German digitalization grants 2026:
what actually still runs .

Granting bodies: the district governments. Grant of up to 7,500 euros (Standard) or up to 30,000 euros (Plus), funding rate up to 50 percent. Only commercial small companies with fewer than 50 employees and at most 10 million euros in revenue or balance sheet total; liberal professions are excluded. Monthly quota opening on the first working day at 10 a.m.; measures that serve a legal obligation are not funded. Runs until 31 December 2027.

Granting body ILB. Funding rate 50 percent, grant up to 250,000 euros for implementation projects and up to 50,000 euros for consulting projects. Funds organisational and process innovation through digitalisation; programming services for software to be developed are eligible, expenses for pure automation projects are not. Commercial businesses only. The directive runs until 30 June 2027.

Granting body SAB. Up to 60 percent for introductory projects of micro companies, up to 50 percent for transformation projects of small companies, up to 35 percent for medium-sized ones; direct expenses are capped at 10,000, 60,000 and 100,000 euros respectively. Explicitly open to liberal professions. Since 17 July 2026 an application stop applies in the transition region, including Dresden and Chemnitz; applications only from the city of Leipzig and the districts of Leipzig and Nordsachsen. Expenses that solely serve legally mandated tasks are not eligible.

Granting body WTSH. Implementation module: grant of at most 40 percent of eligible expenses, capped at 200,000 euros of expenses, investment of at least 10,000 euros. Small companies with fewer than 50 jobs only; liberal professions are excluded under the current directive. Costs of a service provider who actively helped with the application are not recognised. Measures that mainly serve to implement a legal requirement are on the negative list. Limited until 30 June 2027.

Granting body TBI Schwerin. Funding rate 50 percent, at most 50,000 euros per project; eligible expenses of at least 15,000 euros (up to 50 employees) or 20,000 euros (above 50 employees). Only for projects that predominantly use artificial intelligence in the sense of self-learning systems. Commercial companies with up to 100 employees; freelancers are excluded. Valid until 31 December 2027.

Granting body Thüringer Aufbaubank. Grant of up to 200,000 euros as a fixed amount per expense bracket, from an investment of at least 5,000 euros; directive in force since 1 September 2025. Funds innovative investments in tangible and intangible assets plus services directly connected to the purchase (the bank's examples: foundations, assembly); runtime licences and own work are excluded. A software project is only eligible if it is tied to such a capitalised purchase. Legal and business consulting firms and freelancers as well as real estate agencies are not eligible.

Granting body IB Sachsen-Anhalt. Grant of up to 50 percent, max. 70,000 euros; the share for consulting services is capped at 6,000 euros. The procedure of 29 July 2026 has closed, no applications at the moment; the next procedures open, subject to reservation, on 28 September 2026 and 30 November 2026 at 1 p.m. and end once 90 applications have been received.

Granting body: the state ministry of economics. Grant of up to 50 percent for small and up to 30 percent for medium-sized companies; basic funding up to 12,500 euros, plus funding up to 20,000 euros; project size 3,000 to 200,000 euros. Applications only during the periods of the individual calls; systems purchased because of a legal obligation are not eligible; liberal professions are excluded.

Granting body BAB. Grant of 40 percent of eligible expenses for small and 30 percent for medium-sized companies, maximum grant 17,000 euros. No funds are left for 2026; information on applications for 2027 will follow. Measures that mainly serve to implement a legal requirement are excluded; members of the liberal professions are not eligible.

Granting body IFB Hamburg. The loan finances the purchase and implementation of hardware and software including consulting costs, projects from 25,000 euros, plus a city grant of up to 12 percent of the loan amount (max. 20,000 euros); also open to freelancers. The project must connect digital systems with each other; an isolated e-invoicing tool alone does not qualify. The Digital Check subsidises consulting at up to 50 percent, maximum grant 7,500 euros; complete applications must be filed by 16 November 2026.

Subsidised loan via the house bank, loan amount 10,000 euros to 5 million euros, successor of the Digitalisierungsprämie Plus since 1 July 2025. SMEs receive a repayment grant of 5.0 percent of the loan amount in funding levels 2 and 3 for projects up to 250,000 euros; freelancers are eligible. There is no longer a grant for a plain software rollout; the Innovationsgutschein BW (funding rate 50 percent, max. 7,500 euros, high-tech max. 20,000 euros) only funds research and development services and excludes standard programming services and contract development.

Granting body NRW.BANK. Grant of a flat 50 percent of eligible investment costs, max. 15,000 euros, minimum threshold 4,000 euros. Since 1 January 2026 only for developing marketable digital products based on artificial intelligence, machine learning, data mining, real-time processing or AR/VR; the former focus on digital processes has been dropped. Access via a lottery with 16 applications per month, then 28 days to apply once drawn.

A signed contract or project start before the application voids the grant entirely. Correct order: get the quote, file the application, sign after approval.

One-time implementation, software setup and integration qualify; subscription, operations and maintenance costs do not.

Several programs exclude vendors who helped write the application. Clean setup: you file yourself, the vendor only supplies the technical project description.

Law firms (legal and business consulting professions) are not eligible in Bavaria, Brandenburg, Bremen, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Saarland, Schleswig-Holstein and Thuringia; Thuringia admits technical and creative freelancers. Law firms are eligible in Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt and under the Hamburg programs and the Baden-Württemberg digitalization loan.

Bavaria, Saxony, Saarland, Bremen, Schleswig-Holstein and North Rhine-Westphalia exclude measures that serve a legal obligation; elsewhere bare compliance fails the innovation test. An e-invoicing project that only meets the mandate is therefore hardly fundable anywhere; as part of a connected invoicing pipeline with redesigned processes it can be.