We are so excited to announce the winners of the Hacktoberfest Weekend Challenge: Build for a Friend, the first of five challenges kicking off this year's Hacktoberfest!
This was our most participated-in challenge to date, nearly tripling our previous record for submissions. We asked you to build something with open-source AI at its core for one real person in your life, and you showed up for your parents, grandparents, siblings, classmates, roommates, and friends. Many of you told us how the person you built for reacted, and those stories made judging both a joy and a challenge.
Thank you to everyone who participated. Your projects show exactly why open models matter: private data stays at home, tools run without a credit card, and builders get to shape AI around the people they care about.
Now, let's celebrate our winners!
🎉 Congratulations To…
Featured Prize Category Winners
Best Use of Gemma
Best Use of TabPFN
Prize Category Winners
Best Use of Mastra
Best Use of SerpApi
Prizes
Our overall winner will receive:
- $250 USD
- DEV++ Membership
- Exclusive DEV badge
Our featured prize category winners will each receive:
- $200 USD
- Exclusive DEV badge
Our prize category winners will each receive:
- $100 USD
- Exclusive DEV badge
All participants with a valid submission will receive a completion badge.
A huge thank you to our partners, Render, Prior Labs, Thinking Machines, Arduino, DigitalOcean, Google, Backboard, ElevenLabs, Entire, GitHub, Mastra, MongoDB, SerpApi, Sentry, Temporal, and Tiger Data, for making these prizes possible!
What's Next?
Hacktoberfest is just getting started! We're launching a new challenge every week this month. Each challenge is a fresh start, so it's not too late to jump in. Week 1 is happening now:
Week 2 launches Monday, October 12, with a brand-new theme. Register for the upcoming challenges to be notified as details drop:
Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge: Week 2
October 12, 2026The Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge: Week 2 runs October 12 to October 18. This week's theme is Side Hustle: build something with open-weight models or open-source AI that someone would actually pay for. $2,550 in prizes across 18 winners. This year's Hacktoberfest is all about building brand-new projects with open-source AI and open-weight models. Every week brings a new theme, and every challenge is a fresh start, so you're competing on the same footing as everyone else.
Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge: Week 3
October 19, 2026The Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge: Week 3 runs October 19 to October 25. In honor of International Sloth Day, build something with open-source AI that rewards laziness: a tool for relaxation, an automation for a task you dread, or anything that makes life easier. $2,850 in prizes across 21 winners. New to Hacktoberfest this year? Instead of pull requests, you build a brand-new project with open-source AI at its core and write about it on DEV. Every challenge is a fresh start, so it's never too late to join.
Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge: Week 4
October 26, 2026The Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge: Week 4 runs October 26 to October 31. Build something spooky, or something that honors the past in the spirit of Día de los Muertos, with open-weight models or open-source AI. $2,850 in prizes across 21 winners. This is the final challenge of our Hacktoberfest series. This year's Hacktoberfest is all about building brand-new projects with open-source AI and open-weight models, and the theme is intentionally broad, so interpret it however you'd like!
Happy Hacktoberfest 💜