GitLab Ultimate Free for a Year, Up to 20 Seats
GitLab is source control, CI/CD & security scanning in 1 platform, so the repo and the pipeline are not 2 vendors with 2 bills.
GitLab Ultimate free for 12 months, up to 20 seats
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GitLab publishes no price for Ultimate, so nobody can tell you what the free year is worth. It is quoted, not listed. What GitLab does price is the compute that comes with the tier: 50,000 CI minutes a month, about $500 a month at its own $10 per 1,000 rate. The free plan gives you 400 minutes & 5 seats.
What GitLab is, & why founders use it
GitLab holds the code, runs the pipeline & scans what the pipeline builds. The argument for it over assembling the same stack from separate tools is that the permissions, the audit trail & the bill are all in 1 place.
1 tool instead of 3. Repo, CI & scanning bought separately cost more & agree with each other less.
Security scanning in the pipeline. Dependency & secret scanning running on every merge request, rather than as a quarterly panic.
Self-managed if you need it. Regulated customers sometimes require the code to sit on your own infrastructure, which GitLab supports.
Deal at a glance
| Provider | GitLab, source control, CI/CD & security scanning in one platform |
|---|---|
| Pre-seed & seed route | Ultimate free for 12 months, up to 20 seats, then 50% off any tier in year two |
| Series A & B route | 50% off any tier in year one, 25% off in year two, up to 20 users |
| Funding caps | Up to $5M raised for the free year, up to $20M for the discount route |
| Funding type | External only. Self-funded companies are not eligible |
| Customer status | New GitLab customers only, on both routes |
| Deployment | SaaS or self-managed, same offer |
| Support | Not included on the free year |
| Compute | 50,000 CI minutes a month on Ultimate |
| Access | Free with any InnMind account |
| Last verified | September 2026 |
What you get
Ultimate is the tier GitLab sells to enterprises, and the free plan most startups begin on is a long way below it. These are the published differences.
- 20 seats instead of 5. GitLab Free caps a top-level group at five users, which most seed teams pass before they pass anything else.
- 50,000 CI minutes a month instead of 400. This is the part with a checkable price, because GitLab sells extra minutes at $10 per 1,000.
- The security tier: application security testing, software supply chain security & vulnerability management, which is what makes Ultimate an enterprise product rather than a bigger Premium.
- Compliance & governance controls, plus strategic portfolio and value stream management for whoever ends up owning planning.
- Unlimited guest users, a tier feature of Ultimate, so read-only stakeholders do not have to come out of your 20.
- SaaS or self-managed, your choice, with the same terms either way.
What founders use it for
A free year of an enterprise DevSecOps tier tends to get spent on the things a seed team cannot yet justify buying.
Passing a security review before you have a security person. Enterprise buyers ask for SAST, dependency scanning & an audit trail. Having them running in the pipeline turns a month of questionnaire into a link.
Collapsing four tools into one bill. Repo, CI, container registry, scanning & issue tracking in one place removes the integration work nobody scheduled and the renewals nobody tracked.
Getting CI minutes out of the critical path. 50,000 minutes a month is enough that the pipeline stops being the thing you ration, which is usually what pushes small teams into batching merges.
Keeping the option to self-host. Regulated or on-premise customers ask where the code lives. The same licence covers self-managed, so the answer can change without changing tools.
Before you apply, three things that actually decide it
External funding is a hard gate. GitLab states that the programme is open to externally funded companies only, and says it may consider other kinds of company in later rounds. A profitable, bootstrapped team with real revenue does not qualify today. If that is you, the free plan is still there, and several of the deals below take self-funded teams.
Attach proof of funding or the application is not read. GitLab asks for a Crunchbase or PitchBook profile, or the page of the VC or accelerator behind you. If that page does not show your current funding status, you have to add a document or public link that does. GitLab says plainly that applications submitted without this are not considered, which makes it the cheapest mistake to avoid here.
Support is not included, and it is worth knowing what that excludes. On a paid GitLab plan, support carries a response SLA: around the clock for a Severity 1 emergency and 24 hours a day on weekdays below that. The free year has none of it, and GitLab says the product is easy enough to run without. On SaaS that mainly means no escalation path on a bad day. On self-managed it means you own installation, upgrades, backups & recovery, so put somebody’s time against it before choosing that route.
Who is eligible
| Free-year route | Pre-seed or seed, up to $5 million in external funding. |
|---|---|
| Discount route | Series A or Series B, up to $20 million in external funding. |
| Funding source | External funding only. Self-funded companies are excluded for now. |
| Customer status | New GitLab customers only. An existing paid account rules you out. |
| Seats | 20, across both years and both routes. You can buy more later: GitLab prepares an add-on quote if you write to its startups address. |
| What counts as a seat | GitLab counts every end user in the top-level group, and its definition covers machines as well as people, so service accounts & bots come out of the 20. |
| Self-managed condition | Self-hosted instances have to leave usage and analytics features switched on. |
| InnMind plan | Free with any InnMind account. No paid membership needed for this one. |
How to claim it
- Sign in to InnMind. A free account is enough for this deal.
- Open the deal in the InnMind app and click Access Perk.
- Get your funding evidence together first: a Crunchbase or PitchBook profile, or your investor or accelerator page, plus a public link or document showing current funding status if that page does not.
- Fill in the application form on GitLab’s startups page.
- GitLab verifies eligibility and its team contacts you to set the licence up. Applications are not processed during US public holidays.
Terms worth knowing
This is the GitLab for Startups programme, run by GitLab, offered at its sole discretion and subject to change, and members come under the GitLab Subscription Agreement. Acceptance is GitLab’s decision rather than something an InnMind account settles. Year two is a conversation, not an automatic switch: GitLab says it reaches out well before the first year ends to walk you through renewal, and which discount you land on depends on which funding bracket you were admitted under. Only one number here has a list price to anchor against, so treat the rest as quotes: GitLab Premium is $29 per user per month billed annually, which by our arithmetic puts 20 seats at about $6,960 a year at list, or roughly $3,480 at the programme’s 50% year-two rate. Ultimate is quoted, not listed, so any site telling you the free year is worth a specific figure is not taking that number from GitLab’s pricing page. Compute, seat & tier figures are GitLab’s published numbers as of September 2026 and can change. Questions about seats or eligibility go to GitLab at its startups address. Deal details verified September 2026.
Questions founders ask
How do I get GitLab Ultimate free for a year?
Open this deal from your InnMind account and follow the link to the GitLab for Startups page, then fill in the application form there. GitLab verifies your funding, and its team contacts you to set the licence up. The free year covers up to 20 seats on SaaS or self-managed.
Who qualifies for the GitLab for Startups program?
Two routes. Pre-seed or seed companies with up to $5 million in external funding get Ultimate free for a year and 50% off any tier in year two. Series A or Series B companies with up to $20 million get 50% off in year one and 25% in year two. Both routes are for new GitLab customers only and both cap at 20 users.
Can a bootstrapped startup apply?
No. GitLab states that the programme is currently open to externally funded companies only, and that it will consider other kinds of company in later rounds. Revenue and traction do not substitute for a funding round here.
How much is the GitLab free year worth?
GitLab does not publish a price for Ultimate, so there is no honest dollar figure for the licence itself. The part that is priced is compute: the tier carries 50,000 CI minutes a month, and GitLab sells extra minutes at $10 per 1,000. For year two, Premium lists at $29 per user per month billed annually.
Is support included in the GitLab startup program?
No. GitLab says so on the programme page and adds that the product is designed to be easy to run without it. On a paid plan, support carries a response SLA that runs around the clock for a Severity 1 emergency. The free year has none of that, which matters most if you self-manage, because installation, upgrades and recovery are then yours.
How many seats do I get, and can I add more?
Twenty, and the cap applies across both years and both routes. GitLab counts every end user in the top-level group, and its definition includes machines as well as people, so service accounts and bots consume seats. If you need more, GitLab prepares an add-on quote on request.
What happens after the first year?
GitLab says it reaches out well before year one ends to go through renewal options, so the discount is a conversation rather than an automatic switch. Seed-route companies move to 50% off any tier, Series A and B companies to 25%. After year two you choose from the standard plans.
Does this work with self-managed GitLab?
Yes, the offer is the same on SaaS or self-managed. One condition attaches to self-hosting: the instance has to keep usage and analytics features enabled.
Do I need a paid InnMind plan to claim it?
No. GitLab is one of the deals open to any InnMind account, free included.