hackathon · online
OpenCV AI Competition 2026, powered by AWS
When it actually closes
Safe cutoff
Devpost submission system
- Stated
- “Oct 26, 2026 @ 11:45pm PDT”
- Printed zone
- PDT
- IANA zone
- America/Los_Angeles
- UTC
- 2026-10-27T06:45:00Z
- Your time
- Tue Oct 27, 6:45 AM UTC (loading your time zone…)
overview text and organizer update say 11:59 PM PT
- Stated
- “overview text and organizer update say 11:59 PM PT”
- Printed zone
- PT
- UTC
- 2026-10-27T06:59:00Z
- Your time
- Tue Oct 27, 6:59 AM UTC (loading your time zone…)
Prizes
$12,000 cash · 5 slots
Overall awards: 1st $5,000, 2nd $3,000, 3rd $2,000. Special awards, which you opt into and which are scored under their own rubrics: Best Use of COOL $1,000 and Agentic Vision $1,000. An entry can win at most one Overall award plus one or both Special awards, so one entry can win up to $7,000. A Special award can go unawarded if no entry meets its qualifying requirements. Devpost's "$20,250 in cash" headline also counts 55 x $150 AWS Compute Grants.
1st place (Overall)
cash
$5,000
2nd place (Overall)
cash
$3,000
3rd place (Overall)
cash
$2,000
Best Use of COOL
cash
$1,000
Special award; can stack with an Overall award; may go unawarded
Agentic Vision
cash
$1,000
Special award; can stack with an Overall award; may go unawarded
AWS Compute Grant
credits · ×55
$150
AWS credits, not cash; already awarded to ~55 teams chosen on proposal strength before this data was checked
Eligibility
Individuals: eligible
"Participants must be at least 13 years old." Devpost adds: "All countries/territories, excluding standard exceptions" (Brazil, Crimea, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Quebec, Russia).
Checked for one adult entering alone from Nevada, USA. Rules can differ by country, so read the rule quoted here for where you live.
Entry cost
Free to enter
Payout
unknown
Cash. OpenCV sends prizes within 30 days of the final judging decision, once the winner completes eligibility, release and tax documents (expect a W-9). The rules do not say whether payment is by wire, PayPal or check. For teams, the representative is paid. Winners pay their own taxes.
Rights — what you give up
entrant-keeps
Participants keep ownership of all IP, including code, models, weights and data. For the "Submitted Materials" (proposal, report, presentation, video), each participant grants OpenCV and AWS, each independently, a "perpetual, irrevocable ... worldwide, royalty-free ...
Gotchas
- opencv.org says 'Registration closes Aug 17, 2026', and its Terms list 'Submit the cloud compute grant proposal' as a participation requirement. Devpost registration is still open, and the closed grant form's title says 'All teams, even those who ...
- The Devpost rules page is an 'overview' that says final governing-law and eligibility terms 'will appear in the Devpost Official Rules before registration opens'. No separate official rules document exists.
- Deadline mismatch: Devpost closes at 11:45pm PDT on Oct 26, while the overview text says 11:59pm PT. Submit before 11:45pm.
- You pay for AWS yourself. Grants are closed and went to about 55 teams chosen on proposal strength. New AWS accounts get $100 in Free Tier credits plus up to $100 more for activities, and an AWS account needs a payment card.