Weights & Biases for Startups
Free W&B Pro for startups, experiment tracking, model registry, evals, and prompt observability for ML/LLM teams.
Weights & Biases for Startups offers Up to 12 months of W&B Pro free to pre-seed, seed, series a startups, no VC referral required. Review takes 3–10 business days.
About
Weights & Biases is the standard for ML experiment tracking and has grown into a full LLM observability platform. The Startup Program provides up to 12 months of W&B Pro free, including the model registry, Sweeps for hyperparameter search, and Weave for LLM application tracing.
For any team training, fine-tuning, or evaluating models, the lift over rolling your own MLflow + spreadsheet workflow is large. For LLM-app teams, Weave is a strong alternative to LangSmith.
Tiers
- Pre-Series B
- <50 employees
- Active ML/AI workloads
Eligibility
- AI/ML startup
- Pre-Series B
- Less than 50 employees
- Series C+
- Already a paying W&B customer
How to apply
- 1Create a W&B teamSign up and create the team you want to upgrade.
- 2
- 3ApprovalPro features unlock on the team account.
What else you get
- Unlimited experiment tracking
- Model registry with stage promotion
- Sweeps for hyperparameter search
- Weave for LLM tracing and evals
- Reports and shared dashboards
What credits cover (and don't)
- W&B Pro
- Weave (LLM observability)
- Model registry
- Self-hosted enterprise
Tactical tips
- Tip 1.For LLM apps, Weave traces are the cheapest way to debug agent loops without writing custom logging.
- Tip 2.The Sweeps feature pays for itself the first time you do a hyperparameter search.
- Tip 3.Pair with Modal/Together for compute and W&B for the experiment metadata.
Common rejection reasons
- Series C+
- Already on a paid plan
Frequently asked about Weights & Biases for Startups
Is Weights & Biases for Startups free to apply?
Yes. Applying to Weights & Biases for Startups does not cost anything and does not require giving up equity. Some programs require a payment method on file that activates only after credits are consumed or expire, check the program detail page for specifics.
How long does Weights & Biases for Startups take to review applications?
Processing times are shown on the program detail page. Most programs reply within 1–3 weeks. Self-serve tiers (like AWS Activate Founders) can approve in 2–7 days; partner-referred tiers (like AWS Activate Portfolio) usually take 5–10 days.
Can I combine Weights & Biases for Startups with other startup programs?
Most programs stack. The "Stacks well with" section on each detail page lists commonly combined programs. A few important exceptions: if you already claimed AWS credits via Brex or Mercury, your direct AWS Activate amount may be reduced.
What is the most common reason applications to Weights & Biases get rejected?
The top rejection reasons are (1) using a personal Gmail/Outlook address instead of a company domain, (2) having a thin or placeholder website, and (3) mismatched information between the application and Crunchbase/Pitchbook. The tips section on the program page details program-specific factors.
Related programs
Anthropic Startup Program
$1K–$25K+ in Claude API credits plus priority rate limits for startups building with Claude.
OpenAI for Startups
No single flagship program, credits come via Ramp ($2.5K), Researcher Access ($1K), or invitation-only VC paths.
NVIDIA Inception
Free program for AI/ML startups, preferred hardware pricing, VC Alliance exposure, unlocks downstream credits.