Quick follow-up on this: we just activated our $25,000 in Retool credits through their startup program -- because we’re finally at the stage where we can turn that into real value, not just tinker. We’ve mapped out exactly how that spend gets used, and the goal is to convert that $25K into at least $250K+ in productivity and velocity.

That’s the point I was making: these credit programs are great, but only when you hit the moment where you can actually leverage them. If you activate too early, you burn your runway and the window closes before you’ve built anything meaningful.

Most startup credit-card and banking platforms offer better deals today than the old Azure/OpenAI programs ever did. We use Brex, and we get free credits from Anthropic, OpenAI, and a long list of legitimately valuable perks -- so the opportunities are still out there, just not handed out as casually as before.

The startup programs do still exist. The part people don’t mention is that you actually have to qualify and be in a stage where those credits matter. And once you’re approved, you’re on the clock -- some give you a year, some (like Anthropic) give you six months. If you’re not ready to extract real value, you’re basically burning your one shot at free compute.

OpenAI credits aren’t going to save an early product either.
Most basic API usage costs almost nothing if you’re thoughtful. I wouldn’t request credits until you know exactly how that $2,500 in tokens is going to turn into something that pushes the company forward.

Once they expire or run out, that’s it -- you’re back on your own again.