With thousands of builders from around the world and over $1,000,000 in prizes, this is more than just a hackathon, it’s a global launchpad for the next generation of products, ideas, and founders. Here’s how the prizes break down:
Judging Criteria
First and foremost, remember that submissions are evaluated based on four key criteria:
- 🌍 Potential Impact
How big of an impact could this project make? Does it solve a meaningful problem or offer viral potential?
- 💡 Quality of the Idea
Is it creative and original? Or does something similar already exist?
- 🛠️ Technological Implementation
How strong is the technical build? Does it use Bolt.new in novel or advanced ways?
- 🎨 Design & User Experience
Is it beautifully designed? Is the product intuitive, polished, and well-balanced between frontend and backend?
Global Prizes
The top 10 projects across the entire hackathon will be recognized for their outstanding work across all judging criteria.
- 🥇 Grand Prize (1st Place)
The single most exceptional project — creative, technically solid, impactful, and beautifully executed.
- 🏅 2nd–5th Place
Projects that delivered on both vision and craft. These were powerful ideas, executed with excellence.
- 🎖️ 6th–10th Place
Strong builds that made a mark with thoughtful UX, real-world value, and impressive storytelling.
Regional Highlights
We’re spotlighting one standout project from each region. These aren’t just local winners, they’re global contenders who crushed it on their home turf.
- 🇺🇸 AMER Winner – North, Central, or South America
- 🌏 APAC Winner – Asia-Pacific region
- 🇪🇺 EMEA Winner – Europe, Middle East, or Africa
Bonus Awards
These special categories recognize unique excellence, from inspiring stories to next-level design:
- Standout Event Hosts – Community-first IRL leaders
- Inspirational Story – Overcoming adversity or building with purpose
- One-Shot Competition – Best build from a single prompt
- Uniquely Useful Tool – “Why didn’t this exist before?” energy
- Creative Use of AI – Clever, bold, or unexpected applications
- Most Beautiful UI – A project that’s a joy to use and look at
- Most Viral Project – The one that broke the internet
- Future Unicorn – Most likely to become a billion-dollar startup
- Sharpest Problem Fit – Best solution-to-problem alignment
- Top Build-in-Public Journey – Shared transparently from start to finish
- We Didn’t Know We Needed This – Surprise hit of the hackathon
- Most Likely to Get Funded – VC ready builds
Challenger Prizes
Our partners have launched exclusive challenge tracks, each with $25,000 in prize money. Build with these tools and platforms to unlock even more rewards:
- 💸 Make More Money Challenge – Use RevenueCat for monetization
- 🌐 Custom Domain Challenge – Launch your app with Entri + IONOS
- ⛓️ Blockchain Challenge – Build trustless, scalable apps with Algorand
- 📹 Conversational AI Video Challenge – Integrate Tavus-powered AI agents
- 🎙️ Voice AI Challenge – Make your app talk with ElevenLabs
- 🚀 Deploy Challenge – Ship your full-stack app with Netlify
- 🤪 Silly Sh!t Challenge – Build your weirdest ideas with Reddit x Bolt
👉 See full challenge resources
This isn’t just prize money, it’s life changing.
We know this support will help turn ideas into companies, dreams into jobs, and prototypes into real-world tools that touch lives. We’re honored to witness the beginning of what so many of you are building and we can’t wait to see where it takes you.
