Meta has opened applications for the Meta Global AI Developer Hackathon: ten days, $1,000,000 in cash prizes, virtual and worldwide. It is free to enter if you are selected.
The catch is the cap. Participation is limited to 20,000 accepted applicants, reviewed on a rolling basis, and Meta reserves the right to close the portal the moment those spots fill — even before the posted deadline. Applying early is the whole strategy.
Two tracks
- Indie developer — for individuals and students. Judged on creativity, technical ambition, and whether it actually works.
- Startup — for teams and founders building a real product. Judged on technical execution and whether it holds up in production.
Two themes
- Build for Your World — bring Meta's models into a domain you know firsthand and solve a problem you have lived with.
- Push the Frontier — software, robotics, manufacturing, energy, materials. Give a machine a new capability or accelerate a scientific experiment.
What you get access to
The Muse Spark series, Muse Image and SAM 3.1 through the Meta Model API, Meta's open-weight models, and Muse Code, its agentic coding agent. Plus live workshops from Meta and partners and office hours on Discord between October 27 and November 4.
The dates that matter
- Applications deadline: October 25, 11:59 PM ET
- Approval notification: by October 26, 9:00 AM ET
- Hackathon begins: October 26, with a kickoff livestream
- Submissions due: November 4, 9:00 PM ET
- Winners announced: November 9, live
Why it matters
- Applications are scored on two things, weighted equally: how clear and feasible your project idea is, and the technical skill shown in the AI project you describe. Links to GitHub or a shipped product help verify that, but are not required.
- The indie track judges "whether it works" explicitly. A small thing that runs beats an ambitious thing that does not.
- The 20,000 cap is real and rolling. Waiting for the deadline risks finding the door already shut.