AWS Activate: Up to $200,000 in AWS Credits for Startups (Founders & Portfolio)

Short answer: AWS Activate gives self-funded startups $1,000 in AWS credits (up to $5,000 for some) and investor-backed startups up to $200,000 through an Activate Provider's Org ID. Credits cover more than 200 AWS services, including Amazon Bedrock and third-party models such as Anthropic's Claude on Bedrock. You apply with a Builder ID and a linked AWS account, and AWS says to expect a decision in about 5-10 business days.

Tiers at a glance

All Activate Credits are in US dollars and subject to the AWS Promotional Credit Terms & Conditions. Activate Providers include thousands of VCs, accelerators and startup organizations; AWS names Andreessen Horowitz, Brex, Carta, Greylock Partners, Sequoia and Y Combinator as examples. Providers can offer more than one package, for instance $25,000 for pre-seed and $100,000 for seed, so the amount you get depends on your provider and stage.

Eligibility in detail

• Pre-Series B. For Portfolio, your most recent funding round must be within the last 12 months, if you have raised one.
• Founded in the last 10 years.
• A fully functioning company website. The Activate terms say AWS may use automated means to collect public information from your website to evaluate your application.
• AWS account on a paid plan. Since July 2025, new AWS accounts choose a free plan or a paid plan. Activate requires the paid plan. AWS's Free Tier FAQ says you can upgrade from the free plan at any time and that a valid payment method is needed to sign up either way.
• New to Activate Credits, or requesting more than you received before.
• Not a government entity. The terms exclude any organization that is part of, majority-owned, controlled or substantially funded by a government.

How to apply, step by step

1. Create or sign in with an AWS Builder ID. AWS's guide notes that the Builder ID is personal and stays with you across jobs, so it suggests a personal email for it.
2. Complete your AWS Activate profile using your business email on your startup's domain. Consistent domains help AWS validate the application.
3. Choose your tier. Founders if you are self-funded; Portfolio if you have an Org ID. Org IDs are confidential and case-sensitive; ask your provider if yours looks invalid.
4. Enter startup details: product, target market, traction, funding stage and the date of your most recent round.
5. Link your AWS account. You need root or admin permissions, pop-ups enabled, and the account must be active. Only one Builder ID can be linked to an AWS account at a time.
6. Verify the account using Verify your account in the AWS Management Console until you see "Accounts linked successfully".
7. Review and submit. Applications can't be edited after submission. To fix a mistake, cancel, unlink the account and reapply.

After submitting, track the application on the Credit Application Status page, which shows applications from the last 18 months. If approved, credits are deposited automatically and appear with their expiry date under Billing > Credits within three to four hours.

What the credits cover

AWS says Activate Credits apply to more than 200 eligible services: compute (EC2, ECS, EKS), databases (RDS, DynamoDB), storage (S3), networking (CloudFront, VPC), analytics and more. They can also go toward eligible AWS Support plans; the terms describe separate credits for AWS Business Support that auto-enroll you and switch you back to Basic Support if they expire.

Amazon Bedrock and third-party AI models

AWS states that Activate Credits extend to Amazon Bedrock, including third-party foundation models from Anthropic, OpenAI, Mistral AI and Meta. The terms make AWS Marketplace an eligible service only for third-party model spend on Bedrock. That makes Activate one of the few ways to pay for Claude with startup credits outside Anthropic's own program; Anthropic's Claude for Startups credits, by contrast, only work on the first-party Claude API. To estimate token costs, see Claude API pricing and OpenAI API pricing; Bedrock publishes its own rates.

Not covered

• Amazon Mechanical Turk, AWS Managed Services, AWS Professional Services, and AWS Training and Certification (examples AWS lists).
• Past bills: credits apply monthly to new usage only.
• Services not shown in the Billing and Cost Management console's credit details.
• Your customers: the terms say Activate Credits are for your use only and cannot be passed on to end customers.

How credits are applied and when they expire

• Automatic: credits apply to all eligible charges as they occur. You cannot choose or prioritize services.
• Expiry: AWS says credits usually expire within one to two years depending on the package. The exact date is in the Billing console.
• After credits: you pay standard rates once credits run out or expire. AWS says it sends reminders before expiry, but recommends tracking the date yourself.
• Account level: credits typically sit on the AWS account you linked, so link the account that will run production workloads.

Because credits apply to everything eligible, a forgotten GPU instance or idle database can burn through them. Set AWS Budgets alerts on the account the day credits land.

Founders or Portfolio: which route fits

If you have no institutional investor, Founders is the only self-serve route, and it is deliberately small: $1,000 to start, with up to $5,000 for select participants over time. That covers early prototyping, a small production stack or a few months of Bedrock experiments, but not GPU-heavy training. If you have any investor, accelerator or startup organization behind you, ask whether they are an Activate Provider before applying to Founders. Providers' packages are where the larger amounts sit, and AWS's guide says you are initially eligible for the Founders package only if you don't have an Org ID.

If you previously received Founders credits and later join a provider's portfolio, you can apply for Portfolio as long as you are requesting more than you received before. AWS's example: a startup that had $10,000 and now qualifies for $100,000 receives the additional $90,000. You need to stay with the same provider for stage-based upgrades, and the relationship must still be active.

Timing your application

AWS advises applying when you're ready to ramp up usage, because credits start expiring from the day they're issued. For Portfolio, the most recent funding round must be within the last 12 months, so a startup that raised 11 months ago should apply now rather than wait. If you later raise a bigger round with the same provider, you can reapply and receive the difference up to your new package, as long as you stay under the lifetime cap.

Activate and Kiro startup credits

AWS also runs Kiro Startup Credits, up to a year of Kiro Pro+ for teams of up to 30. Startups with active Activate Credits are not eligible for that promotion, but Activate Credits can be used for Kiro. Kiro recipients can still apply to Activate afterwards. If you need both, the order matters: get Kiro credits first, then apply for Activate.

How it compares

For model APIs that don't need a cloud account at all, see our guide to free AI credits.

Common mistakes

• Free-plan account. Activate requires an account on a paid plan; upgrade before linking.
• Mismatched email domains between your Activate profile, application and website.
• Wrong funding date. Enter the latest close date of your most recent round; Portfolio applicants must be within 12 months.
• Linking the wrong AWS account. Credits sit on the linked account, and only one Builder ID can link to it at a time.
• Applying too early. Credits start their one-to-two-year clock on issue, so idle months waste them.