LangSmith for Startups - $10K in Scale Tier credits
Source: https://www.langchain.com/startups
Description
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+ 1 LangSmith for Startups (run by LangChain) gives early-stage AI startups discounted access to LangSmith — LangChain's LLM observability, tracing, evaluation, and agent-deployment platform. Two tracks:
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+ 2
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+ 3 • Scale Tier — $10,000 in LangSmith credits valid 1 year (2 years for Y Combinator companies), plus VIP events, office hours with the LangChain team, an exclusive Slack network, and editorial spotlights to LangChain's 1M+ audience. Requires a premier VC backer (Sequoia, YC, Amplify, NEA, Bessemer, etc.) and Series A or earlier (up to $50M funding).
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+ 4 • Build Tier — discounted seat pricing (no dollar credits) for earlier-stage founders with less than $10M raised and at least $25K in seed funding.
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+ 5
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+ 6 This is a credit/discount program — you still need a LangSmith account, and the dollar credits offset metered usage (traces, deployments, Fleet runs).
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+ 11
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+ 12 You areRecommended tierWhat you get
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+ 13 YC startup (any batch, current or alum)Scale Tier$10K credits, 2 years to burn them
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+ 14 Series A or earlier (≤$50M) backed by a partner VCScale Tier$10K credits, 1 year
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+ 15 Pre-seed / seed startup, $25K+ raised, <$10M totalBuild TierDiscounted per-seat pricing only (no $ credits)
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+ 16 Bootstrapped / no fundingNeither — use the free Developer plan (5K traces/mo)—
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+ 17 Existing paying LangSmith customerNot eligible (first-time customers only)—
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+ 18
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+ 22
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+ 23 1. Go to langchain.com/startups
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+ 24 2. Click "Apply now"
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+ 25 3. Create a LangSmith account at smith.langchain.com — use your startup domain email (e.g. you@yourcompany.com), not Gmail. Personal-domain emails will likely get rejected at review.
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+ 26 4. Fill out the application form. Have ready:
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+ 27 • Company name, website, LinkedIn
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+ 28 • Funding stage, total raised, last round size
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+ 29 • Lead investor name (must match the premier VC list for Scale Tier)
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+ 30 • Use case (what you're building with LangChain / LangGraph / LangSmith)
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+ 31 5. Choose Build or Scale tier.
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+ 32 6. Submit and wait for the eligibility review confirmation email.
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+ 33 7. On approval, follow the activation instructions in the email — credits are applied to your LangSmith workspace.
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+ 34
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+ 35 Important:
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+ 36 • First-time customers only — if your company already has a paid LangSmith subscription, you are not eligible. Free Developer-plan usage is fine.
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• Domain email matters — applications from @gmail.com / @hotmail.com are easy to filter out. Use you@yourstartup.com.
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+ 38 • VC backing is verified — for Scale Tier, you need to be on the cap table of a partner fund. "We talked to a Sequoia partner" doesn't count.
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+ 39 • Approval is not automatic — it's a manual review. No published SLA, but typically days, not weeks.
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+ 44
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+ 45 Your lead or notable investor must be one of the following for Scale Tier credits:
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+ 46
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+ 47 • Sequoia Capital
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+ 48 • Y Combinator (also gets the 2-year credit window)
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+ 49 • Amplify Partners
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+ 50 • South Park Commons
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+ 51 • Mayfield
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+ 52 • NEA (New Enterprise Associates)
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+ 53 • Bessemer Venture Partners
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+ 54 • First Round Capital
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+ 55 • Basis Set Ventures
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+ 56 • LUX Capital
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+ 57 • Kleiner Perkins
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+ 58 • Afore Capital
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+ 59 • Accel
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+ 60 • Khosla Ventures
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+ 61 • Audacious
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+ 62 • Union
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+ 63 • Artwork
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+ 64
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+ 65 If your investor isn't on this list, you'll need to fall back to the Build Tier (discounted seats, no credits).
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+ 66
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+ 68
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+ 70
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+ 71 LangSmith's standard plans for context (so you can size the credit):
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+ 72
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+ 73 PlanCostHeadline limits
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+ 74 Developer (free)$0/seat/mo5K base traces/mo, then PAYG; 1 Fleet agent w/ 50 runs/mo
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+ 75 Plus$39/seat/mo + PAYG10K base traces/mo, 1 free dev deployment, unlimited Fleet agents w/ 500 runs/mo, up to 3 workspaces, email support
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+ 76 EnterpriseCustomSelf-host/hybrid, SSO, RBAC, SLAs
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+ 77
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+ 78 $10K typically covers: a small-to-mid team's seats for a year plus several million traces of headroom for a production agent — comfortable for an early-stage AI startup. Burn rate scales fast once you go to production traffic, so monitor usage.
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+ 79
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+ 80 Features included regardless of credit balance:
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+ 81 • Tracing for LangChain, LangGraph, and any OpenAI-compatible LLM call
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+ 82 • Evaluations (LLM-as-judge, code, human)
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+ 83 • Prompt Hub (versioned prompt management)
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+ 84 • Annotation queues
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+ 85 • Monitoring & dashboards
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+ 86 • Fleet (managed agent deployments)
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+ 87
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+ 89
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+ 91
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+ 92 • VIP event invitations with LangChain leadership
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+ 93 • Office hours and cohort sessions with the LangChain engineering team — practical help on agent design, tracing setup, eval strategies
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+ 94 • Exclusive Slack channel with other Scale-tier founders (peer network of well-funded AI startups)
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+ 95 • Editorial spotlights on LangChain's website, newsletter, and LinkedIn (1M+ reach) — useful if your launch is timed to need distribution
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+ 96
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+ 98
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+ 100
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+ 101 • Build Tier is discount only — no dollar credits. If you're at the Build stage and expecting free credits, that's not how it works. Read the tier description carefully before applying.
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+ 102 • "Premier VC partner" is a hard gate — most rejections at Scale Tier are from founders whose investors aren't on the partner list, even if the firm is reputable.
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+ 103 • Credits expire — 1 year (2 years for YC). Unused credits are lost. If your usage ramps slowly, plan accordingly.
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+ 104 • Existing customers excluded — if you signed up for Plus before applying, you may be disqualified. Apply before you start paying.
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+ 105 • No public SLA on approvals — if you have a launch deadline, apply early.
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+ 106
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+ 108
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+ 110
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+ 111 • Apply at incorporation, not after you're already paying — first-time-customer rule is strict.
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+ 112 • For YC companies: explicitly mention your YC batch in the application — it unlocks the 2-year credit window automatically.
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+ 113 • For Build Tier applicants: the $25K+ seed minimum filters out hobbyists. If you've raised on a SAFE that hasn't closed, wait until it has so you can prove the funding.
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+ 114 • Already in a YC partner stack? Combine with other YC perks (AWS/GCP/Azure credits, Anthropic/OpenAI deals) for a full free AI infrastructure stack.
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+ 115 • Not eligible? The free Developer plan still gives 5K traces/mo — enough to instrument a side project or MVP.
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+ 116
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+ 118
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+ 120
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+ 121 • LangSmith Developer Plan (free forever) — 5K base traces/mo, no credit card. The right starting point if you don't qualify or aren't ready to apply.
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+ 122 • LangChain Academy — free courses on building with LangChain/LangGraph; useful runway-saver for hiring/training.
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+ 123 • YC AI Stack — if you get into YC, you stack this with massive Anthropic, OpenAI, AWS, GCP, Azure credits — easily $1M+ combined.
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+ 124
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+ 126
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+ 127 Sources:
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+ 128 • LangSmith for Startups (program landing page)
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+ 129 • LangSmith Plans and Pricing
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+ 130 • LangSmith Pricing FAQ (official docs)
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+ 131 • LangSmith Console / Signup
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