Two different shapes
A hackathon is a short, timed build with a demo at the end. A prize challenge usually sets a harder scientific or engineering goal, runs for weeks or months, and often pays only if a published threshold is met, or after a formal judging process. Our competitions guide covers types, rules and prizes in general; our article on how to enter AI hackathons is the practical entry guide for the short format.
Open prize-style examples:
- Vesuvius Challenge: 2027 Grand Prize: $800,000 to the first team or individual to fully unroll and make readable a scroll; $2,140,000 open prize pool incl. monthly progress prizes. The Grand Prize deadline is 25 June 2027 at 11:59pm Pacific. Progress prizes are judged monthly. To accept a prize, winners must open-source their method under a permissive licence.
- NIH Temporal Reasoning in Biomedical Knowledge Graphs Challenge: $1,000,000, with submissions due on 15 January 2027. Eligibility is set by the official rules on the challenge page.
- DOE GEMS Prize Challenge (geothermal fault mapping): Total prize pool $300,000. The competition ends at 11:59pm UTC on 3 December 2026, and official federal prize rules apply.
- Gray Swan Arena (AI red-teaming challenges): Current prize pool $300,000 (per page), in ongoing waves, free to enter. Individual challenge end dates are listed on the arena page, and the published prize pool can change.
- Hello Tomorrow Challenge 2027 (deep tech): a deep-tech startup competition, not a weekend build. Applying is free and Hello Tomorrow takes no equity for applying. The Grand Prize is a €200,000 equity investment from Deepbright Ventures for the Grand Winner (Pioneer selection takes no equity) from the organiser's sister fund, Deepbright Ventures, on the terms in the challenge's terms and conditions — it is an investment, not a cash gift. The stated deadline is 30 November 2026 at 23:59 CET. Always confirm on the official page that applications are still being accepted before you start a submission.
What "prize pool" can mean
- A headline purse that only the first team past a defined finish line receives, as with the Vesuvius Grand Prize, sometimes alongside smaller progress prizes.
- A total pool split among ranked teams after a competition deadline, as with many federal and platform challenges.
- A rolling pool for an ongoing arena, which can go up or down as new waves open.
- An investment or in-kind package labelled as a prize. Hello Tomorrow's €200,000 Grand Prize is explicitly an equity investment from Deepbright Ventures. That is not the same as a cash prize with no strings.
If the tax or legal treatment matters to you, the organiser's official rules are the authority, not the marketing headline. Our competitions guide has a short note on prize money and tax.
Time and commitment
A weekend hackathon asks for a burst of work and a polished demo. A Grand Prize challenge can become a part-time research project for months. Vesuvius Challenge: 2027 Grand Prize runs until June 2027. NIH Temporal Reasoning in Biomedical Knowledge Graphs Challenge gives you until mid-January. DOE GEMS Prize Challenge (geothermal fault mapping) ends in early December. Hello Tomorrow's process continues after the November deadline: Deep Tech Pioneers are announced in February 2027, and the Grand Finals are at the Summit in June.
That longer arc is the point for some people, and a poor fit for others. If you can only spare a weekend, a hackathon is the better first move.
Rules that go beyond the deadline
- Open-source conditions. Vesuvius requires a permissive licence on the winning method if you want the prize.
- Official competition rules, especially for US federal prizes such as the NIH and DOE challenges. These often include eligibility, conflicts of interest and how intellectual property is treated.
- Team size and incorporation. Hello Tomorrow expects a team of at least two, and has a Spinout Breakthroughs track for research and PhD teams that have not yet incorporated.
- Time zones. Pacific time, UTC and CET all appear in the examples above. Submit a day early if you are unsure.
Which style fits you?
- Choose a hackathon if you want a short, defined brief, a chance to ship something, and a deadline measured in days or weeks. Start with how to enter AI hackathons.
- Choose a prize challenge if you already have a line of work that could meet a published goal, and you can stay with it for months.
- Read what you would actually receive if you won — cash, credits, an investment, or a certificate and a speaking slot.
- Browse our competitions list, sorted by deadline, before you commit.
