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Runpod vs Together AI: startup credits compared

Side-by-side amounts, eligibility and access paths, both verified against the official program pages.

Runpod$1K (Starter) or $5K (Venture) in GPU credits; bonus credits on $25K+ commitsVerified Nov 4, 2026Together AIUp to $15K / $30K / $50K in platform credits by funding stageVerified Nov 3, 2026

At a glance

FactRunpodTogether AI
Value$1K (Starter) or $5K (Venture) in GPU credits; bonus credits on $25K+ commitsUp to $15K / $30K / $50K in platform credits by funding stage
TypeCreditsCredits
Duration1 yearNot stated
StagesPre-seed, Seed, Series A, Series B+, BootstrappedPre-seed, Seed, Series A, Series B+
RegionsGlobalGlobal
Max funding raisedNot statedNot stated
Max company ageNot statedNot stated
Ways to get it
  • Apply directly — $1K in credits (Starter)
  • a16z or Neo (Runpod verified VCs) — $5K in credits (Venture)
  • Apply directly — +$10K bonus on a $25K commit; +$25K bonus on a $50K commit (Growth Track)
  • Apply directly — Up to $50K credits + up to 10 hours forward-deployed engineering
  • Y Combinator — Dedicated Together GPU cluster for YC companies
Requirements
  • A real company: business email on its own domain, live website and LinkedIn
  • An AI or ML product with real GPU workloads (inference, training, fine-tuning or compute-heavy R&D)
  • Ready to onboard now
  • Tier set by funding: under $1M (Starter), verified VC and under $5M (Venture), over $5M (Growth Track)
  • Building an AI-native application
  • Accepted through Together's selection process
Not eligible
  • Existing Runpod customers (for the free Starter and Venture credits)
  • A second free offer for the same company, including through a second verified VC
  • Credits do not apply to Reserved GPU Clusters
VerificationVerified· Nov 4, 2026Verified· Nov 3, 2026

Which should you pick?

Together AI offers the larger headline amount (Up to $15K / $30K / $50K in platform credits by funding stage versus $1K (Starter) or $5K (Venture) in GPU credits; bonus credits on $25K+ commits). Runpod accepts a wider range of funding stages, while Together AI is more targeted. If you qualify for both, there is usually no reason not to apply to both; the programs are independent.

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