.5 | MiniMax | — | paid |
| Mistral Devstral 2 123B | Mistral | — | paid |
| Mistral Magistral Small 2509 | Mistral | — | paid |
| Mistral Pixtral Large 25.02 | Mistral | — | paid |
| Mixtral 8x7B Instruct | Mistral | — | paid |
| NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B | Nemotron | — | paid |
| Qwen3 235B A22B 2507 | Qwen | — | paid |
| Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B | Qwen | — | paid |
| Qwen3 VL 235B A22B | Qwen | — | paid |
| Writer Palmyra X5 | Palmyra | — | paid |
Showing first 0 of a larger catalog.
What you get
Official page: tiers from 'Up to $5,000' (self-funded) to 'Up to $200,000' (portfolio)
Activate credits can be applied to Amazon Bedrock foundation models
Self-funded founders can apply directly without a VC
Includes Kiro Startup Credits for agentic coding
Gotchas
- Startups only (pre-Series B)
Applicant must be pre-Series B, founded within the last 10 years, and either new to Activate or requesting more than previously received.
- VC/accelerator Org ID for top tier
Access to up to $200,000 requires an Activate Provider Org ID from a participating VC, accelerator, or angel investor.
- Self-funded tier capped at $5,000
Bootstrapped/self-funded founders start with $1,000 and may qualify for up to $5,000 total — a fraction of the portfolio tier.
- Portfolio tier capped at $200,000
VC/accelerator-backed startups can apply for up to $200,000 in Activate Credits, which is a finite one-time pool.
- AWS paid-tier account required
Applicants must already have an AWS account on a Paid Tier Plan (not free tier), which typically requires a credit card on file.
- Manual review, 5–10 business days
Applications are reviewed manually and AWS states a 5–10 business day turnaround before credits are granted.
- Credits expire per AWS promo terms
AWS Activate Credits are subject to AWS Promotional Credit Terms & Conditions, which impose an expiry date on the credit pool.
- Company age limit (founded within 10 years)
Companies founded more than 10 years ago are ineligible regardless of funding stage or credit history with AWS.
Sources
-
"Apply for up to $200,000 in AWS Activate Credits, with additional credits available for AI startups ready to scale."
https://aws.amazon.com/startups/credits/ -
"Up to $5,000 USD in Activate Credits *Start with $1,000 USD in Activate Credits. Select participants may qualify for additional credits up to $5,000 ... Up to $200,000 USD in Activate Credits *You must have an Organization ID (Org ID) from your Activate Provider, such as an accelerator, angel investor, and venture capital firm"
https://aws.amazon.com/startups/credits/ -
"The most intelligent model available on Amazon Bedrock is Claude Opus 4.8 (max) with an Intelligence Index score of 56."
https://artificialanalysis.ai/providers/amazon_bedrock -
"Promotional Credit is valid for a limited time only and cannot be redeemed after the expiration date indicated when you receive the applicable Promotional Credit code"
https://aws.amazon.com/awscredits/
Alternatives
Same category · similar quota
Selected early-stage startups receive Anthropic (Claude) API credits, priority rate limits, and resources, awarded on a rolling basis.
VC-backed AI startups can get up to $350,000 in Google Cloud credits over 2 years, covering Gemini and Gemma models in Vertex AI.
Approved startups can unlock up to $150,000 in Azure credits over time, usable on Azure OpenAI and 1,700+ Foundry models, plus OpenAI API credits.