Most lists of startup credits tell you what exists. This one tells you what does not, because that is the information that actually costs you time: a dead program looks exactly like a live one until you have filled in the form and waited two weeks for a reply that is not coming.
This is a running record from re-verification passes over the Perkstack catalog. Every entry names the evidence — a 404, a redirect, a dated shutdown notice — rather than the absence of evidence. "We could not find the page" is not on this list; a bot filter returning 403 is not a dead program, and treating it as one is how these lists become wrong in the other direction.
Closed in 2026, with the evidence
| Program | What it was | Evidence it closed | Verified |
|---|---|---|---|
| Webflow for Startups | 100% off year one of a Premium Site plan | Webflow help centre: program "ended on June 30, 2026", no new applications | 24 Aug 2026 |
| Yext for Startups | Startup tier on the Yext platform | Program URL 301-redirects to the generic Yext help centre | 24 Aug 2026 |
| HeyGen for Startups | Startup access to HeyGen's avatar video product | Program page returns 404; no startup program linked anywhere on heygen.com | 24 Aug 2026 |
| Datadog via AWS Activate | $5,000 Datadog credit through the AWS partner offers page | AWS exclusive-offers index returns "Page not found"; the offer page is gone | 24 Aug 2026 |
| Knowlarity for Startups | Cloud telephony credits | Domain fails TLS verification; company absorbed into Gupshup in 2022 with no successor program | 24 Aug 2026 |
| Groq startup program | $10,000 in Groq credits | Program page no longer published — see what happened to it | 5 Aug 2026 |
| Coda for Startups | Coda team plan credit | Program page 404s; Coda's docs product now serves under a different brand | 5 Aug 2026 |
| Cursor for Students | One free year of Cursor Pro | Offer page no longer live | 5 Aug 2026 |
A note on the Datadog row, because it is the one people misread: Datadog for Startups itself is very much alive, at up to $100,000 in credits through a partner referral. What closed is the smaller $5,000 route that ran through the AWS Activate partner offers page. If you were counting on that one, apply to Datadog directly instead — it is a bigger number through a different door.
Programs that changed rather than closed
Worth separating, because a changed program is still claimable and a lot of writing about these is now wrong in the details:
- Zoho for Startups no longer gives "one year of Zoho One free", which is what almost every third-party page still says. It now issues Zoho Wallet Credits valid for 360 days, in two stages, gated on being registered with one of Zoho's partner incubators.
- NVIDIA Inception is still open and still free to join, but NVIDIA does not publish a credit figure for it. Any page quoting you a specific dollar amount for Inception is quoting something NVIDIA does not say.
- Attio for Startups is live, but it is 80% off the annual Pro plan for year one and 30% off year two — a percentage, not a fixed credit. It also now requires you to be venture-backed or affiliated with one of their partner funds.
- xAI no longer publishes a free signup credit for the Grok API; the current documentation tells you to load the account with credits before use. See xAI startup credits for what remains.
Why this keeps happening
Startup credit programs are marketing spend, and marketing spend gets cut. The pattern is consistent enough to plan around:
- A program launches with a landing page and a press mention.
- It runs for one to three years.
- It is quietly cut. The landing page redirects; a help article gets an update box; there is no announcement.
- Every listicle, affiliate roundup and AI answer that already ranked for the query keeps recommending it, in some cases for years.
Nothing in that chain tells a search engine the offer is gone. So the stale version outranks the correction almost every time, and the only defence is checking the vendor's own page on the day you apply.
How to check before you apply
- Open the vendor's own URL, not the roundup. A 404 or a redirect to a general help index is decisive.
- Read the top of the page for a dated notice. Vendors append shutdown boxes rather than deleting pages.
- Confirm the application form loads and submits. A live page with a removed form is a program in wind-down.
- Search the vendor's changelog or help centre for the program name — that is where sunsets get announced, because support staff need something to link to.
- Discount a 403. Cloudflare and similar bot filters return 403 to anything that is not a browser. That is not evidence of anything. Open it yourself.
What to do with the runway you were counting on
If a program you had planned around is on this list, the replacement is rarely one-for-one. Work down by size rather than by category:
- The cloud programs are where the real money is: see AWS vs Google vs Microsoft for startups for the three biggest, and the startup credits checklist for the order to claim them in, which matters more than it sounds — claiming a small credit first can disqualify you from a larger one at the same vendor.
- For AI API spend specifically, free AI API credits covers the self-serve offers that need no application at all, and are therefore much harder to quietly cancel.
We re-verify the catalog on a cycle and mark programs expired when they die, which is how this page gets written. Create a free account to see the last-verified date on every program before you spend an afternoon on an application.
rest of this guide
The rest of this guide picks up at "Why this keeps happening".
- Why this keeps happening
- How to check before you apply
- What to do with the runway you were counting on
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