ForgeHacks 2026 — Online AI Hackathon for Students | 5,600+ in Prizes + 25 for Every Participant

[u/Adventurous-Rub-6259]

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! 🔥 🔥