Welcome to The Pot, issue #1. Every entry below comes from the official page, with the deadline next to it.

Closing this week

Build, Ship, Shape: Amazon Developer Hackathon. $138,000 total prize pool. Deadline Oct 23. https://amazonappdev2026.devpost.com/

Build With AI: Basics. $2,500 total prize pool. Deadline Oct 26. https://learn-ai-basics.devpost.com/

Closing next week

Life After Code. $45,000 pool. Oct 27. https://gitlab-transcend.devpost.com/

OpenCV AI Competition 2026, powered by AWS. $20,250 pool. Oct 27. https://opencv26.devpost.com/

AWS CDS Agentic AI Partner Hackathon. $40,000 pool. Oct 28. https://aws-cds-partner.devpost.com/

Nebius x NVIDIA Global AI Hackathon. $50,000 pool. Oct 30. https://nebiusglobalaihackathon.devpost.com/

Qloo Agentic Hackathon. $25,000 pool. Oct 30. https://qloo.devpost.com/

Later

PayPal AI Hackathon. $67,500 pool. Nov 12. https://paypalaihackathon.devpost.com/

Meta VR Start Developer Competition 2026. $1,000,000 pool. Nov 18. https://start-developer-competition-26.devpost.com/

Free cloud credits

Google Cloud Free: $300 in credits plus 20+ always-free products, any new account, no application. https://cloud.google.com/free

Google for Startups Cloud Program: $2K for an MVP with no funding needed, up to $200K at Seed to Series A, $350K for AI-first startups. https://cloud.google.com/startup

Cloudflare for Startups: $10K under $1M raised, $100K under $5M, $350K above, for one year. https://www.cloudflare.com/for-startups/

AWS Activate: self-funded founders start at $1K, up to $5K. Portfolio tier goes to $200K with an accelerator Org ID. https://aws.amazon.com/startups/credits

Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub: Azure credits plus AI tools and GitHub benefits, no funding required to start. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/startups

One tip

Check the eligibility line before you plan around a big headline number. The top tier often needs funding or an accelerator.

The full list, sorted by deadline, is at https://builderpot.pages.dev and as a feed at https://builderpot.pages.dev/feed.json. Reply to this email if we missed a program.

The Pot comes out every Tuesday.