Account

Launchpad grants

How the LLMFlux Launchpad credit program works: who can apply, how applications are reviewed, and how an approved grant reaches your account.

What the Launchpad is

The Launchpad is a credit-grant program for students, educators, researchers and early-stage startups. An approved grant is added to your existing LLMFlux account balance through the normal credit ledger — it is not a separate wallet. The grant shows up as a credited entry in your dashboard Credits history and is usable across every enabled model on the gateway, the same as purchased credits.

Applications are handled in the Launchpad portal. The portal is a separate app but uses your normal LLMFlux login; you do not register new credentials for it.

Who can apply

The program recognises four applicant types:

Student — enrolled at a school or university.
Educator — teacher, mentor or workshop host.
Researcher — academic or independent research.
Startup — early-stage team or founder.

The enabled categories are program configuration, so the portal shows whatever the operators currently accept. Each account holds one application at a time, and the per-account grant limit is enforced server-side from program configuration.

Eligibility and grant amounts

Eligibility is decided by the review team. On approval, the reviewer picks the grant amount from a set of admin-configured options — applicants never choose an amount and never pay one. The program budget, per-applicant limits, the submission window (whether the program is accepting applications at all), and the expiry policy are all configured by the program operators and enforced by the backend. This guide deliberately does not state figures or day counts; check the portal for the current program state.

A request that tries to set its own grant amount, approve itself, or skip review is rejected server-side: applicants can only draft, submit, respond and withdraw. Amounts are validated against the configured options before any ledger write.

How to apply

Open the Launchpad application form and sign in with your existing LLMFlux account.
Choose your applicant type; the form adds type-specific fields on top of the shared project questions.
Complete the form. Drafts autosave to the server as you type and are restored when you reload; a local copy also covers a brief network outage.
Submit. After submission the application is read-only unless a reviewer asks for more information.
Track status on the Applications page and answer any information request there.

Application statuses

Status	Meaning
`draft`	Started, autosaved, not yet submitted. Editable.
`submitted`	Sent and waiting in the review queue.
`under_review`	A reviewer is actively working on it.
`needs_info`	A reviewer asked for more information; the form is editable again so you can respond.
`approved`	Accepted; the grant has been credited to your balance. Terminal.
`rejected`	Declined. Terminal — a rework is possible only if a reviewer invites one via `needs_info`.
`expired`	Past the deadline set by the configured program expiry policy. Terminal.
`withdrawn`	You closed the application from the portal. Terminal.

The status is owned by the server-side state machine; the client cannot set it. Every transition is recorded, but only reviewer messages marked public are shown to you — internal notes and reviewer identities stay on the admin side.

After approval

Credits are granted exactly once per approved application. The ledger entry carries a durable idempotency key derived from the application ID, mirrored into the unique grant key of the credit ledger, so a retried or duplicated approval returns the existing grant instead of double-crediting. You are notified when the grant lands, and it appears in your Credits history. The grant may expire under the configured expiry policy; unused grant credits expire automatically, so start building early.

What we ask for

Every application answers the same shared questions — a project title, what you will build with the credits, and an optional best contact — plus type-specific fields:

Student: school or university, field of study, expected graduation year (optional).
Educator: institution or organization, role, approximate learners reached (optional).
Researcher: lab or affiliation, research area, profile or publication URL (optional).
Startup: company or project name, website or repo URL (optional), stage.

You must accept the current program terms before submitting; the terms version is part of the record.

Privacy and data handling

Never include API keys, passwords or sensitive documents in an application — reviewers do not need them and they are not part of the form. Applications are visible only to you and the review team. Retention and deletion are handled by the program; the portal publishes its terms and privacy page.

Billing covers paid plans and confirmed checkout. API keys covers creating the key you spend the grant with. Paid alternatives are listed on the dashboard billing page.