Cloudflare for Startups - Bootstrapped ($5,000)
Source: https://www.cloudflare.com/forstartups
Description
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+ 1 Bootstrapped and stealth-mode startups can get $5,000 in Cloudflare credits valid for one year (or until consumed) by applying with the promo code BOOTSTRAPPED. Credits cover pay-as-you-go developer platform services like Workers, Pages, R2, D1, Images, Stream, Queues, and Durable Objects. On top of credits, you get up to three Enterprise-level domains with CDN, DDoS protection, DNS, WAF, and Zero Trust included. No VC backing or accelerator membership required — just a software-based startup founded in the last five years.
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+ 7 1. Go to cloudflare.com/forstartups
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+ 8 2. Click "Apply now" and create a Cloudflare account (or sign in to an existing one)
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+ 9 3. Fill in the startup application form with your company name, website, email, and a brief description of what you are building
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+ 10 4. Enter the promo code BOOTSTRAPPED when prompted (this signals you have raised less than $50,000)
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+ 11 5. Add a valid payment method — a credit card is required on file. You will not be charged while credits remain, but Cloudflare will bill your card once credits are exhausted or expire
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+ 12 6. Submit the form and check your inbox for a confirmation email that your Startup Plan has been activated
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+ 13
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+ 14 Important:
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+ 15 • Acceptance is at Cloudflare's sole discretion — not every applicant is approved
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+ 16 • Only one Startup Plan per applicant (credits cannot be split across multiple accounts)
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+ 17 • You must be a new, non-paying Cloudflare user — existing Enterprise customers are not eligible
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+ 18 • Agencies and service companies are not eligible; you must be building a software product
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+ 19 • Your email must match your company domain (generic Gmail/Yahoo addresses may reduce your chances)
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+ 27 Credits apply to Cloudflare's pay-as-you-go developer platform products:
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+ 28
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+ 29 ServiceWhat It Does
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+ 30 WorkersServerless compute at the edge (JavaScript/TypeScript/Rust/Python)
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+ 31 PagesFull-stack web app hosting with Git-based deploys
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+ 32 R2S3-compatible object storage with zero egress fees
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+ 33 D1Serverless SQLite database
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+ 34 Durable ObjectsStateful serverless coordination
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+ 35 QueuesMessage queuing between Workers
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+ 36 Workers AIServerless AI inference (50+ models, 200+ edge locations)
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+ 37 ImagesImage optimization, resizing, and delivery
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+ 38 StreamVideo storage, encoding, and delivery
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+ 39 KVKey-value storage at the edge
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+ 40 HyperdriveConnection pooling for existing databases
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+ 41
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+ 44 You also get enterprise-grade protection on up to three domains, including:
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+ 45
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+ 46 • CDN — global content delivery network
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+ 47 • DDoS protection — automatic Layer 3/4/7 mitigation
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+ 48 • DNS — authoritative DNS with DNSSEC
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+ 49 • WAF — Web Application Firewall with managed rulesets
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+ 50 • Zero Trust — identity-based access for internal tools and APIs
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+ 51 • Argo Smart Routing — optimized network routing
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+ 52 • Advanced Certificate Manager — custom SSL/TLS certificates
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+ 58 Even within the $5,000 total, certain services have hard sub-limits that apply across all Startup Plan tiers:
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+ 59
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+ 60 ServiceMaximum Credit Usage
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+ 61 R2 + Cache ReserveUp to $10,000 (not a constraint at $5K tier)
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+ 62 Workers AIUp to $50,000 (not a constraint at $5K tier)
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+ 63
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+ 64 At the $5,000 tier these caps are not binding, but they matter if you later upgrade to a higher tier ($25K–$250K).
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+ 70 Workers AI provides serverless inference on 50+ open-source models. Highlights include:
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+ 71
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+ 72 CategoryNotable Models
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+ 73 Text GenerationLlama 4 Scout 17B, Llama 3.3 70B, Qwen 3 30B, DeepSeek-R1 32B, Gemma 3 12B, Mistral Small 3.1 24B, GPT-OSS 120B/20B
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+ 74 CodeQwen 2.5 Coder 32B
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+ 75 ReasoningQwQ-32B, DeepSeek-R1 Distill
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+ 76 Image GenerationFlux 2 (Klein 9B/4B, Dev), Stable Diffusion XL Lightning, Leonardo Phoenix/Lucid
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+ 77 Speech-to-TextWhisper Large v3 Turbo, Deepgram Nova 3
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+ 78 Text-to-SpeechDeepgram Aura 2, MeloTTS
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+ 79 EmbeddingsBGE (small/base/large), Qwen 3 Embedding, Google EmbeddingGemma
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+ 80 VisionLLaVA 1.5 7B, Llama 3.2 11B Vision
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+ 81 Content SafetyLlama Guard 3 8B
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+ 82
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+ 83 Inference is billed at $0.011 per 1,000 Neurons (Cloudflare's unified compute unit). Your $5,000 in credits covers this usage.
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+ 89 Many Cloudflare services are free regardless of the Startup Plan. These do not consume your credits:
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+ 90
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+ 91 ServiceFree Limit
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+ 92 Workers100,000 requests/day, 10ms CPU/request
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+ 93 PagesUnlimited static sites, billed as Workers for Functions
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+ 94 R210 GB storage, 1M Class A ops, 10M Class B ops/month, zero egress
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+ 95 D15M rows read/day, 100K rows written/day, 5 GB storage
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+ 96 KV100K reads/day, 1K writes/day, 1 GB storage
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+ 97 CDNUnlimited bandwidth (on any plan, including Free)
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+ 98 DNSFree authoritative DNS
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+ 99 DDoSUnmetered DDoS protection (all plans)
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+ 100 SSL/TLSFree Universal SSL certificates
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+ 101 AI Gateway100K logs/month (Free plan)
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+ 102
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+ 103 Your $5,000 in credits kicks in when you exceed these free limits or use paid-only services (Queues, Stream, Argo, etc.).
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+ 109 1. Credits last one year from activation or until fully consumed — whichever comes first
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+ 110 2. Once credits run out, your credit card on file will be charged for any ongoing usage above the free tier
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+ 111 3. Services that have always-free tiers (Workers, R2, D1, Pages, CDN, DNS, DDoS) continue at their free limits
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+ 112 4. Paid-only services (Queues, Stream) will stop or start billing your card
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+ 113 5. Enterprise domain protections (WAF, Zero Trust, Argo) revert to free-plan levels unless you subscribe
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+ 114 6. You can request additional credits — Cloudflare considers case-by-case extensions at their discretion
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+ 120 If your startup grows, you can apply for higher credit tiers:
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+ 121
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+ 122 TierCreditsRequirements
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+ 123 $5,000Bootstrapped/stealthSoftware startup, <5 years old, valid email
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+ 124 $25,000Up-and-comingAbove + active LinkedIn, funded up to $1M
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+ 125 $100,000Seed-fundedAbove + $1M–$5M funding, Cloudflare-approved VC/accelerator
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+ 126 $250,000High-growthAbove + Tier 1 VC/accelerator or AI-focused
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+ 127
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+ 128 AI startups get special treatment — you no longer need an accelerator affiliation or employee referral. If you are building in AI with less than $3M in funding, you may qualify for higher tiers directly.
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+ 133
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+ 134 • No registrar credits — domain registration via Cloudflare Registrar is not covered by Startup Plan credits and must be paid separately
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+ 135 • No enterprise support — the Startup Plan does not include account management, 24/7 phone support, or SLA guarantees
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+ 136 • Branding clause — by accepting, you grant Cloudflare the right to use your company name and logo in their marketing materials
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+ 137 • Workers Launchpad — a separate accelerator program offering bootcamp sessions, architect office hours, VC introductions, and Demo Day. Apply separately at workers.cloudflare.com/launchpad
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+ 138 • Non-profit path — non-profit and civil society organizations have a separate program with free access to developer services
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+ 139 • Set billing alerts — since your card is charged automatically after credits expire, monitor your usage in the Cloudflare dashboard to avoid surprise bills
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+ 140 • Zero egress on R2 — unlike AWS S3 or GCS, R2 has no data transfer charges, making it very cost-effective for storage-heavy workloads even after credits run out
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+ 143
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+ 144 Sources:
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+ 145 • Cloudflare for Startups
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+ 146 • Startup Program Revamped: Up to $250K in Credits
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+ 147 • Startup Program Update: Empowering Every Stage
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+ 148 • AI Startups Eligible
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+ 149 • Workers Pricing
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+ 150 • R2 Pricing
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+ 151 • D1 Pricing
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+ 152 • Workers AI Pricing
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+ 153 • Workers AI Models
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