The ladder
Credits for image generation, editing, and vision APIs — so you can ship pixels before you burn runway on GPUs.
Credits for image gen, editing, and vision.
12 curated6 free tiersVerified weekly
Modal Startup Credits
ModalVerified
- Curated
- Solo founder OK
- No VC needed
Compute credits for AI startups
Hugging Face Inference — Free Tier
Hugging FaceVerified
- Official source
- Solo founder OK
- No VC needed
Free serverless inference with monthly quota
Google for Startups Cloud Program
Google CloudVerified
- Official source
- Solo founder OK
- No VC needed
Up to
$350,000
over 2 years
NVIDIA Inception
NVIDIAVerified
- Official source
- No VC needed
GPU cloud credits + DGX discounts + NVIDIA tech access
Fireworks — For Startups
Fireworks AIVerified
- Official source
- Solo founder OK
- No VC needed
Build credits + higher rate limits (application required)
Baseten — AI Startup Program
BasetenVerified
- Official source
- Solo founder OK
- No VC needed
Up to
$27,500
credits (inference + model APIs, tiered)
OpenRouter — Starter Credits
OpenRouterVerified
- Curated
- Solo founder OK
- No VC needed
$1
starter credits + free-model routing (verify in dashboard)
Google AI Studio — Gemini API Free Tier
GoogleVerified
- Official source
- Solo founder OK
- No VC needed
Free Gemini API access with daily rate-limited quota
Replicate — Free Tier + Pay-As-You-Go
ReplicateVerified
- Official source
- Solo founder OK
- No VC needed
Free runs on many public models — usage-billed hosting after
Lambda — GPU Cloud for Startups
LambdaVerified
- Official source
GPU credits for approved AI startups (varies by partner path)
NVIDIA Build — Free NIM API Credits
NVIDIAVerified
- Official source
- Solo founder OK
- No VC needed
Free API credits across NIM-hosted open models
Lightning AI — Free Studios Credits
Lightning AIVerified
- Official source
- Solo founder OK
- No VC needed
Free monthly Studios credits — CPU always-on, GPU by the minute