For individuals, the free trial includes up to $1,700 in credits; verified enterprises can get up to $8,500. ECS free trial packages can run up to 12 months, while other PAYG product credits typically expire after 60 days, so “worth” depends on what you activate. Practically, it’s enough to run ECS plus common building blocks like OSS and ApsaraDB long enough to validate an MVP architecture. If you’re here mainly for GenAI, Model Studio also has a separate free inference quota for Qwen models that lasts 90 days (Singapore region only).

Yes. Alibaba Cloud requires a credit card and verifies it with a small temporary hold (under $1) and a verification code.

ECS trial packages can be valid for up to 12 months, while other PAYG product credits expire after about 60 days.

Yes. If you have Alibaba Cloud credits you won’t use before they expire, you can list them on AI Credit Mart and sell them at up to 70% of face value. Companies regularly list surplus credits from startup programs and enterprise agreements.

AI Credit Mart has discounted Alibaba Cloud credits available from companies with surplus allocations. Prices are typically 30-70% below retail.

ECS trial packages won’t auto-bill after expiration, but PAYG products can start charging at standard rates if you keep using them or exceed the free credits. If you do not upgrade after the trial ends, Alibaba Cloud may delete your data.

No. Individual and Enterprise trials are mutually exclusive, so you can’t switch the same trial after signup.

No. The free inference quota for Model Studio is available only in the Singapore region, and the quota covers real-time inference only (not batch calls or context cache). Usage in the console updates hourly, which means you should leave some buffer if you’re trying to stay strictly within the free tier. Also, your Alibaba Cloud account and RAM users share the same free quota, so one noisy test script can burn it for everyone.

The core value is typically 1,000,000 tokens per available model for 90 days (Singapore region), plus 100 images for qwen-image-max and qwen-image-edit-max, and 50 seconds of video for the wan2.6 video models. Because the token quota is granted per model (and not shared), you can test several Qwen variants without them cannibalizing each other. In practical terms, that’s enough for a real prototype: chat flows, toolcalling experiments, and a decent amount of multimodal testing. The “worth” depends on which models you lean on and how output-heavy your prompts are, but it’s far more than a tiny demo tier.

No.

The free quota is typically valid for 90 days from activation for activations after September 8, 2025, and the clock starts the moment you activate Model Studio.

Yes. If you have Alibaba Cloud credits you won’t use before they expire, you can list them on AI Credit Mart and sell them at up to 70% of face value. Companies regularly list surplus credits from startup programs and enterprise agreements.

AI Credit Mart has discounted Alibaba Cloud credits available from companies with surplus allocations. Prices are typically 30-70% below retail.

Once your free quota expires or is depleted, usage can be billed at standard rates unless you enable “Free Quota Only,” which forces requests to error instead of charging you.

Singapore (International Edition) is the only region that includes the free token quota. Mainland China (Beijing) does not include it, and the US (Virginia) region is typically available without the free quota.

Yes, it’s compatible with the OpenAI SDK. You swap in Alibaba’s base URL for Singapore (https://dashscope-intl.aliyuncs.com/compatible-mode/v1) and use your DashScope API key as the API key. There’s also a newer Responses API with a different base URL (https://dashscope-intl.aliyuncs.com/api/v2/apps/protocols/compatible-mode/v1), so double-check which API style your code is using. If you already have an OpenAI-based integration, this can be a fast way to evaluate Qwen models without rewriting your whole client.

Up to $120,000 total across four tiers: $1,000 (Launcher), $20,000 (Gold), $40,000 (Platinum), and $59,000 (Diamond). The value is real because service credits apply to most core products (compute, databases, storage, networking, AI/ML), not just a narrow subset. What you can do depends on what you run, but the practical use is covering pay-as-you-go infrastructure while you build and scale. If you join via the AI Catalyst variant, you also get up to 2 billion Model Studio tokens for Qwen-series models, which can offset a lot of inference testing.

Yes. Account creation requires a payment method.

It depends on the tier and starts from redemption: Launcher lasts 3 months, Gold 6 months, Platinum 9 months, and Diamond 12 months.

Yes. If you have Alibaba Cloud credits you won’t use before they expire, you can list them on AI Credit Mart and sell them at up to 70% of face value. Companies regularly list surplus credits from startup programs and enterprise agreements.

AI Credit Mart has discounted Alibaba Cloud credits available from companies with surplus allocations. Prices are typically 30-70% below retail.

Unused credits expire per tier, and pay-as-you-go services can start billing your payment method at standard rates once the credits are exhausted. Excluded services (like domains, CDN, Marketplace, Academy courses, and prepaid products) are billed normally even before expiration, so you can still see charges. If you are not upgrading to paid plans, back up data first because resources may be deleted if you don’t move to a paid setup.

Yes. It includes the same tiered service credits, plus AI-specific perks like up to 2 billion Model Studio tokens, 1:1 AI office hours, and additional program benefits.

Not completely. The free tokens cover real-time inference only, not batch calls or context cache, and the quota is shared across the Alibaba Cloud account and its RAM sub-users.

Up to $20,000 of Claude API usage over 6 months. Anthropic’s own math says that’s roughly 20 billion input tokens or about 4 billion output tokens at Haiku 4.5 pricing, or roughly 4 billion input tokens or about 800 million output tokens at Opus 4.5 pricing. In practice, that can cover anything from large-scale literature extraction and structured summaries to repeated analysis passes across big text corpora. If you mix models (Haiku for bulk, Sonnet/Opus for the hard parts), the credits usually go much further than teams expect.

No. Anthropic awards credits directly to your organizational API account.

These program credits last for 6 months from award.

Yes. If you have Anthropic credits you won’t use before they expire, you can list them on AI Credit Mart and sell them at up to 70% of face value. Companies regularly list surplus credits from startup programs and enterprise agreements.

AI Credit Mart has discounted Anthropic credits available from companies with surplus allocations. Prices are typically 30-70% below retail.

There’s no auto-billing: when credits run out, API access stops unless you add a payment method.

You get access to Anthropic’s standard model suite via the API: Claude Opus 4.5, Sonnet 4.5, Haiku 4.5, plus legacy Opus 4 and Sonnet 4.

Applications are reviewed monthly on the first Monday, and Anthropic scores them on scientific merit, potential impact, technical feasibility, and a mandatory biosecurity screening. If you’re selected, you must respond within 5 business days, then complete any required compliance affidavits and liability releases within 14 days or you forfeit the award. If you’re not selected, Anthropic typically won’t notify you. You can reapply in a later monthly cycle.

They’re worth $5 of prepaid Anthropic usage across Claude models (Haiku, Sonnet, and Opus), and you can spend them via API calls, the Console Workbench, or Claude Code. In terms of scale, Anthropic estimates about 5 million input tokens on Claude Haiku 4.5 or about 1 million input tokens on Claude Opus 4.5. Your real mileage depends on output tokens too, since generation is billed separately. If you keep prompts tight and prototype on Haiku first, $5 is enough for a meaningful test run.

No.

The free $5 expires 14 days after you click the “Claim” button, not when you create the account.

Yes. If you have Anthropic credits you won’t use before they expire, you can list them on AI Credit Mart and sell them at up to 70% of face value. Companies regularly list surplus credits from startup programs and enterprise agreements.

AI Credit Mart has discounted Anthropic credits available from companies with surplus allocations. Prices are typically 30-70% below retail.

Once the free credits expire (or you use them up), API calls return errors and you must prepay to continue; you are not charged automatically.

Most failures come down to number type or region. VoIP numbers (including Google Voice), app-generated numbers, and landlines are not accepted. US-based phone numbers tend to work reliably, UK numbers are explicitly excluded, and other regions can be hit or miss, so try a different eligible mobile number if you’re stuck.

Yes, but it requires a separate $5 deposit to reach Build Tier 1, which needs a credit card and is not the same as the free credits.

The program includes a $3,850/week stipend plus about $15,000/month in compute funding for research expenses during a four-month, full-time fellowship. In practice, that compute budget is meant to cover the infrastructure needed to execute your project, while the stipend covers your time. It’s not a coupon code for the public; it’s tied to being accepted as a fellow. Anthropic also frames the expected “value” as publishable output, with many prior fellows producing papers and some converting into full-time roles.

No.

For this program, the compute funding runs for the four-month fellowship term, and then it ends.

Yes. If you have Anthropic credits you won’t use before they expire, you can list them on AI Credit Mart and sell them at up to 70% of face value. Companies regularly list surplus credits from startup programs and enterprise agreements.

AI Credit Mart has discounted Anthropic credits available from companies with surplus allocations. Prices are typically 30-70% below retail.

In the Fellows Program, the compute funding is tied to the fellowship period, so once the four months are over, you should assume the budget ends with it rather than rolling forward.

No. Anthropic says to apply to only one track, so pick the one that best matches your interests and background.

Yes, but only if you are located within the US, UK, or Canada, and you still need work authorization in one of those countries because there is no visa sponsorship.

They’re worth $25,000 of Claude API usage, usable across all Claude models in the Anthropic API. Anthropic’s own estimate says that at Claude Sonnet 4.5 rates, $25K is roughly 8.3 billion input tokens or about 1.67 billion output tokens; Haiku 4.5 stretches further to about 25 billion input tokens. In practice, that’s enough budget for serious evaluation work, a real beta, and an early production ramp if you lean on Batch API and caching. The bigger hidden value, honestly, is the priority rate limits if your app needs throughput.

No.

Credits typically expire 12 months from the grant date, and the expiration date can’t be extended.

Yes. If you have Anthropic credits you won’t use before they expire, you can list them on AI Credit Mart and sell them at up to 70% of face value. Companies regularly list surplus credits from startup programs and enterprise agreements.

AI Credit Mart has discounted Anthropic credits available from companies with surplus allocations. Prices are typically 30-70% below retail.

They become unusable, and Anthropic does not extend expiration dates.

The Anthology Fund is a venture investment (Menlo typically invests $100K+ for equity) plus $25,000 in Claude API credits, and it’s highly competitive. The VC Partner Program is credits-only and you apply through your VC’s unique link or referral code, with amounts that can vary (often from about $1,000 up to $25,000). If you don’t want dilution, the partner path is usually the one to pursue.

No. Anthropic uses a prepaid credit model, so API access stops when you hit zero. Auto-reload exists, but it’s opt-in only, meaning you must explicitly enable it.

You get $1,000 in AWS credits that apply to 200+ eligible AWS services, plus $350 in AWS Developer Support credits for unlimited email-based support cases. The AWS credits can cover real usage on EC2, Lambda, S3, RDS, DynamoDB, and AI services like Amazon Bedrock and Amazon SageMaker, so it’s meaningful even if you’re building an AI feature and a normal web stack. The practical value depends on your architecture: lightweight serverless MVPs stretch it far, while heavy GPU or high-volume model usage burns it quickly. AWS also applies the credits automatically to eligible monthly charges, so you won’t be manually “spending” them line by line.

Yes, AWS requires a credit card to create an AWS account.

The Activate credits expire 1 year after they are issued, and AWS notes there are no extensions.

Yes. If you have AWS credits you won’t use before they expire, you can list them on AI Credit Mart and sell them at up to 70% of face value. Companies regularly list surplus credits from startup programs and enterprise agreements.

AI Credit Mart has discounted AWS credits available from companies with surplus allocations. Prices are typically 30-70% below retail.

They stop applying to charges, and any ongoing usage bills your card at standard AWS rates. AWS sends exhaustion alerts (75% and 100%) plus expiration warnings around 60, 30, and 0 days before expiration, but you should still set up AWS Budget Alerts to avoid surprises.

The most common reasons are using a personal email domain, having no live product website (or a placeholder “coming soon” site), and looking like a services company. AWS also rejects applications with inconsistent public info, missing LinkedIn company pages, or prior AWS Activate credits under any package. If you fix the issues, you can re-apply, and many startups get approved on a later attempt.

Yes, AWS Activate credits can be used for Amazon Bedrock, which provides managed access to foundation models (including Anthropic Claude, Meta Llama, Mistral, and Amazon Nova) via a single API. AWS notes that most Bedrock models require no approval, but Anthropic access requires a one-time use case submission.

They’re worth up to $300,000 in promotional credits that automatically offset eligible AWS usage. In practice, that can cover large chunks of Bedrock model usage (including third-party models), EC2 GPU capacity (P5/G5), and Trainium/Inferentia workloads, plus the supporting stack like S3 and databases. The “worth it” part depends on whether you actually run compute-heavy training or inference over the next two years. If your product doesn’t need that level of infrastructure, you’ll leave value unused.

Yes. The AWS account setup step includes confirming a credit card.

These Activate credits expire 2 years from activation, and AWS won’t extend them.

Yes. If you have AWS credits you won’t use before they expire, you can list them on AI Credit Mart and sell them at up to 70% of face value. Companies regularly list surplus credits from startup programs and enterprise agreements.

AI Credit Mart has discounted AWS credits available from companies with surplus allocations. Prices are typically 30-70% below retail.

After expiration, you’re charged standard pay-as-you-go rates for any running services. AWS sends reminder emails around 60 days before, 30 days before, and after expiry, but it won’t pause your infrastructure for you.

Not exactly. Credits do not stack: if you already received $100K in Portfolio credits and later qualify for the Generative AI tier, AWS grants the difference (an additional $200K) to reach the higher allocation.

Using a personal email (Gmail/Yahoo) and looking like an API wrapper are the big ones. AWS also flags vague product/workload descriptions, missing or invalid Org IDs, and prior Activate credits at an equal or greater value. One more: your Builder ID email cannot be tied to another Builder ID, or AWS rejects it as a duplicate. Treat the application like a technical spec, not a branding exercise.

Up to $100,000 in AWS Activate Credits can offset eligible AWS usage across 200+ services (compute, databases, storage, analytics, and AI/ML). On top of that, the package can include up to $10,000 in AWS Business Support credits, 80 self-paced training lab credits, and access to $800K+ in partner offers. The practical value depends on what you run, but it’s enough to support real production infrastructure if you plan usage before the expiration window. One standout: third-party foundation models on Amazon Bedrock (Anthropic, Meta, Mistral, Cohere, Stability, and more) are explicitly covered, which can save a lot if you’re doing serious inference.

Yes, your AWS account must be on a Paid Tier Plan (not free tier).

Portfolio Package credits expire in 1–2 years from issuance, and the exact duration depends on your provider arrangement.

Yes. If you have AWS credits you won’t use before they expire, you can list them on AI Credit Mart and sell them at up to 70% of face value. Companies regularly list surplus credits from startup programs and enterprise agreements.

AI Credit Mart has discounted AWS credits available from companies with surplus allocations. Prices are typically 30-70% below retail.

Unused credits are permanently forfeited, and standard AWS rates kick in immediately for any running services.

Yes. Activate Credits explicitly cover third-party foundation models on Amazon Bedrock, including providers like Anthropic (Claude), Meta (Llama), Mistral, Cohere, AI21 Labs, Stability AI, and Amazon Titan.

Yes, but only in a specific scenario. If you previously received a smaller amount (for example $10,000) and you now qualify for $100,000, AWS allows you to reapply and receive the difference. That means you would be considered for the remaining balance rather than “double dipping” the full amount again. If you previously received credits of equal or greater value, you’re not eligible for this package.