Prizes & Judging
Banana Hacks is free to enter and every submitted project gets reviewed. The prize pool is being finalised with our sponsors and will be announced before the event — here's how judging works and what the award categories are.
Prize pool
The full prize breakdown is still being confirmed with sponsors and will be published here ahead of opening night. Based on sponsor commitments so far, expect a mix of:
- Cash prizes for winning teams
- Compute and GPU credits for training and inference
- Tooling subscriptions and product access from our sponsors
Award categories
Alongside the overall winners, category awards recognise projects that stand out in a specific direction. You don't apply for these — every submission is considered for every category.
Best Creative Tool
The project that most usefully puts generative AI in the hands of someone making something.
Best Fine-tune
The most impressive custom model, LoRA adapter, or training pipeline built during the weekend.
Most Surprising Output
The project that produced something nobody — including its authors — expected.
People's Choice
Voted on by participants during demo day.
How projects are judged
Judges include working AI researchers, artists, and startup founders. Every project is scored against four weighted criteria:
- Creativity & Originality
- 30%
- Technical Implementation
- 30%
- Visual Quality / User Experience
- 20%
- Potential Impact
- 20%
What you submit
A working demo (live URL or recorded video), a link to your GitHub repository, and a write-up of at most 500 words explaining what you built and why. Judges interact with live demos wherever possible, so a working link beats a polished video. Submissions close at 11:59 PM AoE on Sunday, October 11, 2026 — see the full schedule or the FAQ for details.