Hackathons 2026 are paying serious money: the biggest contests on this page carry prize pools of up to $1,000,000. Kiroween, the Gemma 4 Developer Agent Competition and the NFL Big Data Bowl 2027 put up $100,000 each, and the PayPal AI Hackathon pays $67,500 in cash. Every contest here runs online and accepts entrants from most countries, and this page shows every deadline in UTC and in your own local time, then moves each contest to Recently closed once its deadline passes.
A hackathon is a contest where you build a working project, usually software, within a fixed window and submit it for prizes. Online hackathons run entirely on the web: you register, build and submit from wherever you live. Most of the ones below run on Devpost, a site that handles hackathon sign-ups, submissions and judging, or on Kaggle, a data science competition site where you write and run code in free notebooks in your browser. A prize pool is the total cash shared among all winners, not one person’s prize, and every amount here is in US dollars, as the organiser states it. Each entry shows its deadline in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), the world’s reference clock, and your browser converts it to your local time automatically. Each card also says who can enter, including the age rule and the countries the rules exclude, and links to our step-by-step guide. Use the filters for AI, VR and games, data science, fintech, students, beginners and closing soon, search by name, organiser or topic, or sort by deadline, prize or name. When a deadline passes, the entry moves to Recently closed on its own.
Pick a hackathon for your situation
Start with the card that sounds like you. Each pick gives the prize in US dollars as the organiser states it, the key deadline in UTC, and the rule most likely to trip you up. Your own local time for every deadline appears in the list and in the table further down. Tap a card for our full guide.
For AI buildersMeta Global AI Developer Hackathon$1,000,000 anticipated pool. Apply by Mon 26 Oct, 03:59 UTCApply first: up to 20,000 people get in, and applications close 25 October, 11:59 PM ET, or sooner if the places fill. Accepted builders submit by 4 November, 9:00 PM ET (Thu 5 Nov, 02:00 UTC). Meta’s Model API is blocked in some countries the hackathon accepts, such as Pakistan and Venezuela, so check Meta’s policy before you apply.For VR and game developersMeta VR Start Developer Competition 2026Up to $1,000,000 in cash. Submit by Wed 18 Nov, 20:00 UTCBuild a hands-first app for Quest 3 and 3S in Gaming, Entertainment or Productivity: someone must be able to finish it without ever pairing a controller. You do not need to own a headset, but the person who submits must be a Meta VR Start member. Residents of Brazil, Quebec and sanctioned areas cannot enter.
For payments and fintech buildersPayPal AI Hackathon$67,500 in cash. Submit by Thu 12 Nov, 20:00 UTCAny idea counts if it meaningfully uses both PayPal and any AI tool. You build in PayPal’s free sandbox, a test version of PayPal for developers, and can enter solo, as a team or as an organisation, with no maximum team size. Every team member must live outside Brazil, Quebec, Russia, Crimea, Cuba, Iran, North Korea and other US-sanctioned places.
For your first hackathonKiroween 2026$100,000 in cash. Submit by Fri 4 Dec, 22:00 UTCOnly new projects count, so nobody starts ahead. Building opens on 30 October at 1:00 pm PDT (20:00 UTC). You build with Kiro, the free-tier AI coding tool from Amazon Web Services, and Devpost tags the event Beginner Friendly.
For undergraduate studentsNFL Big Data Bowl 2027$100,000 total, $45,000 for undergraduates only. Submit by Wed 6 Jan 2027, 23:59 UTCThe University Track is only for teams made up entirely of undergraduates, so you compete against students, not professionals. You write an analysis of NFL player tracking data on Kaggle; no app is needed. To win a prize you must be 18 or the age of majority where you live, whichever is older.
For machine learning researchersGemma 4 Developer Agent Competition$100,000 in prizes. Accept the rules by Wed 25 Nov, 23:59 UTCPost-train, meaning further train, an open Gemma 4 model into an offline coding agent in free Kaggle notebooks, with final submissions due 2 December, 23:59 UTC. Or write up original research for the separate $35,000 Paper Track, which closes 12 November, 23:59 UTC.Hackathons 2026: every open contest we track
Every hackathon we track, soonest deadline first. Each card gives the prize pool, the last day to enter in UTC with your local time underneath, who can enter and the format. Filter by AI, VR and games, data science, fintech, students, beginners or closing soon (deadlines within the next 14 days), search by name, organiser or topic, or sort by deadline, prize or name. Most countries means the organiser accepts entrants worldwide except a short list of excluded countries and regions, mostly places under sanctions, and our guide names every one; you still have to meet the age, track and tool rules. The age of majority is the age at which the law where you live treats you as an adult. Every card links to our step-by-step guide and to the organiser’s official page.
Recently closed
Entries move here by themselves when their deadline passes, based on your device’s clock, so a closed contest never shows as open, wherever you are in the world. Results come later, on each organiser’s official page.
Closing soon: every deadline in UTC and your time zone
Soonest first. The second column is the last moment a new entrant can join, in UTC, with your own local time underneath; the third is the deadline exactly as the official rules state it, so you can check our conversion. Some contests close entries before their final submission deadline, so the table shows the earlier date. Kaggle deadlines fall at 11:59 PM UTC. US clocks go back on 1 November 2026, so US Pacific Time is PDT (UTC-7) before that date and PST (UTC-8) after it, and US Eastern Time is EDT (UTC-4) before it and EST (UTC-5) after it. That is why a noon Pacific deadline in mid November lands at 20:00 UTC. Once a deadline passes, its card in the list above moves to Recently closed.
| Hackathon | Last day to enter (UTC) | As the rules state it | Prize pool | Who can enter |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bolt Builders Week hackathon |
Wed 21 Oct 2026, 06:59 UTC | Tue 20 Oct 2026, 11:59 pm PT | $17,500 ($10,000, $5,000, $2,500) | 18+, most countries (not China, Brazil, Quebec or sanctioned places) |
| Meta Global AI Developer Hackathon |
Mon 26 Oct 2026, 03:59 UTC | Apply by Oct 25, 11:59 PM ET (the waiver says 11:59PM EST), or sooner if the 20,000 places fill. Projects due Nov 4 by 9:00 PM ET. | $1,000,000 (anticipated) | 18+, worldwide except listed countries; every person must be accepted |
| Nebius x NVIDIA Global AI Hackathon |
Fri 30 Oct 2026, 17:00 UTC | Friday, October 30, 2026 (10:00 am Pacific Time) | $50,000 cash plus 4 NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano kits | Age of majority, most countries |
| PayPal AI Hackathon |
Thu 12 Nov 2026, 20:00 UTC | Thursday Nov 12, 2026, 12:00 pm Pacific Time (PST); join and submit by then (the rules list no separate registration deadline) | $67,500 cash (plus $2,250 in Render credits) | Age of majority, most countries (not Brazil, Quebec, Russia or sanctioned places) |
| Meta VR Start Developer Competition 2026 |
Wed 18 Nov 2026, 20:00 UTC | November 18, 2026 at 12:00:00 PM PT (PST); no separate registration deadline is stated, but the submitter must be a Meta VR Start member by then | Up to $1,000,000 | 18+, most countries; submitter must be a Meta VR Start member |
| Gemma 4 Developer Agent Competition |
Wed 25 Nov 2026, 23:59 UTC | November 25, 2026, 11:59 PM UTC (main Entry Deadline: accept the rules by then). Final Submission Deadline is December 2, 2026, 11:59 PM UTC. The optional Paper Track closes November 12, 2026, 11:59 PM UTC. | $100,000 | 18+ or local age of majority (younger with guardian consent), worldwide except a few sanctioned regions and persons |
| Kiroween 2026 |
Fri 4 Dec 2026, 22:00 UTC | Friday, December 4, 2026 at 2:00 PM Pacific Time (submission deadline; no registration close date is stated) | $100,000 in cash | Above age of majority, most countries |
 NFL Big Data Bowl 2027 |
Wed 6 Jan 2027, 23:59 UTC | January 6, 2027, Final Submission Deadline, 11:59 PM UTC (no separate entry deadline listed) | $100,000 | Most countries; 18+ (or the older local age of majority) to win |
| Name That LLM: Identify the Model Behind the Text |
Wed 6 Jan 2027, 23:59 UTC | January 6, 2027: Entry Deadline, 11:59 PM UTC (accept the rules before this date). Final Submission Deadline: January 13, 2027, 11:59 PM UTC. | $50,000 | 18 or local age of majority if older (under-18s with consent), worldwide except 6 regions and US-sanctioned persons |
How to pick a hackathon and give your entry a real chance
Choose on fit, not on the biggest number. Before you register, check three things on the official rules page: that you can enter (country, age and track), what you must build with, and when the deadline falls in your time zone. Any one of them can knock you out. Country lists differ from contest to contest. The PayPal AI Hackathon rules exclude residents of Brazil, Quebec, Russia, Crimea, Cuba, Iran and North Korea as well as places under US sanctions, and that applies to every team member. The Meta Global AI Developer Hackathon has a different list: it excludes anyone organised or located in Belarus, China, Russia, Ukraine (the whole country), Syria, Cuba, North Korea or Iran. The Kaggle contests on this page have the shortest list: residents of Crimea, the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, Cuba, Iran and North Korea, plus anyone under US export controls or sanctions. Kiroween accepts only new projects created during its submission period, which opens on 30 October 2026 at 1:00 pm PDT (20:00 UTC). The Meta VR Start rules require that someone can finish the whole experience with their hands, without ever pairing a controller.
Build for the scoring. The PayPal, Meta VR Start and Nebius x NVIDIA hackathons all begin with a pass or fail check: does the project fit the theme and really use the required tools? Projects that fail it are never scored. After that, judges score published criteria. PayPal weights five equally: technological implementation, design, potential impact, the idea and presentation. The Meta Global AI Developer Hackathon gives 30% to impact, 25% to use of Meta’s AI tools, 20% to technical depth and 25% to the demo. Kaggle leaderboard competitions such as Name That LLM have no judges at all. A leaderboard is the live ranking of every team’s score: a metric scores your notebook’s predictions on hidden test data, and the final ranking comes from the private leaderboard, a separate share of that test data from the one behind the public scores you see during the contest.
Finish something small. Our advice: a narrow project that works end to end beats an ambitious one that half works. Judges meet your project mostly through its demo video, a short recording of it working, so plan the video before you build. PayPal’s rules say the video should be under three minutes and judges are not required to watch beyond that, and judges may score on the description, images and video alone. Write the description for a judge who has never heard of your idea: the problem, who has it, and what your project does about it.
Submit a day early, then leave it alone. On Kaggle, a saved draft Writeup is not an entry: you must click Submit before the deadline. Devpost lets you save drafts too, so make sure the final step is done. Entries lock at the deadline, and Meta VR Start may disqualify projects changed during judging. Keep your demo live and free until judging ends, which for PayPal is 15 December 2026 at 8:00 am PT (16:00 UTC). If you win, expect paperwork wherever you live: US residents usually sign the W-9 tax form and everyone else the W-8BEN, a US tax form for people who are not US residents. US tax may be withheld, and on Devpost contests such as PayPal you pay any wire and currency fees. The rules also leave you responsible for your own country’s foreign exchange and banking rules, so check with a tax adviser on how a prize is taxed where you live.
- Check that every team member meets the country, age and track rules on the official rules page; being able to sign up on Devpost does not by itself make you eligible.
- Note the deadline in your own time zone, shown under each UTC time on this page, and set a reminder for the day before.
- Read the judging criteria and their weights, then build for them.
- Use the required tool in a real, visible way, so you clear the first pass or fail check.
- Keep the demo video under three minutes, public, and free of any copyrighted music you have no permission to use.
- Where the rules ask for code, use a public repository (an online folder for your code on GitHub, GitLab or Bitbucket) with an open source licence file that shows on the repo page.
- Never put live API keys in public code. An API key is a secret code that lets your app use a service; Nebius advises keeping keys in environment variables, settings stored outside your code.
- Press Submit, not just Save, before the deadline.
- Keep your demo working and free for judges until judging ends.
How we check every hackathon
Every hackathon on this page is online and was open for entries when we checked it. Each entry comes from the organiser’s own pages: the overview, the official rules, the schedule and the FAQ, plus answers the hosts post on their official forums. We do not copy details from other listing sites. A second check then confirms every date, amount and eligibility rule against the same pages, and where an organiser’s pages disagree with each other, our guide says so and follows the official rules.
We check who can enter against each contest’s age rule and its list of excluded countries and regions, and our guides name those places as the rules state them. Deadlines appear two ways: exactly as the rules state them, and converted to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), with the US clock change on 1 November 2026 applied. Your browser then turns each UTC time into your own local time, so you never have to do time zone arithmetic. Prize amounts are in US dollars as the organiser states them, and we say up to or anticipated whenever the organiser does.
We recheck the list regularly, and each entry moves to Recently closed by itself once its deadline passes. No organiser pays for a listing or a pick. We last checked every entry on 17 October 2026.
Please note: we update this page from time to time, but hackathon dates, prizes and rules can change quickly, and there can be a gap between a change and our update. Always check the official rules before you enter or submit. This page helps you choose; it is not legal or tax advice, and ReconScribe is not responsible for decisions made on it.
Hackathons 2026: frequently asked questions
Can I join online hackathons in 2026 from anywhere in the world?
Almost anywhere. Every hackathon on this page runs online, so you register, build and submit from home, and each one accepts entrants from most countries. Each set of rules excludes a short list of places, mostly ones under US or international sanctions, and you must also meet the age, team and tool rules. The Meta Global AI Developer Hackathon needs one more check. Meta’s Model API Geographic Use Policy is separate from the hackathon rules: it blocks the whole Model API in some places the hackathon itself accepts, such as Pakistan, Ethiopia, Venezuela, Iraq and Cambodia, and it restricts the Muse Image model in one more country. Entrants in those places could be eligible but unable to call the API, so read that policy before you apply.
Which countries are excluded from these hackathons?
It depends on the contest, so read the list in the official rules. The Devpost contests on this page (PayPal, Nebius x NVIDIA, Kiroween and Meta VR Start) all exclude Brazil, Quebec, Russia, Crimea, Cuba, Iran and North Korea, and PayPal, Nebius x NVIDIA and Meta VR Start also exclude other places under comprehensive US sanctions. The Kaggle contests (Gemma 4, the NFL Big Data Bowl and Name That LLM) exclude Crimea, the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, Cuba, Iran and North Korea, plus anyone under US export controls or sanctions. The Meta Global AI Developer Hackathon excludes anyone organised or located in Belarus, China, Russia, Ukraine, Syria, Cuba, North Korea or Iran, plus anyone targeted by US, EU, UN or UK sanctions. Bolt Builders Week excludes people in places where US or local law bars entry, including Brazil, China, Crimea, the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Quebec, Russia and Syria. On team contests the list applies to every member. Meta VR Start adds that being a tax resident of an excluded country does not by itself disqualify you if you live and bank in an eligible one.
Can I enter a hackathon alone?
Yes. Every hackathon on this page accepts solo entries. On Kaggle you always compete as a team, even a team of one, with up to five members. PayPal and Nebius x NVIDIA set no maximum team size, the Meta Global AI Developer Hackathon’s Indie track takes individuals and teams of up to four, and Kiroween lets you decide later whether to team up. Meta VR Start allows one entry per person, so you cannot submit solo and also lead a team.
How are hackathon prizes paid, and are they taxed?
Winners first return forms: within 10 business days on the PayPal and Nebius x NVIDIA hackathons, and within two weeks on Kaggle. These include a US tax form, the W-9 for US residents or the W-8BEN for everyone else. Prizes can be paid net of US tax the sponsor must withhold, and on Devpost contests such as PayPal you also pay any wire and currency exchange fees. Payment follows within about 30 days of the forms on Kaggle and within 60 days on PayPal and Nebius x NVIDIA. Bolt pays its contest prizes in US dollars by wire transfer or PayPal within about 60 days after a winner is verified, and its winners return the signed forms within 10 days. The Meta Global AI Developer Hackathon may pay in US dollars or the local currency equivalent. The rules leave it to you to follow your own country’s foreign exchange and banking rules and to report the prize where you live, and they do not say how your country taxes it, so check with a local tax adviser.
What should I build for a hackathon?
Build to the theme and the scoring, and keep it small enough to finish. Some ideas of our own that fit the official themes: for PayPal, an assistant that reads a supplier bill and drafts a sandbox payment for a person to approve; for Kiroween’s Resurrection category, which asks you to bring a dead technology back to life, an old pager or early chat app rebuilt with modern tools; for the NFL Big Data Bowl, a study of one drill for one position group, which the organiser encourages. Check any idea against the official rules before you start.
Are hackathons free to enter, and which free tools do I need?
Entry is free on the contests that state it: the PayPal AI Hackathon and Gemma 4 rules say no purchase is necessary to enter or win, and the Meta Global AI Developer Hackathon costs nothing if you are selected. Bolt’s free plan is enough to enter its contest. Usually you need a free account on the host site plus the organiser’s required tool. Kaggle accounts and notebooks are free, and Kaggle’s free GPU quota is 30 hours a week or sometimes more. The PayPal sandbox is free. Kiro’s free tier gives 50 credits a month. Accepted Meta Global AI Developer Hackathon builders get $150 in Meta Model API credits. Tools can cost money once you pass their free limits: Nebius Token Factory, which the Nebius x NVIDIA hackathon requires, needs a billing account with a bank card, although the hackathon offers $25 of credits with code NEBIUS-DEVPOST-GLOBAL26 plus another $25 through the free Nebius Builders Program.
Do I need to know how to code to win a hackathon?
It helps, but the bar is lower than it was. A Nebius x NVIDIA hackathon update says you do not have to be a developer to win and that non-developers can win using AI coding tools. Kiroween is tagged Beginner Friendly on Devpost and is built around Kiro, an AI coding tool. The NFL Big Data Bowl is judged on a written analysis, though it still needs an attached public Kaggle notebook with your code.
What is the difference between Devpost and Kaggle hackathons?
On Devpost you build an app or agent and submit a description, a short demo video and usually a public code repository, and judges score it against published criteria. Kaggle runs two kinds. In leaderboard competitions such as Name That LLM, your notebook’s predictions are scored automatically and the private leaderboard decides the prizes. In judged hackathons such as the NFL Big Data Bowl and the Gemma 4 Paper Track, you submit a written report called a Writeup and judges score it.
What time zone are hackathon deadlines in?
Whatever the rules say, so always read the time zone. The Devpost contests on this page and the Bolt contest use US Pacific Time, the Meta Global AI Developer Hackathon uses US Eastern Time, and Kaggle uses 11:59 PM UTC. US clocks go back on 1 November 2026, so Pacific Time is PDT (UTC-7) before that date and PST (UTC-8) after it, and Eastern Time moves from EDT (UTC-4) to EST (UTC-5). A noon Pacific deadline in mid November is therefore 20:00 UTC. This page shows every deadline in UTC next to the organiser’s own wording, and your browser adds your local time under each one.
Can students and under-18s take part in hackathons?
Students can enter all of these, and the NFL Big Data Bowl 2027 has a $45,000 University Track only for teams made up entirely of undergraduates. Under-18s are more limited. Kaggle lets them take part with parent or guardian consent forms, though children under 13 are not allowed on Kaggle at all, and the NFL Big Data Bowl will not pay a prize to anyone under 18. Devpost contests require the age of majority where you live, and the Meta Global AI Developer Hackathon requires everyone to be at least 18 and the age of majority where they live.
Related guides
- Free credits list: cloud, AI and software offers
- Free AI API credits and free tiers
- Free credits and tools for students
- AI leaderboard: every major model ranked
- Claude Code tutorial
- Bolt.new free tokens and the Bolt hackathon
Sources
- Bolt Builders Week hackathon: official page
- Meta Global AI Developer Hackathon: official page
- Nebius x NVIDIA Global AI Hackathon: official page
- PayPal AI Hackathon: official page
- Meta VR Start Developer Competition 2026: official page
- Gemma 4 Developer Agent Competition: official page
- Kiroween 2026: official page
- NFL Big Data Bowl 2027: official page
- Name That LLM: Identify the Model Behind the Text: official page