Announcing the YC AI Stack

The Y Combinator (YC) AI Stack is a new initiative offering students who attend YC events a package of free credits for AI development tools, valued at over $25,000. The package includes cloud credits from Azure and AWS, API credits for models like GPT and Claude, and credits for various AI devtools, with 14 of the offerings coming from YC companies. Eligible students attending YC university events starting in Fall 2025 can redeem the deal to experiment with building AI applications without upfront costs.

This year, YC has partnered with nearly two dozen companies to offer students who attend YC events a suite of free credits for AI devtools. The YC AI Stack includes over $20,000 in cloud credits on Azure and AWS, over $5,000 in credits for GPT/Claude/Grok, and generous credits for AI devtools in voice, browser automation, web search, video generation, databases, web crawling, and more. We’re especially happy that 14 YC companies are represented in this starter pack. We would love to see students use these to experiment with the latest AI tools without worrying about paying for them out of pocket. Many of the best ideas are built on top of these technologies. For example, you could build a market research tool using Firecrawl and Exa, a voice assistant using Vapi and Browser Use, or a legal aide using Reducto and Gumloop. At the moment, students who attend a YC university event starting in Fall 2025 are eligible to redeem a deal. You will receive an email shortly after your eligible event confirming your access to the program. We’re excited to work with our partners to continue rolling this out to more students in the upcoming year. Looking forward to seeing what you all build with this. Ankit is a GP at YC and founder of Reverie Labs, which developed ML models for drug discovery before being acquired by Ginkgo Bioworks in 2024. He's a deep learning researcher who's published at ICML.