Submit to Developer Grant Program

Thank you for your interest in the DFINITY Developer Grant Program!
 

The goal of this program is to catalyze growth of the Internet Computer ecosystem and make the Internet Computer accessible and approachable to more developers around the world by providing support to promising developers and teams.
  Current focus areas for the grant program include:

  • Canister Development Kits (CDKs) & Agents
  • Developer Tooling (e.g. IDEs, debuggers, logging libraries)
  • Infrastructure (e.g. oracles, asset bridges)
  • Integrations & APIs (e.g. chat, email, maps)
  • Apps & Open Internet Services

We are currently offering three funding tiers, and ask you to craft your application and scope of work accordingly:

  • $5,000
  • $25,000
  • $100,000 (NOTE: These are generally available as a follow-on to a smaller grant.)

Grants are distributed in ICP tokens using the USD value on the day of distribution.

Please review the Guide to Writing Effective Grant Milestones prior to filling out your application. We have a very high volume of submissions, and poor-quality applications can be immediately rejected, even if the project would have value. We do not offer coaching on how to improve an application outside of this guide.We do not offer coaching on how to improve an application outside of this guide.

The grants program is a non-dilutive form of financing your project. Please note however that this program is not meant to be a source of venture funding.
 

Before applying, please note that we typically do not accept applications that propose the use of grant money towards:

  • ICO launches and conducting token sales
  • NFT drops alone, without a novel technical component
  • Direct rewards to end users
  • Legal and marketing support
  • Hiring developers
  • Mockups or product roadmaps only

Following the submission of your application, you can expect the process to proceed as follows:

You can find more information on the grant process in our FAQs. Also, check out this blog post for additional tips on how to submit the perfect developer grant application!
 

For $5k grants:

  • Your work should be scoped according to a 2-3 month timeline.  
  • You will be given directions for posting your grant application in the forums in the "Developer Grant Proposals" category. The community will then be invited to review your grant using this rubric.
  • Your surname/last name, email address, and physical address will be withheld from the publicly-viewable copy of your application for your privacy. All other fields will be made public.

For $25k grants:

  • Your work should be scoped to be completed within a 3-6 month timeframe. 
  • These grants will be reviewed only internally by the DFINITY Grants team.

$100k grants:

  • These will be handled by the Grant Committee on a case-by-case basis. 
  • Applications will continue to be reviewed and accepted on a rolling basis.
     

Finally, once you create a Submittable account and begin your application, you will need to complete a short, two-question Eligibility Quiz. You can also review some of the Eligibility Requirements for the Grant Program in the program Terms and Conditions.