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AWS Activate, Founders

aws.amazon.com/aws-startups/learn/applying-for-aws-activate-Cloud VMcompute/aws-activate-foundersJSON compare report an error provider JSON

Sibling records disagree:

identity_kind: compute/aws-activate-founders says email, compute/aws-activate-portfolio says institution
verdict: compute/aws-activate-founders says qualifies-with-caveat, compute/aws-activate-portfolio says fails-identity

Free allowance: The Activate Founders tier offers USD 1,000 in AWS Activate Credits, plus USD 350 in AWS Developer Support credits, valid for two years.
Verdict: caveatusable, with a named limit or an unprobed read path
Cost: no price stated
Identity: emailno card, no phone
Binding limit: write-gatedThe review fails first: AWS has unpublished internal requirements, applications go unedited once submitted, and reports of repeated rejection for legitimate applicants are common. After approval the two-year expiry and the USD 1,000...
Evidence: documented4 sources; a first-party page was read and the sentence quoted
Freshness: stale on 2026-11-22checked 2026-10-22 (live); stale on 2026-11-22

Free tier	The Activate Founders tier offers USD 1,000 in AWS Activate Credits, plus USD 350 in AWS Developer Support credits, valid for two years. Eligibility: new to AWS Activate Credits, self-funded, a fully functioning company website, founded in the past 10 years, and a business email matching the startup domain. AWS states: 'If you do not have an Org ID, you are initially eligible for the Founders Package.' unit none; metered on wall-clock; one-shot-credit
Price	none stated
Limits	write-gated (binding) The review fails first: AWS has unpublished internal requirements, applications go unedited once submitted, and reports of repeated rejection for legitimate applicants are common. After approval the two-year expiry and the USD 1,000 size are what bind. source
Identity	email No incorporation requirement appears in the English eligibility list or the seven-step application guide. The gates are an AWS Builder ID, a business email matching a startup domain (the guide says to use the business email for the Builder ID and the Activate profile), a live company website, and a linked AWS account.
Egress	not stated
Interface	s3-compatible inferred from the tooling the provider documents; not probed
Tooling	not stated
Composes with	USD 1,000 of EC2 and S3 plus USD 350 of Developer Support is the cheapest entry point at AWS and it does not disqualify a later Portfolio application, so the chain is Founders now, Portfolio after any accelerator affiliation. It composes with the Kiro Startup Credits promotion, which excludes applicants who already hold Activate credits.
Reliability	no reliability event recorded
Notes	The evidence reversed that verdict. AWS's seven-step application guide and its Japanese getting-started page both name a website, a domain business email and a LinkedIn profile rather than a legal entity, and one third-party tracker records solo-founder eligibility as yes. The residual risk is the unpublished internal review, which is where rejections actually happen. The corpus record storage/aws-activate merges both tiers and marks it qualifies-with-caveat with a garbled derived identity_cost; its numbers stand, its identity field does not.

Evidence 4

date	source	what it proved
2026-10-22	aws.amazon.com/aws-startups/learn/applying-for-aws-activate-	the Founders eligibility list is new to Activate, self-funded, a fully functioning company website and founded in the past 10 years, with no incorporation term, quoted
2026-10-22	aws.amazon.com/aws-startups/learn/applying-for-aws-activate-	'If you do not have an Org ID, you are initially eligible for the Founders Package', and the guide requires a business email matching the startup domain, quoted
2026-10-22	aws.amazon.com/jp/activate/gettingstarted/	the Japanese AWS page lists the required fields for Founders as an AWS account ID, a company website or web profile, and the applicant's LinkedIn profile, and states crowdfunding and friends-and-family funded startups remain eligible, quoted and translated
2026-10-22	repost.aws/questions/QUq-hqNzjaTq-9-IBFvxdhlg/repeated-rejec	an AWS re:Post answer states that meeting the published criteria does not guarantee approval and that AWS has internal requirements beyond the public list, reported

More fields 1

{
 "facets": {
  "class": "startup-credit",
  "free_tier_kind": "one-shot-credit",
  "shape": null
 }
}

Unknown values 6

$.egress.metered egress metering was not published
$.egress.terms a source was read and is silent on this field
$.per_object_cap.stated the field does not apply to this kind of offer
$.reliability_note nothing of this kind was observed
$.retention.stated the field does not apply to this kind of offer
$.tooling a source was read and is silent on this field