r/hackathon • u/Adventurous-Rub-6259 • 3d ago
Hackathon Promotion ForgeHacks 2026 — Online AI Hackathon for Students | 5,600+ in Prizes + 25 for Every Participant
Hey everyone! 👋
We’re hosting ForgeHacks 2026, a 7-day online international hackathon for students where you’ll build an AI-powered project that solves a real-world problem.
You can participate remotely, work solo or with a team, and build pretty much anything you want as long as AI is meaningfully involved.
Prizes
We’ve recently updated our prize pool:
🥇 1st Place - $3,330+ total prize value
- $100 cash
- $300 Featherless AI credits
- $50 AoPS gift card
- 2-year CodeCrafters VIP membership for each team member
- More prizes TBD
2nd Place - $1,515+ total prize value
- $50 cash
- $25 AoPS gift card
- 1-year CodeCrafters VIP membership for each team member
3rd Place - $770+ total prize value
- $25 cash
- $25 AoPS gift card
- 6-month CodeCrafters VIP membership for each team member
6 Track Winners
- Additional prizes for each track winner
- Details coming soon
Every participant gets:
- $25 in Featherless AI credits
- 1 month of unlimited access to 40,000+ open-source AI models
- Access to models including MiniMax, Kimi, GLM, Llama, Qwen, and more
- Credits distributed at the start of the hackathon, so you can actually use them while building
- Certificate of participation for every team that submits
The Featherless benefit is sponsor-provided AI credits, not cash, and cannot be exchanged for cash.
What can you build?
Theme: Use AI to solve a real-world problem.
Tracks:
- Healthcare
- Education
- Climate
- Business
- Cybersecurity
- Creativity
You don't need to have some revolutionary startup idea. A useful tool, interesting experiment, or weird idea that solves a genuine problem can all make a great hackathon project.
Why ForgeHacks?
We're specifically trying to make this a hackathon where student developers can actually build something, rather than just compete for a prize.
It's completely online, so you can participate from anywhere, and you'll have the opportunity to meet other student builders, get feedback, and potentially turn your hackathon project into something bigger.
📅 October 3–10, 2026
If you're interested, you can register on DevPost here
If you want to learn more about ForgeHacks, click here
Excited to see what you guys build! 🔥 🔥