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Startup programs

How to apply for Cloudflare for Startups

· 6 min read

Cloudflare for Startups gives eligible companies credits for Cloudflare's developer platform, including Workers, storage and Workers AI, plus enterprise-grade security features. The program has three tiers, and which one you get depends on how much you have raised and who funded you. This guide explains the tiers, the eligibility rules and the application steps.

Understand the tiers

Cloudflare's official startup page lists three tiers. All amounts are advertised maximums, and all credits are valid for one year or until used up, whichever comes first.

  • Tier 3: up to $10,000 in credits for bootstrapped or self-funded startups that have raised under $1M. Support is through docs and the Discord community.
  • Tier 2: up to $100,000 for startups that have raised under $5M and are funded by an affiliated partner. Includes technical sessions and, depending on the case, an account manager.
  • Tier 1: up to $350,000 for startups that have raised $5M or more and are funded by an affiliated partner. Includes an account manager, priority technical support and regular solutions architect office hours.

The page does not publish a list of affiliated partners. If you have investors, ask them whether they partner with Cloudflare before you apply.

What you need before you start

Cloudflare says education institutions, personal blogs, consultancies, service agencies, managed service providers and resellers are not a good fit.

  • A for-profit company incorporated within the last 10 years.
  • Funding up to Series B, with funding in the last 12 months, or a bootstrapped company for Tier 3.
  • A technology product you are actively building.
  • A live, publicly verifiable website.
  • A public presence on LinkedIn, X or GitHub.
  • A business email address that matches your website's domain.
  • No previous approval for the program. It is for first-time participants only.

Apply

  1. Read the eligibility list on Cloudflare's startup page and confirm you meet every point.
  2. Create or sign in to a Cloudflare account using your business email, and add your domain if you have not already.
  3. Click 'Apply now' on the startup page to open the application form.
  4. Enter your company details, funding information and, if relevant, the partner investor or accelerator that backed you.
  5. Describe what you are building and which Cloudflare products you plan to use.
  6. Submit the form and watch your inbox, including spam. Cloudflare says review typically takes up to 48 hours.
  7. If you hear nothing after a week, email the startup team at the address listed on the official page.

If you are rejected, Cloudflare says it gives a reason and will reconsider if you can provide supporting information, so reply with evidence rather than reapplying blind.

Know what the credits cover

  • Compute: Workers, Workers for Platforms, Durable Objects and Workflows.
  • AI: Workers AI, capped at $2,500 on Tier 3, $10,000 on Tier 2 and $50,000 on Tier 1.
  • Storage and data: Workers KV, D1, Queues, Vectorize, and R2 up to $10,000.
  • Delivery: Pages, Images and Stream, Cache Reserve and Argo Smart Routing.
  • Not covered, per the official page: AI Gateway (temporarily), domain registration and renewal, Magic Transit, Enterprise Spectrum, dedicated IPs and the China Network.

Plan for the end of the credits

  1. Record the date your credits start. The one-year clock does not reset if you are upgraded to a higher tier, and Cloudflare says extensions are not currently available.
  2. Check usage in your Cloudflare dashboard every month, especially Workers AI and R2, which have their own caps.
  3. Watch for the three reminders Cloudflare sends before your startup credits end.
  4. Before the end date, choose a self-serve plan, let enterprise domains move back to the Free plan, or contact the team about staying on Enterprise.

Even without the program, Cloudflare's free plan covers a lot. PerkRadar also lists Workers AI's free daily allowance and Cloudflare's open-source program.

Get the most from the first month

Because the credits run for a fixed year from approval, the startups that get the most value are the ones that start building straight away rather than leaving the credits idle.

  1. Move your DNS to Cloudflare first, since the core security and delivery features apply to every tier.
  2. Deploy one real workload, such as an API on Workers or file storage on R2, so you learn how billing shows up in the dashboard.
  3. Set up usage notifications so you see spending against the credits before any cap is reached.
  4. On Tier 1 or Tier 2, book the technical sessions or office hours early, while your architecture is still easy to change.

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