Best offer on record: GitLab.com Free plan (permanent free tier). 5 verified findings, checked 2026-10-22.
Live check of “GitLab for Startups (free/reduced Ultimate program)”:Partly confirmed
GitLab for Startups is live and accepting applications: pre-seed/seed startups with up to $5M in external funding (new customers only) get a free GitLab Ultimate license (SaaS or self-managed) for up to 20 seats for 12 months with no support included, then 50% off any tier in year two; Series A/B startups with up to $20M get 50% off year one and 25% off year two. The parsed $5,000,000 is the Seed-tier funding eligibility ceiling, not the offer's value — the free year is worth roughly $50,000 at list (GitLab's own page headlines "20 licenses, zero cost, one year"), and self-funded/VC-unbacked startups are ineligible.
GitLab.com Free plan (permanent free tier) high confidence
Ongoing $0/month plan requiring no credit card. Included: 400 CI/CD compute minutes/month, applied per top-level group ("The quota will be applied to a group, no matter the number of users in the group or the number of users in the subscription"); initial 10 GiB limit per project on Git repo + LFS storage, which is "adjustable" (extra storage purchasable); 5 users per top-level group with private visibility ("The 5-user limit is applicable only to users of the Free tier of the GitLab.com offering in a top-level group with private visibility"). Basic security features on all tiers: SAST, secret detection, container scanning. No GitLab Duo credits included on Free (add-on, $1/credit on-demand; monthly commitment pools available to Free top-level group namespaces but not personal namespaces; compute-minute top-ups $10 per 1,000 minutes).
Eligibility
Anyone can sign up on gitlab.com, no CC required, no age/institution requirement. Public groups, paid tiers, and community-program users are exempt from the 5-user cap.
How to claim
Create a gitlab.com account (sign up at gitlab.com/users/sign_in), the group sits on the Free plan automatically; purchase add-ons (storage/minutes) via group billing settings.
Expiry
Ongoing; no sunset date published. Overage add-ons bill monthly (storage $5/mo per 10 GiB on paid tiers; minutes $10/1,000).
Gotchas
400 minutes is a hard per-group per-month cap for CI/CD on shared runners; public groups are the main workaround for the 5-user cap; Duo/AI features are paid add-ons even on Free; self-managed GitLab CE (open-source edition, $0) has no user cap and no 400-minute cap (BYO runners/storage) — see https://about.gitlab.com/install/.
GitLab for Education (free Ultimate license for educational institutions) high confidence
Complimentary GitLab Ultimate license, SaaS or self-managed, with UNLIMITED seats and 50,000 compute minutes/month included (extra minutes purchased separately). 1-year duration, renewed annually; renewal requires re-verifying the renewer's employment via the Proxi.id partner, and the original applicant must be the one to renew (ownership transferable via support ticket). Multiple self-managed instances can run on the same license key. Community-level support only (GitLab Community Discord); paid support no longer offered as an add-on on this license. 1,000+ institutions and ~3M people participate; the program spans 65 countries.
Eligibility
Institution must be: accredited by a local/state/provincial/federal/national authorized agency, primarily focused on teaching enrolled students, actively granting degrees/diplomas/certificates, and not-for-profit (for-profit institutions ineligible). Institutions enrolling students under 13 are ineligible for SaaS (self-managed still available). Applicant must be a FULL-TIME faculty or staff member applying with the institution's email domain; GitLab explicitly cannot issue licenses directly to students — students must find a faculty/staff sponsor or use the Free tier. GitLab, Inc. does not issue licenses to institutions in China (JiHu separate entity). Use restricted to instruction and non-commercial academic research — not running/administering the institution's own IT services.
How to claim
Faculty/staff apply through the GitLab Customer Portal at customers.gitlab.com/subscriptions/community_program/coupons/new?program=EDU (linked from about.gitlab.com/solutions/education/join/), verify via institutional email, receive redemption instructions; re-apply/verify annually for renewal.
Expiry
License valid 1 year, renewed annually; access lapses when employment/renewal verification fails; graduates lose access because licenses are issued to the institution.
Gotchas
NO student-issued licenses — individual students with .edu emails are NOT automatically enrolled; a faculty/staff sponsor is required. 'Apply with the institution's email domain' (institutional domain, not necessarily .edu). No credit card required. No storage allotment is stated. Students are funneled to https://about.gitlab.com/community/ (Free tier) instead. China excluded; for-profit colleges excluded.
GitLab for Startups (free/reduced Ultimate program) high confidence
Two tiers by funding: SEED — Pre-Seed or Seed stage with up to $5M in external funding, new customers only: Year 1 = free GitLab Ultimate license (SaaS or self-managed) up to 20 seats; Year 2 = 50% discount on any tier, up to 20 users. EARLY — Series A or Series B with up to $20M in external funding, new customers only: Year 1 = 50% discount on any tier (up to 20 users); Year 2 = 25% discount (up to 20 users). Program spans two years; GitLab contacts teams before year one ends to discuss renewal. No company-age or headcount threshold is stated. Support is NOT included; self-managed recipients must enable usage and analytics features. Additional seats beyond 20: email startups@gitlab.com for an add-on quote.
Eligibility
Externally funded startups only — self-funded companies are excluded ("The program is currently available for externally funded companies only"). Must be a new GitLab customer. Seed: <= $5M external funding; Early: Series A/B, <= $20M. Applicants must provide a Crunchbase, Pitchbook profile, or VC/accelerator webpage proving current funding status; otherwise the application "will not be considered". New customers only.
How to claim
Submit the in-page application form on https://about.gitlab.com/solutions/startups/ (#form anchor; all fields required; may be asked for more info to verify eligibility). Questions: startups@gitlab.com. No credit card requirement stated.
Expiry
Two-year program (Year 1 entitlement, then Year 2 discount); after year two the company "will have the flexibility to choose from our offerings"; program "offered at the sole discretion of GitLab and is subject to change". Applications not processed during U.S. holidays.
Gotchas
The current official page does NOT list 50,000 compute minutes or any storage allowance for startups (the pricing page's line bundling "qualifying open source projects, educational institutions, and startups" under "free Ultimate licenses, along with 50K compute minutes/month" is ambiguous — confirm with GitLab whether SaaS compute minutes ship with the seed license). 20-seat cap. Paid support excluded. Seed stage gets the only genuinely free license; Early stage is a discount, not free.
GitLab for Open Source (free Ultimate features for qualifying projects) high confidence
Features of GitLab Ultimate free to qualifying open source projects, self-managed or SaaS, plus 50,000 compute minutes "calculated at a program-specific cost factor." Seat allocation uses a concurrent-seat model (max users enabled at once; every occupied seat counts, including the owner's, except Guest-permission members). No support included, and purchasing GitLab Credits for the Duo Agent Platform is not available on community subscriptions.
Eligibility
Every project in the namespace must be published under an OSI-approved open source license; the organization must not seek to make a profit (donations OK; selling services/enhancements not); group and source code must be publicly visible and available; personal namespaces ineligible (must be a group; only free-tier groups you own appear in the application dropdown).
How to claim
Steps: (1) verify qualification against the requirements list, (2) create a GitLab account (Free tier or Ultimate trial), (3) GitLab.com: fill out the Customers Portal form to confirm the group meets requirements — you then receive an email with a coupon code and provisioning instructions; self-managed: submit the form with project details and a clear justification; (4) enroll via the Apply link. Renew annually by resubmitting the form; renew up to 3 months early, start at least 1 month before expiration — failing to renew means the account is downgraded.
Expiry
Annual membership, renewed by re-applying; downgraded to Free tier if not renewed. No CC required.
Gotchas
Non-commercial requirement rules out monetized/mixed projects; Guest seats don't count toward the concurrent cap; self-managed applications are not processed during holidays; 50K minutes are billed internally at a "program-specific cost factor" rather than standard rates.
30-day GitLab Ultimate free trial (SaaS and self-managed) high confidence
"Start your 30-day GitLab Ultimate trial" covering "nearly all features of our Ultimate tier" plus Duo Agent Platform access. 30 days for both GitLab.com (hosted) and self-managed. GitLab.com trial limits: 400 compute minutes/month, 24 Duo Agent Platform credits/user, one project token only (group tokens excluded), no external-API features. Self-managed trial: requires GitLab 18.0+ and an internet connection, support excluded at any level, Duo Agent Platform (24 credits/user) starts with GitLab 18.9. A credit/debit card is NOT required for customers who do not use GitLab.com CI/CD (BYO runners or shared runners disabled); enabling shared runners triggers a $1 authorization (no charge transfers). New and existing users can start; at trial end you stay on the Free tier or upgrade, and "You will lose access to GitLab Duo Agent Platform and any remaining credits from the trial period." Included 12/24 Duo credits on paid tiers are a limited-time promotional offer.
Eligibility
Anyone, including students and startup founders; no CC required unless shared runners are used; one trial flow via gitlab.com/-/trials/new or the free-trial page; no per-account trial-count cap or fixed expiry date is stated on the page.
How to claim
Go to https://about.gitlab.com/free-trial/ (or gitlab.com/-/trial_registrations/new), choose hosted or self-managed, sign up / log in.
Expiry
30 days per trial; Duo Agent Platform access and remaining trial credits are forfeited at trial end.
Gotchas
Trial-vs-free: the 30-day Ultimate trial is separate from the permanent Free tier; post-trial you fall back to Free (with its 400-min/5-user caps) unless you pay. The marketing JSON-LD schemas on the /solutions/ pages still advertise a "60-day free trial" — the dedicated official trial page says 30 days; treat 30 days as current. Shared-runner use triggers a $1 card hold.
Restructured/changed in 2025-2026 (per official pages read 2026-10-22): (1) Trial duration — the dedicated free-trial page states 30-day GitLab Ultimate trials for both hosted and self-managed, while JSON-LD schema metadata on the marketing /solutions/ pages still says "60-day free trial"; the 30-day figure is the current authoritative one. (2) GitLab for Startups is now a two-tier (Seed <=$5M / Early Series A-B <=$20M) structure capping benefits at 20 seats, with Seed = free Ultimate year one + 50% year two and Early = 50%/25% discounts; self-funded startups are excluded and the current page no longer lists 50,000 compute minutes or a storage allowance for the startup program (the pricing page's "50K compute minutes/month" sentence bundles open source, education, and startups without clarifying which still get it — verify with startups@gitlab.com). (3) Education: seats are unlimited with 50,000 compute minutes/month included, but the license is institution-only via full-time faculty/staff — GitLab explicitly cannot issue licenses directly to students, so there is no standalone "GitLab for Students" free program; students are routed to the Free tier or a faculty sponsor. (4) Duo AI features: no free credits are bundled on the Free plan (paid GitLab Credits add-on, $1/credit); the 12/user/mo (Premium) and 24/user/mo (Ultimate) included-credits lines are flagged as a limited-time promotional offer, so those "free" AI credits can sunset. (5) Trial is Ultimate-only; no standalone Premium trial offer appears on the current trial page. No program was announced as fully sunset as of this check; open-source program renewals lapse to the Free tier if not resubmitted annually.