Introducing TinyFish for Startups
Founders kept asking us for startup credits, so we built a program.
For a while now, a lot of the most interesting things built on TinyFish have come from small teams. Two or three people with a product that needs the live web: prices that change every hour, job posts, listings, filings, competitor pages, reviews. They found TinyFish on their own, wired it into a prototype, and then emailed us the same question in slightly different words: is there a startup program?
There wasn't. Now there is.
TL;DR
- TinyFish for Startups gives early-stage teams up to $12,000 in value to build on the live web.
- 4x the rate limits on TinySearch and TinyFetch, which are already free for everyone.
- Credits and discounts for the rest of the API: TinyAgent, TinyBrowser and TinyMonitor.
- GTM help: your build story featured on the TinyFish blog and socials, and invites to our founder dinners and events.
- A direct line to our engineers when you get stuck.
- Two tiers: Tier 1 for independent teams that are still pre-production, Tier 2 for startups in an accelerator or backed by investors.
- Apply at tinyfish.ai/startups.
Building something that needs the live web? Apply to TinyFish for Startups. We review applications in weekly batches.
Why we built it
Almost every startup we talk to hits the same wall at the same moment. The prototype works on a handful of URLs. Then real users arrive, and the team that set out to build a product is suddenly maintaining scrapers, proxy pools, headless browsers and retry logic instead.
That's the work TinyFish exists to take off your plate. It's one API that gives AI agents and products access to the live web: Search, Fetch, Agent, Browser and Monitor all sit behind the same API key and the same wallet. We already made Search and Fetch free for every agent (here's why). For a startup, free is a good start, but it isn't the whole answer. What early teams actually run into is rate limits the week they get traction, the cost of the parts that do real browsing, and nobody to ask when something breaks at 2 AM.
So the program covers those three things, plus the thing small teams never have enough of: people hearing about what they built.
Two tiers, one application
We split the program by where a team is, not by how big it is.
| Tier 1 | Tier 2 | |
|---|---|---|
| Value | Up to $7,000 | Up to $12,000 |
| For | Independent teams, still pre-production (idea, prototype or private beta) | Startups in an accelerator or backed by VCs or angels, at any stage |
| TinySearch + TinyFetch | Free, 4x rate limits for 6 months | Free, 4x rate limits for 12 months |
| Wallet | $100 every month for 6 months | $500 to start |
| TinyAgent + TinyBrowser | 50 concurrent runs | 50% off for 24 months |
Tier 1 is for teams building on their own: no accelerator, no investors, product not in production yet. It's designed for the months when you're figuring out what the product is, so the wallet refills to $100 every month instead of arriving as one lump you burn in a week.
Tier 2 is for teams that are already backed. Proof is simple: a batch page, a program profile or funding news. If you start on Tier 1 and later join a program or raise, apply again and move up.
The 4x limits mean 120 searches a minute and 600 TinyFetch URLs a minute, against 30 and 150 on a default account. Wallet credits work on TinyAgent, TinyBrowser and TinyMonitor. The full breakdown, with every rule and edge case, is in our guide to TinyFish for Startups.
More than credits
Credits get you building. Getting found is the other half, and it's the half most programs skip.
- GTM help. If you ship something good on TinyFish, we want to tell people about it. Your build story gets featured on the TinyFish blog and our socials, the same way we've written up teams like Lightsage and Collov.
- Founder dinners and events. You'll get invites to TinyFish founder dinners and events, where the other people in the room are building on the live web too.
- A direct line to our engineers. Not a ticket queue. When an agent run fails in a way you don't understand, you can ask the people who built it.
Teams like Momentic, Acyclic, Perfectly, Keiki, Maven Bio and Oasive already build with TinyFish.
How to apply
- Pick your tier. In an accelerator or backed by investors? Tier 2, at any product stage. Independent and still pre-production? Tier 1. Not sure? Pick the closer one and we'll move you if needed.
- Apply at tinyfish.ai/startups from your company email. A verified business email domain is required, and it's one application per company.
- Tell us what you're building and how your product uses the web. Already have a TinyFish account? Use the same email so we can add the credits to it.
- Hear back by email. We review in weekly batches and reply either way.
Questions before you apply? Email accelerator@tinyfish.ai.
Who it's not for (yet)
This program is built for early-stage and backed startups. If you're bootstrapped and already in production, you're past the point where a credit bundle is the right shape, so talk to us and we'll build a custom plan around your needs.
And a few things we're being upfront about:
- Approval isn't automatic. We approve teams building real products on TinyFish. A clear, specific use of the web beats a big pitch.
- Credits are for building. They're non-transferable, have no cash value and expire at the end of the window. Multiple accounts or resale get credits revoked.
- When the program ends, nothing breaks. Your account stays as it is, TinySearch and TinyFetch stay free, and you pay only for what you use on TinyAgent and TinyBrowser.
Go build something
If your product needs to read, search or act on the web, this is the cheapest it will ever be to find out whether it works. Apply at tinyfish.ai/startups, build it, and tell us what you made. Tag TinyFish on X (@Tiny_Fish) and LinkedIn. We read everything.
Ready? Apply to TinyFish for Startups: up to $12,000 in value, 4x Search and Fetch limits, GTM help and a direct line to our engineers.
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AI disclosure
Content on this website may be created or refined with the assistance of AI tools and is subject to human editorial review.
