How does Gitcoin Grants work, and what changed in 2026?
Updated 8 min readBy the web3grant editors
How does Gitcoin Grants work? Projects join a funding round, ask supporters to donate during a two-week window, and a shared matching pool is split by quadratic funding, so the number of donors counts more than the size of each gift. That model ran until GG24 in October 2025. As of October 2026 no new round is announced, and Gitcoin is changing focus.
Key takeaways
- Gitcoin Grants ran matched-donation rounds from 2019, and Gitcoin says more than $60M went out through them.
- GG24, the last round, took donations from October 14 to 28, 2025 and allocated about $1.8M across six domains: $1.175M from Gitcoin and $632,500 from partners.
- In GG24's quadratic funding rounds, matching was capped at 10,000 USDC per project in Developer Tooling and 15,000 USDC in Interop; the largest single match was 10,913 USDC.
- Donations counted toward matching only if the donor passed Human Passport checks, which screen out fake accounts.
- As of our October 29, 2026 recheck, there is no GG25 or Node Zero round; Gitcoin is folding quadratic funding into a local-money pilot targeted for November 2026, with no application for builders yet.
How does a Gitcoin Grants round work?
A Gitcoin Grants round works in four steps: projects apply, supporters donate, matching is calculated, and the pool is paid out. Here is how GG24, the most recent round, ran.
- Apply to a domain. Each round or domain opened its own application on its operator's platform. In GG24, eligible projects were open source with active maintenance, and they had to fit the problem area of the domain they applied to. Each domain set its own rules and review.
- Gather donations. During the two-week donation window, from October 14 to 28, 2025, projects asked their communities to donate. Every matched donation, however small, adds to the project's matching weight.
- Matching is calculated. The pool is split using the donor count, with a per-project cap. GG24's quadratic rounds used COCM, a variant explained below.
- Review and payout. Results are posted for a short review, then matching is paid in stablecoins. GG24 results went up on November 5, 2025, with a five-day review, and payouts in USDC on Arbitrum and Celo by about November 13.
From the close of donations to matched funds in a project's wallet took roughly two weeks in GG24.
How does quadratic matching decide who gets paid?
Quadratic funding gives each project matching in proportion to the square of the sum of the square roots of its contributions, minus what donors already gave. The formula comes from a 2018 paper by Vitalik Buterin, Zoë Hitzig and Glen Weyl. The effect is that many small donations attract far more matching than one large one.
An illustrative example, before the result is scaled to fit the real pool:
| Project A | Project B | |
|---|---|---|
| Donors | 100 people give $1 each | 1 person gives $100 |
| Raised from donors | $100 | $100 |
| Sum of square roots | 100 × √1 = 100 | √100 = 10 |
| Squared | $10,000 | $100 |
| Matching (squared minus raised) | $9,900 | $0 |
Both projects raised $100, but Project A shows broad support and gets all of the matching. Real rounds then scale every project's match down so the total fits the pool, and apply a cap per project.
Because the formula rewards head count, fake donors are the main risk. Gitcoin dealt with this in two ways in GG24. Donors had to pass Human Passport checks for their donations to be matched, and the quadratic rounds used COCM (connection-oriented cluster matching), which gives less weight to donors who look closely connected, so support from many separate groups counts for more. Quadratic funding explained covers the mechanism and its variants in more depth.
What did GG24 fund and pay?
GG24, in October 2025, was organized into six domains, such as developer tooling and privacy, each run by its own operator with its own mechanism. Not every domain used quadratic funding: the mix included quadratic funding on Giveth, Deep Funding, conviction voting, MACI voting and retroactive rewards.
| GG24 fact | Figure |
|---|---|
| Donation window | October 14 to 28, 2025 |
| Total allocated | About $1.8M |
| From Gitcoin / from partners | $1.175M / $632,500 |
| Developer Tooling QF pool and cap | $200,000 pool, 10,000 USDC per project |
| Interop QF pool and cap | $100,000 pool, 15,000 USDC per project |
| Largest single match | 10,913 USDC |
The focus areas were Ethereum developer tooling and infrastructure, interop standards and analytics, and privacy and public goods research. Past Gitcoin grantees include Protocol Guild, Revoke.cash and Blockscout. The QF rounds paid in one payment; some other GG24 domains paid on milestones. Gitcoin's GG24 quadratic funding results are posted on its governance forum.
What changed at Gitcoin in 2026?
Gitcoin stopped running Gitcoin Grants rounds after GG24 and is turning its funding toward local, real-world public goods. As of October 29, 2026, there is no round open or announced for builders.
- GG25 does not appear to have run. It was planned for Q2 2026, but we found no announcements or results for it on Gitcoin's forum.
- A new focus. In 2026 Gitcoin first proposed retiring the Gitcoin Grants name in favor of a year-long d/acc funding program. In mid-2026 it chose instead to build a local-first product for people displaced by AI. Its matching pool, about $10.2M in July 2026, is meant to fund public goods focused on local jobs, mutual aid and physical space.
- No Node Zero round. A first "Node Zero" round had been targeted for October 2026. When we rechecked on October 29, 2026, there was no Node Zero or GG25 round; quadratic funding is being folded into a "local money" pilot targeted for November 2026, with a wider launch in mid-December.
- Nothing to apply to yet. There is no application for builders. If you build open-source Ethereum tools, there is no announced Gitcoin round for you right now.
Gitcoin's own October 2026 forum update describes the pilot. A separate Gitcoin and Octant pilot for yield-powered matching passed governance, but no round using it has been announced. Our Gitcoin Grants program page and the Web3 grant deadline calendar will show a new window if one opens.
Where can you raise through quadratic funding now?
Quadratic funding is still used outside Gitcoin, but no quadratic round in web3grant's directory was open on October 31, 2026. Three programs in the directory use the model, Gitcoin included, and one security fund has used it.
- Giveth QF roundsGivethApplications for the Stellar round closed on Aug 28. Donations run until Oct 4, 2026, and no next round is announced.Up to $86KClosed
- Octant funding epochsOctantEpoch 13 applications have closed. Community allocation for its 100 ETH pool runs Oct 14 to Oct 21, 2026, and Epoch 14 has no date yet.$500–$27.6KClosed
- TheDAO Security FundTheDAO Security FundUp to $640K91 days
- Gitcoin GrantsGitcoinNo round since GG24 in October 2025, and none is announced. As of October 2026 Gitcoin is folding quadratic funding into a local-money pilot targeted for November, with a wider launch in mid-December; there is no application for builders yet.Up to $10.9KClosed
- Giveth QF rounds. Giveth hosts quadratic rounds with partners, and GG24's quadratic rounds ran on it. Its Stellar Community Growth round closed applications on August 28, 2026, donations ran until October 4, and no next round is announced. Any project can list on Giveth and receive donations between rounds.
- Octant funding epochs. Recurring rounds in which community contributions are matched from an ETH pool; Epoch 13 had a 100 ETH pool. Epoch 13 allocation closed on October 22, 2026, and Epoch 14 has no date. Projects need working software with verifiable users and open-source core code.
- TheDAO Security Fund. Its first round was a 500 ETH quadratic funding round on Giveth, from April 23 to May 14, 2026, with 134 projects. Round Two, open until the end of January 2027, uses a co-funding board instead, for Ethereum security initiatives only.
Other routes for open-source Ethereum work are thin right now. The Ethereum Foundation's Ecosystem Support Program had no Wishlist or RFP items open as of October 1, 2026, and Optimism Retro Funding has been paused since January 2026. Web3 grant programs closed in 2026 tracks the rest, and retroactive public goods funding covers the model most likely to fund work you have already shipped.
How do you raise more in a quadratic funding round?
In a quadratic round, more donors beat bigger donors, so your job is to reach as many real, separate supporters as you can. These practices follow from the mechanism and from the rules rounds like GG24 and Giveth's set.
- Count donors, not dollars. Ten $5 donations attract more matching than one $50 donation. Ask every user, contributor and follower for a small gift.
- Make sure donations can be matched. Donors who fail the round's anti-sybil check, such as Human Passport in GG24, add their money but no matching. Tell supporters what they need before the window opens.
- Ask early. The donation window in GG24 was two weeks. Line up announcements, posts and reminders before day one.
- Reach separate communities. With COCM, support from several unconnected groups counts for more than the same number of donors from one tight cluster.
- Never pay for donations. Giveth removes matching for quid-pro-quo incentives, fake donors and recirculated funds, and these can disqualify a project.
- Know the cap. A per-project cap, such as GG24's 10,000 USDC in Developer Tooling, limits what one project can win however many donors it has.
- Show you maintain the project. GG24 required active maintenance, so keep your repository, changelog and project page current.
Quadratic funding is only one way public goods get paid. What Web3 grants are explains the other models and where each fits.
FAQ
Is Gitcoin Grants still running in 2026?
Gitcoin Grants has run no round since GG24 in October 2025, and none was announced as of October 29, 2026. Gitcoin is folding quadratic funding into a local-money pilot targeted for November 2026, with a wider launch planned for mid-December, aimed at local, real-world public goods rather than open-source software. There is no application for builders yet.
How much can a project get from a Gitcoin round?
In GG24, the last Gitcoin Grants round, matching was capped at 10,000 USDC per project in the Developer Tooling quadratic round and 15,000 USDC in the Interop round, and the largest single match was 10,913 USDC. Other GG24 domains used different mechanisms, and per-project maximums for them were not published.
Do donors need Human Passport to count in Gitcoin Grants?
In GG24, donors had to pass Human Passport checks for their donations to be matched. Human Passport scores whether a wallet likely belongs to a unique person, which protects quadratic funding from fake accounts. A donor who did not pass could still give, but that gift added nothing to the project's matching. Future Gitcoin rounds may use different checks.
Is quadratic funding the same as Gitcoin Grants?
Quadratic funding is not the same as Gitcoin Grants. Quadratic funding is the matching formula, first described in a 2018 paper by Vitalik Buterin, Zoë Hitzig and Glen Weyl; Gitcoin Grants was the best-known program that used it. Giveth, Octant and TheDAO Security Fund have also run quadratic rounds, and GG24 itself mixed quadratic funding with other mechanisms.
Programs in this guide
Where each one stands today, soonest deadline first.
- TheDAO Security FundTheDAO Security FundUp to $640K91 days
- Ecosystem Support ProgramEthereum FoundationOpen proposals ended in 2025. As of Oct 1, 2026 no Wishlist or RFP items are open, so there is nothing to apply to until ESP posts new ones. Office Hours are still open.UndisclosedAnytime
- Octant funding epochsOctantEpoch 13 applications have closed. Community allocation for its 100 ETH pool runs Oct 14 to Oct 21, 2026, and Epoch 14 has no date yet.$500–$27.6KClosed
- Giveth QF roundsGivethApplications for the Stellar round closed on Aug 28. Donations run until Oct 4, 2026, and no next round is announced.Up to $86KClosed
- Optimism Retro FundingOptimism FoundationPaused since January 2026 for at least 12 months. No Retro Funding missions are planned for Seasons 9 or 10.$55–$32.5KClosed
- Gitcoin GrantsGitcoinNo round since GG24 in October 2025, and none is announced. As of October 2026 Gitcoin is folding quadratic funding into a local-money pilot targeted for November, with a wider launch in mid-December; there is no application for builders yet.Up to $10.9KClosed
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