Best offer on record: US$100 promotional credit trial (the successor to the "Linode $100 free trial"). 5 verified findings, checked 2026-10-22.
Offers
US$100 promotional credit trial (the successor to the "Linode $100 free trial") high confidence
New-customer promotional credit of US$100 applied automatically at signup; the current Akamai Cloud pricing/FAQ gives the window as 60 days ("if you received a $100 credit for 60 days..."). Credit covers Compute, Object Storage, Block Storage, and NodeBalancers; GPU plans are excluded. After the credit is exhausted or the window expires, the card on file is charged for remaining balance at standard rates; unused credits expire automatically. One promo code/redemption per business; transferred codes cause account termination.
Eligibility
New customers only ("not yet signed up for a free trial"). A valid payment method is required — Visa, Mastercard, Amex, Discover, or PayPal (Google Pay with associated card); a card/PayPal backup is mandatory up front and a pre-authorization may be sent, but you are not charged during the trial. No .edu requirement. No region limit stated on the page (offer localized into 9 languages; Linode data centers still available). No free-CC path: credit card or PayPal IS required.
How to claim
1) Go to login.linode.com/signup (via the 'Try Akamai Cloud with US$100 in credits*' banner on akamai.com/cloud/pricing, or directly to https://www.akamai.com/lp/free-credit-100). 2) Sign up with Google SSO, GitHub SSO, or email. 3) Add a valid payment method (not charged during trial). 4) Agree to ToS; the US$100 credit is applied automatically to the new account. Fine print lives in the 'Promotion Redemption Rules & Conditions' linked from the asterisk.
Expiry
60-day credit window per current FAQ example (standard promos historically 30–60 days; always check the exact period shown in your signup/confirmation). Promotional codes themselves expire after one year per the legal rules page; promo is new-customers-only with no published end date.
Gotchas
It is a trial/credit, not a perpetual free tier — card gets charged for any active service after the credit window; no published extension/renewal. The 60-day figure comes from the pricing-page FAQ example; the LP page itself does not state a fixed day count (the legal rules page is a generic promo-code document: 'Credit amounts are nonstandard and granted at the sole discretion of the Akamai sales team', 'Promo codes expire after one year'). Older Linode links (linode.com/trial) now 404 — the offer only runs through the Akamai Cloud pages/signup. Promo codes don't apply to Marketplace/third-party services.
Rise start-up program (Akamai Cloud start-ups) high confidence
3-year start-up program. Year 1: 'between $500 and $120,000 in cloud credits' (tiered, decided case-by-case; no published formula). Years 2–3: continued discounted cloud services (no published percentage). Includes architecture/migration consulting (valued ~$250/hour), prioritized 24/7 support, dedicated account management. First-year credits do not roll over month-to-month or to subsequent years; overage in a month is billed that month. Contact: startups@akamai.com.
Eligibility
Early-stage, for-profit company fewer than 7 years old; at least one of: paid staff beyond founders, active non-affiliated users, initial revenue, or VC backing; must commit to a concrete infrastructure scaling plan and use Akamai Cloud as a primary provider. Must register a commercial account with a corporate email on a matching domain plus a valid credit card. Existing Akamai customers cannot join; managed hosting firms, MSPs, system integrators, and resellers excluded; SaaS, media, and gaming prioritized.
How to claim
1) Complete the intake form on https://www.akamai.com/cloud/start-ups/rise (or email startups@akamai.com). 2) Internal review with status update within ~2 weeks. 3) Brief discovery call for qualified applicants. 4) Onboarding — credits loaded onto your account and next steps set with a program coordinator.
Expiry
Program runs 3 years; year-1 credits expire monthly (no rollover). No published application deadline — rolling intake.
Gotchas
Credit amount is highly variable ($500–$120,000) and sales-discretionary — most applicants will get far less than the max; monthly credit allotments burn down per month with no rollover. Not a free tier: you're expected to pay for overage. 'Discounted' years 2–3 have no published discount level. Corporate email + card required; individual/education applicants don't qualify.
Partner start-up program (VCs / accelerators / investors) high confidence
Enrollment for VCs, accelerators, and investors, on behalf of portfolio companies. Credits 'up to $3,000/month for a year' for qualified new Akamai Cloud customers (i.e., up to ~$36,000 total per portfolio company). Also technical enablement workshops and a path for strong portfolio companies into Akamai's Tech Partner Program. Developers in a partner's portfolio can start using credits immediately.
Eligibility
The partner (fund/accelerator/investor organization) must apply; credits are restricted to 'qualified new customers' of Akamai Cloud (existing Akamai customers excluded). No fund-size or stage thresholds published.
How to claim
Fill out the 'Become a partner' form on https://www.akamai.com/cloud/start-ups/partner, or email startups@akamai.com — Akamai contacts you to discuss the partnership; portfolio companies then get credits loaded.
Expiry
Credits: up to 12 months at $3,000/month. No published deadline — rolling partner enrollment.
Gotchas
This is an investor-channel program, not something an individual startup can apply to directly — a startup without VC/accelerator sponsorship should use the Rise program instead. Monthly cap ($3,000) means large month-1 spikes bill to the company; 'qualified' is not defined on the page.
Enterprise cloud credits (up to US$5,000) — context only, not a student/startup offer medium confidence
Akamai Cloud's main cloud page promotes 'up to US$5,000 in cloud credits' for new AND existing enterprise customers, requested via a contact/apply form (in-page '#request-credits'). Per the promo rules, credit amounts are nonstandard and granted at Akamai sales team discretion; one redemption per business; codes expire after one year. Included here for completeness because it's the only other published dollar-amount credit; it targets enterprise sales motion, not students or early-stage startups.
Eligibility
Enterprise customers (new and existing), sales-driven; no .edu or startup-age criteria; a valid payment method on account is a standing requirement of the Master Services Agreement.
How to claim
Use the 'request credits' apply link on https://www.akamai.com/cloud (or Akamai sales); credits are provisioned by the sales team, not self-service.
Expiry
Promo codes expire after one year; enterprise grants have no published duration beyond code expiry.
Gotchas
Amount is discretionary (up to $5,000, not guaranteed); no self-service claim; don't confuse with the self-serve $100 new-customer promo.
Education/Academy: no free student hosting tier exists; free learning content moved to Akamai Academy low confidence
No perpetual free-tier VPS plan, and no free student/educator hosting license was found on any current page. linode.com/education, linode.com/linode-education and the old Linode trial/education URLs all 404 today. The free learning asset that remains is the (former) Linode Academy, now Akamai Academy at training.akamai.com/learn (Cloud Computing Foundations and other free courses; certification is separate). Academy = free courses, NOT free hosting. I verified no education program is linked from the Linode homepage or the Akamai Cloud homepage (only 'Cloud Computing Foundations Certification' under training).
Eligibility
Anyone can take Academy courses for free; no .edu email requirement found. No hosting entitlement attaches to it.
How to claim
Visit https://training.akamai.com/learn for free courses. (Note: this site is a JS app; I could not extract course/certification pricing today, so treat certification cost as unverified.)
Expiry
n/a — no such free hosting offer is currently published; verify only via the official pages above.
Gotchas
Old Linode student-facing pages are gone post-rebrand; do not rely on pre-2025 Linode 'education' or 'student trial' claims found in third-party blog posts. If a source cites a Linode student free tier, it is outdated.
2025 changes (verified against live pages on 2026-10-22): (1) Rebrand — Linode is now 'Akamai Cloud' following Akamai's 2025 acquisition of Linode; linode.com/pricing (and the whole marketing site) now 301-redirects to akamai.com/cloud, and signups still run through login.linode.com. The old standalone 'Linode $100/30-day trial' link (linode.com/trial) now 404s — the trial is now the 'US$100 in credits' promo on Akamai Cloud pages, with the FAQ example stating a 60-day window (older promos were 30 days; ~30-60 days is the right mental model, but the exact window is per your signup/confirmation). (2) No perpetual free VPS tier has ever existed at Linode — the only recurring 'free' element on the pricing page is Object Storage's monthly free outbound egress allowance before overage (quantity not quantified on the page). (3) learn.linode.com (Linode Academy) no longer resolves (DNS ENOTFOUND) — training content moved to training.akamai.com/learn; there is no student/educator free-hosting license at Akamai Cloud today, so any 2025/2026 source claiming a 'Linode free student plan' is outdated. (4) WebSearch was unavailable in this session (budget exhausted), so corroboration relied on official pages fetched today; the $100 offer's exact day count remains a FAQ example rather than a hard-published policy figure.