Application and approval required. Algolia's program section says startups under 7 years old with under $15M raised qualify, but its FAQ says under 3 years and under $5M; confirm eligibility directly. New customers and existing Free users may apply; paying customers and prior startup coupon users are excluded. Unused credits expire after 12 months and exhausting them early moves usage to Pay as you go. Payment-card requirement and specific commercial-use terms for these credits are not explicitly confirmed on the program page.