If you typed "microsoft hackathon" into Google, you're probably trying to find one specific thing: a registration page, a deadline, maybe a prize list. What you get instead is a mess of results that all claim the name, because Microsoft doesn't run one hackathon, it runs a handful of separate programs that happen to share a brand. Here's what's actually out there and which one you can walk into.
Imagine Cup: the one open to basically anyone
This is Microsoft's flagship, and it's been running for over two decades. It's less a weekend build and more a startup competition stretched across months: you register as a team of up to four, build a working product that integrates at least two Microsoft AI services, and pitch it along one of two paths.
The Launch path is for early teams still validating an idea, with no more than $100,000 in non-dilutive funding and no equity funding taken. The Scale path is for teams with real traction already (paying users, revenue, or up to $5 million raised). Only Scale teams go on to the World Championship, where the top prize has run $100,000 cash plus a mentorship session with Satya Nadella. Launch has its own separate $50,000 prize, judged on its own terms rather than against Scale teams.
As of this writing, the 2027 season is open and taking registrations, with the window closing January 8, 2027. Regional semifinals run in spring, and the World Championship is in May. You don't need to show up already knowing Azure: registered teams get up to $5,000 in Azure credits to build with after they're in, which is the whole point of giving you the runway.
One eligibility detail that trips people up: you need to be 18 or older and currently enrolled somewhere, from high school through university. There's no institute restriction here, which is what makes Imagine Cup different from the next one.
Microsoft AI Unlocked: real, but only if your college is on the list
This is where a lot of "microsoft hackathon" searches actually belong, and it's worth knowing early that you might not be eligible. AI Unlocked runs on Microsoft's AceHacker platform and is gated to students graduating in 2027 or 2028 at 16 specific institutes: nine IITs (Bombay, Delhi, Kharagpur, Kanpur, Guwahati, Roorkee, BHU Varanasi, ISM Dhanbad, and Madras), Manipal Institute of Technology, three IIMs (Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta), XLRI, both ISB campuses, and the National Institute of Design.
If your college isn't on that list, there's no workaround, you can't enter as an individual applicant from outside it. If it is, entry is free, and the 2026 edition's grand finale had the top ten teams present live at Microsoft's Noida office in front of its leadership team. The winners that year were Team ChennAI from IIT Madras (first place, a project called SafeSteer-IN under the AI for India track), Team NEXUS also from IIT Madras (second, a project called Dispatch), and Team NEXUM from IIT Kharagpur (third, AgentGuard, under the Trustworthy AI track). That should give you a sense of the bar: these are polished, demo-ready AI products, not rough weekend prototypes.
So which one do you actually want
If you're not at one of those 16 institutes, this is an easy call: Imagine Cup is the Microsoft hackathon available to you, and right now is a good time to register for the 2027 cycle rather than wait. If you are at one of the listed institutes and have a strong AI project in mind, AI Unlocked is worth watching for its next cycle to open, since it doesn't ask for the funding or traction history that Imagine Cup's Scale track does.
What doesn't exist, despite what the search results imply, is a single "Microsoft Hackathon 2026" you can register for today. Treat any page claiming that as describing one of these two programs, or a smaller, irregularly-run, third-party event using Microsoft's name with its own separate rules you'd need to check directly on the organiser's page.
For the full week-by-week breakdown of the current Imagine Cup season, see Brabble's Microsoft Imagine Cup guide. For how the 2026 season specifically played out, including dates already passed, see the Microsoft Hackathon 2026 writeup.
Sources: Microsoft's Imagine Cup site and FAQ (imaginecup.microsoft.com), Microsoft AI Unlocked's program page on AceHacker (microsoft.acehacker.com/aiunlocked), and third-party reporting on registration dates and AI Unlocked's 2026 results cross-checked across Internshala, Scholarships.com, and coverage of the AI Unlocked finale. Specific dates for smaller, third-party Microsoft-branded events weren't independently verifiable and are deliberately left out.