Best offer on record: Algolia Free Plan (free tier). 5 verified findings, checked 2026-10-22.
Live check of “Algolia Startup Program (trial credits)”:Confirmed
Algolia's Startup Program is live and open to rolling applications: approved startups get $10,000 in Algolia credits (usable on the Grow or Grow Plus plan at list price, not a student/trial plan) valid for 12 months from acceptance, after which unused credits expire. Eligibility per the current page and the Startup Program Terms (effective 7 Sep 2025) is a company incorporated no more than 7 years ago, under $15M in equity funding raised, and not a current or former paid Algolia customer (free-plan users may apply, one coupon per company); note the page's FAQ still quotes an older, stricter 3 years / $5M threshold.
Standing no-cost tier: 10,000 search requests/month, 50,000 records, 5,000 recommendation requests/month, 5,000 resources crawled (crawls)/month. Includes core Search, Recommend, SDKs and UI components; explicitly usable in production. Hard caps: 10 KB/record, 1 GB/application data, 1 GB/index, 1 application.
Eligibility
Open to anyone (developers, startups, teams). No .edu email, no company-age or funding cap, no region limit. No credit card required. Self-serve.
How to claim
Self-serve sign up at https://dashboard.algolia.com/users/sign_up (no application, approval, or code). Then open https://dashboard.algolia.com. FAQ links a demo request at https://www.algolia.com/demorequest.
Expiry
No expiry stated (ongoing free tier). If account is inactive >30 days, Algolia may remove Subscriber Data. Reaching the usage limit: service may be suspended or an Algolia attribution may be added to search results.
Gotchas
Not unlimited: 50K-record and 10K-request caps simply stop (no billing on the free tier, unlike Grow). 50K records vs 100K on paid plans. No hosting-location choice on Free (US/UK/EU only appear under Grow). At usage limit results may carry Algolia attribution; idle accounts can lose data.
Algolia Startup Program (trial credits) high confidence
$10,000 in Algolia credits, valid for 12 months, plus world-class support. Bonus perks: credits for other SaaS products (DataDog, Notion and more) and Algolia Academy education resources. After credits are used, the account is automatically moved to Pay-as-you-go, or committed plans with ~20% discounts.
Eligibility
Startups only, and new Algolia customers only. Main-page criteria: company less than 7 years old AND less than $15M total funding raised. The page's FAQ contradicts this: less than 3 years old AND less than $5M raised. No founder-count requirement; no .edu requirement; no region limit stated.
How to claim
Apply via the form linked from the page (a support-ticket form): https://support.algolia.com/hc/en-us/requests/new?ticket_form_id=5005635939217 . Unresolved questions: startups@algolia.com.
Expiry
Credits lapse after 12 months; unused credits expire. No renewal mechanism described (appears to be a one-time grant).
Gotchas
Credits are non-transferable. Not eligible if you have used any other coupon code in the past. Eligibility numbers conflict on-page (7yr/US$15M on the main block vs 3yr/US$5M in the FAQ) - confirm current thresholds before applying. Post-credit auto-moves to pay-as-you-go.
Algolia for Open Source (AOS) free offer high confidence
A Standard PAYG plan with 200 units free, which translates to 200,000 records + 200,000 search requests + up to 2,000,000 indexing operations per month - a stated ~$180/month value.
Eligibility
Three buckets: (1) licensed open-source software under a valid OSS license; (2) developer-community projects that make content discoverable/searchable and useful; (3) legally-recognized non-profit or non-governmental organizations. All must be non-commercial, publicly available, and exceed the free tier's limits. Commercially-backed non-commercial projects are reviewed case-by-case. No .edu requirement; no startup age/funding cap.
How to claim
Submit your project through the application/submission form on the page (or use the 'Start Free' sign-up link). Questions: community@algolia.com.
Expiry
Ongoing for qualifying projects; no stated expiry. If a project is terminated, acquired, or shifts to a commercial model, the account is downgraded 'in a timely manner.'
Gotchas
Requires a 'Search by Algolia' logo attribution in your search results/site, linking to algolia.com (alternatives can be discussed). Must remain non-commercial and publicly available. Credit-card requirement not stated on the page. 200 units (~$180/month value) is the cap.
Same AOS bundle: Standard PAYG plan + 200 units free = 200,000 records + 200,000 search requests + up to 2,000,000 indexing operations per month (~$180/month value).
Eligibility
Legally-recognized non-profit / non-governmental organizations; must be non-commercial and publicly available. No .edu requirement; no startup age/funding cap.
How to claim
Submit through the application form on the page; questions to community@algolia.com.
Expiry
Ongoing; account downgraded on status change, termination, or acquisition.
Gotchas
Logo attribution required. The non-profit category overlaps with the open-source program. Credit-card requirement not stated. Status must remain non-profit/non-commercial or the account is downgraded.
Grow & Grow Plus 'Start for free' allowance (pay-as-you-go) high confidence
Self-serve pay-as-you-go tiers that include a free allowance: 10,000 search requests/month + 100,000 records, then billed $0.50/1K requests (Grow) or $1.75/1K requests (Grow Plus, which adds AI Synonyms, AI Ranking, Advanced Personalization, Query Categorization, Collections, 90-day analytics retention), and $0.40/1K records. Billed monthly with no contract required. Hosting: US/UK/EU on Grow.
Eligibility
Open to anyone (self-serve). Not explicitly credit-card-free like the Free plan (a payment method is needed for pay-as-you-go overage). No .edu; no age/funding cap; regions US/UK/EU.
How to claim
Start from the pricing page (https://www.algolia.com/pricing) by choosing Grow or Grow Plus; billed monthly, no contract, no approval.
Expiry
Free allowance resets monthly; unused allowance does not roll over. Ongoing pay-as-you-go; cancellable (no contract).
Gotchas
Not a pure free tier - you are billed beyond the 10K requests / 100K records allowance. Grow Plus is pricier per request ($1.75 vs $0.50). Distinct from the no-CC 'Free plan', which has a hard cap and no billing. Search-as-you-type multiplies request count; multi-query bundling reduces billed requests.
2025-2026 changes: On October 2, 2025 Algolia launched the Grow Plus plan, bringing AI search capabilities (AI Synonyms, AI Ranking, Advanced Personalization, Query Categorization, Collections, 90-day analytics retention) to the self-serve/pay-as-you-go lineup at $1.75/1K requests - a material expansion of the paid tiers; Grow plan terms were last updated June 30, 2025 (previous version Sept 25, 2024). No core free offer was sunset or reduced in 2025-2026: the Free plan still lists 10K requests / 50K records / 5K recommend / 5K crawls with no credit card required, matching the known figures. There is no dedicated student/education license: /education and /for-education both return 404 and the pricing page exposes no student URL; the only education-adjacent item is 'Algolia Academy' resources offered as a perk inside the Startup program. One unresolved on-page discrepancy in the Startup program: the main block says <7 years old and <US$15M funding, while its FAQ says <3 years old and <US$5M funding. Note: this session's WebSearch budget was exhausted, so the startup/education verification relied on direct WebFetch of official Algolia pages (fetched 2026-10-22), which is the intended high-confidence path.