Best offer on record: Databricks Free Edition (perpetual, no-credit-card, student/hobbyist tier). 4 verified findings, checked 2026-10-22.
Offers
Databricks Free Edition (perpetual, no-credit-card, student/hobbyist tier) high confidence
Perpetually free 'limited Databricks account with no expiration for personal use'. Exactly 1 serverless workspace, no access to classic compute, 'limited compute size and usage' with daily fair-use limits (no exact DBU/storage numbers published on the page; a doc link 'community-edition-limitations' exists but is not rendered publicly with figures). Sign up with a personal email; no credit card or payment required. Free access to the unified Data + AI platform: notebooks, dashboards/Genie, agents, scheduled data workflows, plus free self-paced Databricks Academy training. FAQ: 'Free Edition is built for students, hobbyists, and aspiring data and AI professionals... not for production or commercial use.' 'Get Free Edition' routes to /signup/free-edition (provider=DB_FREE_TIER).
Eligibility
Any personal email (no .edu verification, no enrollment proof). Personal use only — commercial use explicitly barred. Region: all supported Databricks cloud regions; tier is account-level.
How to claim
1) Go to databricks.com/learn/free-edition (or /signup/free-edition). 2) Sign up with a personal email. 3) You get one serverless workspace instantly; no cloud provider account or card needed. Databricks Academy courses are free at customer-academy.databricks.com using the 'Customer and Prospects' sign-up.
Expiry
No expiration ('perpetually free'). Daily usage limits apply. Legacy Community Edition accounts: 'access will continue to be available for the remainder of this year' (2026) — the older CE tier is being wound down in favor of Free Edition.
Gotchas
Lakebase is LOCKED in Free Edition — the trial-page comparison lists 'Locked features (no GPUs, clean rooms, Lakebase, enterprise admin etc.)'. So the free tier does NOT include the Postgres product. Also: no production/commercial use, one workspace, no classic compute, fair-use daily caps with no published quota, no support SLA.
14-day free trial with up to $400 in usage credits (includes Lakebase 'try for free') high confidence
'Full Databricks platform access for two (2) weeks used for business evaluation', 'up to $400 in free usage' credits, 'No credit card is required to start your Databricks free trial'. Express signup (email only, immediate serverless workspace) or AWS Marketplace signup (serverless + optional classic workspace in your own account). Docs confirm credits are 'valid for 14 days after you start your trial', non-transferable, trial ends when credits are exhausted, then the account 'switches to a pay-as-you-go model' (payment method: card, Marketplace, or commit contract). Personal-email trials are capped: max one SQL warehouse per workspace at 50 DBU/hr, serverless notebooks/jobs/Lakeflow capped at 50 DBU/hr, CPU only (no GPUs), one AI Search endpoint capped at 1 search unit. Lakebase: its pricing page states 'Pay as you go with a 14-day free trial' — i.e., Lakebase Postgres is reachable during the standard 14-day trial; the Lakebase product page's 'Try for free' CTA routes to the same signup. Lakebase create-flow: New project in workspace region (12 AWS regions listed), production branch, scale-to-zero enabled by default with a 24-hour inactivity timeout.
Eligibility
Work email 'recommended for full trial benefits' (business trials are unrestricted evaluation; personal email gets the 50-DBU/hr caps). No age/funding rules; no published per-person cap or region restriction on the trial itself, but Lakebase availability is limited to supported regions (12 AWS regions incl. us-east-1, us-west-2, eu-central-1, ap-northeast-1; Azure Premium = AWS/GCP Enterprise tier; 'displayed pricing does not guarantee product availability in that region').
How to claim
1) databricks.com/free-trial -> 'Try Databricks' (/signup/express) with an email; or AWS Marketplace signup with existing AWS account. 2) Create a Lakebase project from the Lakebase Postgres app in your workspace (Autoscaling -> New project). 3) Connect with psql/PG drivers via OAuth (postgresql://user@databricks.com@ep-....databricks.com). 4) Upgrade before day 14 to keep remaining credits (they survive an upgrade).
Expiry
14 days, no renewal of the same trial; credits expire with the trial unless upgraded to paid. After the trial, a payment method is required to continue.
Gotchas
Trial-vs-free: this is an evaluation trial, not a perpetual tier — Lakebase's only 'free' on-ramp is this trial; it is NOT available in the perpetual Free Edition. $400 is 'up to', not guaranteed; after expiry you're on pay-as-you-go with storage quotas (per-branch, adjustable on request) and possible egress/transfer costs (no public free egress allowance found). Credits cannot be combined with promotions or negotiated terms.
Databricks Startup Program: up to $200K in credits for Databricks and Neon medium confidence
Official startup page: qualifying startups receive 'up to $200K in credits for Databricks and Neon' (Neon = the serverless Postgres product behind Lakebase). Credits cover the Databricks Data + AI Platform incl. 'Database – Postgres for data apps and AI agents' (Lakebase) plus four 'solution accelerators' (recommendations, onboarding, LLM search, time-series forecasting with GenAI). No credit window, per-product split, or age/funding caps are published on the page.
Eligibility
Startups 'not founded... ' — no published eligibility criteria on the official page: no stated company age, funding-raised cap, revenue limit, or region. Two paths: apply directly (Google Sites form at sites.google.com/databricks.com/startup-program-apply; form fields not publicly readable), or be nominated by an investor — listed VC partners: Andreessen Horowitz, Battery, General Catalyst, Insight Partners, Menlo Ventures, NEA, among others.
How to claim
1) Apply via the 'Apply now' form (Google Sites) with company details, OR 2) ask a partner VC to nominate you into the program. No public review-timeline; no published cap on number of credits beyond 'up to $200K'.
Expiry
Not published (no credit-usage window or program end date on the page; footer copyright 2026, content dated 2026-04).
Gotchas
Amount is a ceiling ('up to'), not a guarantee; exact allocation and duration are decided per-approval. The $200K spans two product families (Databricks + Neon) — split undisclosed. Eligibility caps are hidden in the application form. Startup credits don't replace the pay-as-you-go base: unused commitment after credit exhaustion bills normally.
University Alliance / education program (educators + students) high confidence
For educators: 'perpetually free Databricks experience for learning and experimentation' (Free Edition), dedicated online community, dedicated educator/student badges, free teaching resources and sample notebooks ('Get free resources' -> /resources/teach; 'Access Free Edition' -> /learn/free-edition). For students (via /resources/student-resources and /university/student-fellows): free Free Edition access, free self-paced Databricks Academy courses, University Alliance Student badge (LinkedIn-ready), and students who complete a course 'qualify for a 25% discount on Databricks certifications' (exam fee, not platform credits). Student Fellows sub-program: by invitation only ('invited for their exceptional contributions'), grants free Free Edition access plus 'free or discounted' certification vouchers, on-campus communities, and internship pipeline; application via Airtable form with a T&C PDF; no stipend or credit hours stated.
Eligibility
No .edu email requirement or enrollment verification is stated on any page. Free Edition portion: personal email, personal use only, any region with the tier. University Alliance: faculty/educators invited via the program; Student Fellows: invitation-only, no published geography or funding limits.
How to claim
Students: 1) sign up for Free Edition (provider=DB_FREE_TIER). 2) take free Academy courses at customer-academy.databricks.com ('Customer and Prospects' login). 3) earn the badge after finishing a course; claim the 25% certification discount after course completion. Fellows: apply through the Airtable form linked from /university/student-fellows. Educators: use 'Access Free Edition' / 'Get free resources' on /university.
Expiry
Perpetual for Free Edition and badges; no expiry stated for the 25% certification discount or Fellows vouchers. No renewal needed.
Gotchas
This is NOT a platform-credit grant: the education offer is Free Edition access (which locks Lakebase out) + free training + a 25% exam-fee discount, so students get no money-credits and no Lakebase under this program. .edu email is not verified, so anyone can use it; Fellows details (term, counts, countries) live only in the T&C PDF. Free Edition caps: 1 serverless workspace, fair-use daily limits, personal use only.