Grants for builders on Polkadot in 2026
Polkadot funds builders from its on-chain treasury through OpenGov: you submit a proposal on-chain, it goes to a referendum, and approved spends are paid in DOT. The tracker lists it as the replacement for the discontinued Web3 Foundation Grants Program. Data from our web3 grant tracker, last verified 2026-09-27.
What gets funded on Polkadot
Focus (tracker): Polkadot ecosystem: development, tooling, community, bounties. The ticket varies (on-chain proposal, paid in DOT); no stage requirement is listed and no equity is taken.
Status: replaces the discontinued Web3 Foundation Grants Program. Proposals are submitted on-chain, for example via Subsquare.
From the official page (wiki.polkadot.com/learn/learn-polkadot-opengov-treasury, checked 2026-09-30):
- Access to treasury funds requires a referendum to be enacted on-chain in the relevant treasury track.
- There are six treasury tracks: Treasurer, Big Spender, Medium Spender, Small Spender, Big Tipper and Small Tipper.
- Submitting via Subsquare: choose a proposer address, write the proposal with a detailed description, create a preimage, then create the proposal on the relevant track.
- Bounties reserve a portion of treasury funds once and are managed by curators; child bounties are paid from a parent bounty without a separate OpenGov referendum.
Polkadot grant programs: amounts, stage, type
| Program | Ticket | Stage | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| Polkadot OpenGov TreasuryOfficial: wiki.polkadot.com/learn/learn-polkadot-opengov-treasury | Varies (on-chain proposal, paid in DOT) | Any | Community fund |
Equity, per the tracker: “No” for this program. Terms change, so confirm on the official page before you apply.
Which route fits your team
- One-off project or milestone — A treasury proposal on the spender track that matches the amount you ask for.
- Small payout — Tips are the treasury’s smaller payouts; the Big Tipper and Small Tipper tracks cover them.
- Work that fits an existing bounty — Talk to the bounty’s curators: child bounties are paid from the parent bounty without a new referendum.
- Private review instead of a public vote — A treasury proposal is decided in public by referendum. For a private review and a reply within days, see the next section.
Chain-agnostic options
Ecosystem programs fund work on their own chain. The options below do not depend on the chain you build on, and none of them stops you from applying to the Polkadot program above as well.
ZK Prime Capital grants. $5K–$75K, no equity, idea or prototype stage welcome, reply within 5 business days. The same application document you write for Polkadot OpenGov Treasury is accepted, and there is no exclusivity. If the milestone ships, the fund can continue into a $50K–$250K round, 3–6 months of incubation and a token launch. How the program works.
ZK Prime funds three kinds of project on any chain, Polkadot included: on-chain AI agents, DeFAI and ZK infrastructure. If yours is one of them, the chain you build on is not a filter.
Public-goods rounds. For open-source and public-goods work, the tracker lists quadratic funding rounds that are not tied to one chain: Gitcoin and Giveth.
Everything in one table. The web3 grants tracker compares all 27 programs by ticket, equity and stage; each has a program guide.
Building on Polkadot? Apply to ZK Prime in parallel
Same document, no exclusivity. $5K–$75K non-dilutive grants for on-chain AI agents, DeFAI and ZK infrastructure at idea or prototype stage; reply within 5 business days.
Apply with the same doc ▸Frequently asked questions
How much funding can builders on Polkadot get?
Our tracker lists the ticket for Polkadot OpenGov Treasury as: Varies (on-chain proposal, paid in DOT). Where the ticket varies there is no single fixed amount, so size the request to one milestone. Confirm current amounts on the official page; last verified 2026-09-27.
Do Polkadot grant programs take equity?
No. Our tracker lists Polkadot OpenGov Treasury as non-dilutive: no equity is taken. ZK Prime Capital grants are non-dilutive as well.
Is the Web3 Foundation Grants Program still open?
No. Our tracker (last verified 2026-09-27) lists the Web3 Foundation Grants Program as discontinued and the Polkadot OpenGov Treasury as its replacement: proposals are submitted on-chain, for example via Subsquare, and approved spends are paid in DOT.
Grants on other chains
Ethereum & L2s · Arbitrum · Optimism · Starknet · Solana · Avalanche · Sui · Aptos · Stellar · Celo · Aleo · Zcash · Tezos · Stacks · Filecoin · Cosmos · Cardano · all chains
Source: ZK Prime web3 grant tracker, last verified 2026-09-27; official pages checked 2026-09-30. Writing the application: one-page template. Spotted an outdated detail? Open a PR.