Explainers · September 26, 2026 · 6 min read
Claude’s cloud-session credit has to be claimed by October 7. The six-figure Google and Microsoft numbers are startup programs, and Gemini’s free tier is a rate limit with a data term.
A list has been moving around this week that adds Claude, Gemini, Google Cloud, Microsoft, and OpenAI into one pile of free credits. The largest figure on it is $350,000. The only item with a public cutoff is much smaller, and it is the one worth doing before the others.
The credit with a date
On September 23, Anthropic took Claude Code cloud sessions out of research preview. A cloud session keeps a coding task running after the laptop is shut. Existing subscribers get one credit to try that: $100 on Pro, $250 on Max. BleepingComputer, reporting the offer, says it is limited to individual Pro and Max subscribers who already had an active plan when the promotion began that day. Free accounts are excluded.
Claim it by October 7. The instruction attached to the announcement is to open the claim page or run /claim-credit in the Claude Code command line. A session needs GitHub connected, because the cloud agent works against a repository. The credit spends on cloud sessions first, before the normal plan allowance. The Pro or Max fee is unchanged. You are already paying that.
Coverage of the claim screen, including BleepingComputer, also says unused credit expires on November 4. That date is in the reporting of the offer, and Anthropic has not put it in a separate blog post I can cite. Claim by the 7th, then read the expiry on your own account.
Anthropic has not published a simple public price for cloud sessions after the credit is gone. The useful test inside the window is a repository you already work in, a task you already meant to run, and a look at how much of the $100 or $250 that task consumed. Until you can see a cost per task, the credit is a trial.
Gemini is free under a rate limit
Google’s Gemini Developer API still has a free tier. On the pricing page, current Flash models, including gemini-3.8-flash, list input and output as free of charge on that tier, with Google AI Studio included. New accounts start there. You can create a key in AI Studio without attaching a card to the project, and AI Studio usage stays free until you link a paid key.
There is no dollar balance. The free tier is a cap on how much you can call, and on which models. Google’s own line on the free column is “limited access to certain models” and “content used to improve our products.” The paid column says content is not used to improve products. A prototype that includes private code, customer text, or anything you would keep out of a consumer chat belongs on a paid key.
Two other Google offers do not pay this bill. The billing docs say that, from March 2026, Gemini API usage is excluded from the $300 Google Cloud free trial. A Google AI Pro or Ultra subscription raises limits inside the AI Studio website. It does not become API credit for an app you run yourself.
Google has not printed an end date on the Flash free tier. Model lists and rate limits move. The page to re-read before you depend on it is the pricing page.
The six-figure numbers are startup programs
Google for Startups Cloud is real, and the ceilings on its program page match the list: up to $2,000 if you are early and have not taken equity funding, up to $200,000 for funded startups, and up to $350,000 for AI startups. The shape of the money is the part the list flattens.
The $2,000 is credits to use over one year. The funded offer is year one of Google Cloud and Firebase usage covered up to $100,000, then 20 percent of those costs in year two, capped at another $100,000. The AI line is “up to $350,000 in cloud cost coverage.” Google’s AI startup page splits that into as much as $250,000 in year one for AI-first companies and as much as $100,000 in year two. Third-party models are billed separately and are outside the credits. The credits do cover Google’s own models, including Gemini and Gemma.
The public requirements are a Google Cloud billing account, a public company site, and a company email on that domain. The company should have been founded within five years of applying, or ten years for the Scale tier. The circulating line about a working MVP and a company founded in the last 24 months is not the sentence on that page.
Microsoft’s number depends on which Microsoft page you trust, so read the screen before you submit. Azure’s startup marketing still describes $1,000 for new Azure customers, then up to $4,000 more after business verification, $5,000 in total. The first block is described as valid for 90 days and the second for 180. Those credits can pay for Azure services, including Azure OpenAI models that Azure sells. Marketplace products and a Microsoft support plan sit outside them.
The Microsoft Learn application guide, the page that actually walks through signup, shows a different starter. Without an investor code it leads you into an Azure account and displays $200 in starter credits. With a code from an investor in Microsoft’s Investor Network, the same guide says the higher tier can include up to $150,000 in Azure credits. Account setup asks for a card. When the credits are spent or they expire, the sponsorship subscription becomes pay-as-you-go. The bill starts when the grant ends.
Both programs are for companies: a site, a legal name, a billing identity. A person with a laptop and a model idea does not clear them in an afternoon.
OpenAI sends you to a partner
OpenAI’s startups page says credits and support come through eligible venture partners. There is no public claim button on openai.com for a founder without that relationship.
Ramp is the offer behind the $2,500 in the list. Its rewards page says startups can receive up to $2,500 in OpenAI API credits to build on the OpenAI platform. “Up to” is the operative phrase, and Ramp has to accept the account. The perk sits inside a banking and cards product, next to a larger bundle of software discounts. That matches the route OpenAI describes: credits move through a partner, and the partner sets the cap.
A founder who already has a venture firm on OpenAI’s partner list should use that path. It can be larger than Ramp, and it is the one OpenAI documents. Ramp is the door people point to when there is no firm in the picture. The credit still has to be activated inside that account. It does not appear because you already pay for ChatGPT.
What you can actually take this week
If you already pay for Claude Pro or Max, and you have GitHub, the cloud credit is the item with a clock. Claim it before October 7, connect the repository, and run a task you care about so the balance tells you what a cloud session costs.
The Gemini free tier is the item with no clock and the sharpest trade. Use it for a prototype you are willing to have handled under Google’s free-tier data terms. Move to a paid project before any user data or private code goes through the key.
The Google Cloud and Microsoft figures belong on a company application, and they arrive as coverage of a cloud bill over months or years. Microsoft’s starter amount changes between the marketing page and the application guide. OpenAI’s $2,500 is a Ramp offer, bounded by “up to,” and it assumes you want that account.
Add the headlines and the sum clears $350,000. The amount a subscriber can take this week, with no company and no new vendor, is $100 or $250, and only if the plan was already active on September 23.