Government grants for software and app development in Australia (November 2026)

Are there government grants for software and app development in Australia?

Yes, but far fewer than search results suggest, and as at 8 November 2026 none of the open ones will pay for a typical custom app build. The programs people usually mean when they search for “grants for app development” are either paused, closed between rounds, limited to one industry or state, or not a grant at all.

Most Australian companies that build software fund it from revenue, savings or investors. Where public money helps, it is usually the R&D Tax Incentive, which is a tax offset on eligible experimental work claimed after the year ends. A grant is a bonus if one fits; it is a poor foundation for a project plan.

Every status below was checked on the program’s own page on 8 November 2026. Grant programs open, close and change with budgets, so treat this page as a starting point and confirm on the source before you spend anything.

Which federal programs are open right now?

None of the federal grant programs that fund product development are taking new applications today. The R&D Tax Incentive remains available because it is legislated, but it is an offset, not a grant.

Program	What it funds	Amount	Status at 8 Nov 2026
Industry Growth Program (IGP)	Advisory service plus grants for innovative SMEs commercialising products in National Reconstruction Fund priority areas	Early stage commercialisation $50,000 to $250,000; commercialisation and growth $100,000 to $5 million	Paused to new applications since 12 May 2026
Export Market Development Grants (EMDG)	Matched funding for international marketing and promotion	Tier 1 $20,000 to $30,000; Tier 2 $20,000 to $50,000; Tier 3 $20,000 to $80,000 a year	Closed; no round open, Round 4 applications closed
R&D Tax Incentive (R&DTI)	Tax offset on eligible core and supporting R&D expenditure	Depends on turnover and tax position	Available; register within 10 months of the income year end
Digital Solutions (Australian Small Business Advisory Services)	Subsidised digital advice and coaching, not money	Up to five hours of coaching per business in Round 3	Funded for Round 3 (announced 4 June 2026); delivered by regional providers

The Industry Growth Program

The IGP was the closest thing to a federal software commercialisation grant, and it is paused. business.gov.au describes two grant streams, $50,000 to $250,000 for early stage commercialisation and $100,000 to $5 million for commercialisation and growth, for companies with combined annual turnover under $20 million in each of the three years before applying. Projects had to sit in a National Reconstruction Fund priority area such as medical science, renewables and low emissions technologies, defence capability, value add in resources or agriculture, transport, or enabling capabilities.

The page now says the program “is currently paused to new applications”. SmartCompany reported on 20 May 2026 that the pause began on Budget night, 12 May, and that the department said existing advisory services and grant agreements would continue. No reopening date had been announced when we checked.

Even when it was open, the IGP was not a general software fund. The program page says minor changes or improvements to existing products or services are not considered innovative. A booking app for your own business, or a rebuild of an internal system, was never the target.

Export Market Development Grants

EMDG reimburses export marketing, not development. It provides matched funding to Australian SMEs promoting their products overseas, which can include software and digital products, but the money is for marketing and promotion in international markets. Austrade’s page says no grant rounds are open and it will update the site when timing of the next round is confirmed. business.gov.au lists funding of up to $104.5 million for each of 2025 to 26 and 2026 to 27.

If you sell, or plan to sell, software to overseas customers, EMDG is worth tracking for the go to market budget. It won’t help with the build itself.

The R&D Tax Incentive

The R&DTI is the program most likely to return some of a software project’s cost, and it isn’t a grant. It is a tax offset for companies that run genuine experiments to resolve technical uncertainty. For companies with aggregated turnover under $20 million, business.gov.au describes the offset as refundable and equal to the corporate tax rate plus an 18.5% premium.

The Government announced changes in the 2026 to 27 Budget that would start from 1 July 2028, including removing supporting R&D activities from the offset, lifting the minimum eligible spend from $20,000 to $50,000, and limiting the refundable offset to a company’s first 10 years. The ATO notes the measure is not yet law. Our R&D Tax Incentive eligibility guide explains what software work can qualify, and the cost guide explains how it affects cash flow on a project. Neither is tax advice.

What state programs touch software?

State programs are narrower than federal ones, change more often, and frequently fund buying software rather than building it. These are the ones most often searched for, with their status on 8 November 2026.

State	Program	What it funds	Status at 8 Nov 2026
NSW	MVP Ventures	Grants of $20,000 to $50,000 (Stream 1, up to 50% of project cost) or up to $75,000 (Stream 2, up to 75%) to bring an innovative product to market	Round 3 closed 10 April 2026; no new round listed
Queensland	Construction Business Advancement Grant	Up to $5,000 ex GST, paid as a rebate, for business management software and training from a catalogue	Open until 5pm, 7 May 2027, unless funding runs out
Queensland	Business Boost	$10,000 to $20,000 for productivity projects, including specialised and automated software	Closed; Round 4 recipients notified
Queensland	Small Business Digital Grants	Historically, matched funding for digital tools and services	Not on the current grants schedule
Victoria and other states	Various	Changes frequently	Check the state grants finder directly

NSW MVP Ventures

MVP Ventures is a competitive grant for very early NSW companies with an innovative product, not a general app grant. To be eligible a business must be a company headquartered in NSW, hold the IP or rights to commercialise it, have aggregated turnover of $400,000 or less in each of the three prior years, and have 10 or fewer full time equivalent staff including founders. Projects must move the product along the Technology Readiness Level scale between 3 and 9 and be completed within 12 months.

Stream 2 offers a higher grant percentage to businesses that are majority women owned and managed, regionally headquartered, or Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander majority owned and managed. Round 1 opened in September 2025, Round 2 in November 2025 and Round 3 ran from 9 March to 10 April 2026, so if the pattern holds, watch the page for a further round.

Queensland

Queensland’s open digital grant is for construction and trade businesses buying existing software. The Construction Business Advancement Grant is for businesses with 19 or fewer employees, turnover of $10 million or less in 2025 to 26, a construction related ATO industry code and a Queensland headquarters. Funding is paid as a rebate on products chosen from the program’s catalogue, including SaaS subscriptions for up to 24 months. Business Queensland says plainly: do not buy your software or training until you’ve been told your application is successful.

That makes it useful for a trade business moving onto a job management platform, and not useful for funding a custom build. If you’re weighing a platform against custom software, see our guide to software for trades businesses.

The Small Business Digital Grants program is still quoted on many websites at up to $10,000. It doesn’t appear on Business Queensland’s grants schedule as checked on 8 November 2026, so don’t plan around it.

What will grants usually refuse to fund?

Grant guidelines tend to exclude the same things, and most software projects hit at least one of them. Read the guidelines for the specific round, but expect these exclusions:

1. Work you have already started or paid for. Expenditure before approval or a signed grant agreement is generally ineligible.
2. Ordinary business software. Internal admin systems, websites and routine apps usually fail an “innovation” test.
3. Minor improvements to an existing product. The IGP program page says these aren’t considered innovative.
4. Applicants in the wrong structure. Many programs exclude sole traders, partnerships and trusts. MVP Ventures and the IGP require an incorporated company.
5. Work done mostly outside the state or the country. State programs usually require most activity to happen locally.
6. Spending you can’t evidence. Rebates and milestone payments depend on invoices, proof of payment and acquittal reports.

How should you plan a build if a grant might be available?

Plan the project as if the grant won’t arrive, then sequence it so a grant could still apply. This is the order that keeps both options open:

Step	What to do	Why
1	Check the program page and guidelines for the current round	Status and rules change between rounds
2	Confirm your entity type, turnover and headcount fit	These are hard eligibility gates
3	Scope the project in writing before applying	Applications ask for budget, milestones and outcomes
4	Get quotes, but don’t sign or pay for the funded part yet	Committed spend is usually ineligible
5	Ask a registered R&D tax agent how a grant affects any R&DTI claim	ATO clawback rules apply when a government grant covers expenditure also claimed as R&D
6	Only start funded work after written approval	Protects eligibility
7	Keep invoices, timesheets and progress records as you go	Needed for milestone payments and acquittal

A paid scoping step can help with step 3, because a grant application needs the same things a build needs: what you’re making, for whom, the milestones, and what it costs. Our guide to the software discovery phase explains what that produces.

Should you pay a grant writer or consultant?

A good grant writer can save you time on a program you are clearly eligible for; nobody can guarantee you a grant. Programs like MVP Ventures and the IGP are competitive and merit based, assessed by the department, not by the consultant.

Warning signs:

• A promise that you’ll receive a grant, or a “guaranteed” amount
• A large fee upfront for a program that isn’t open
• Advice to start spending before approval
• Advice to describe ordinary development as R&D to fit a program
• An R&D claim prepared by someone who isn’t a registered tax agent

For the R&D Tax Incentive specifically, only a registered tax agent should prepare the claim. Our partner accountants at Crescendo Strategy, a separate firm, or your own registered R&D tax agent can advise on eligibility.

How AWLabs approaches grant funded and R&D work

We are software engineers, not grant writers or tax agents, so we don’t apply for grants on your behalf or tell you what you’ll receive. What we can do is make the project easy to evidence.

The first conversation is a Development Consult. If the project proceeds, a paid Discovery Audit produces a written scope, and the fixed price Schedule of Work then sets out three options: The Minimum, The Recommended and The Complete. A grant application or R&D claim can draw on those documents for milestones and budget. Where you tell us the R&D Tax Incentive matters, we keep hypotheses, experiment notes and time records alongside the code so your tax agent works from records made at the time. You get progress updates every Tuesday and Friday, Sydney time, which also gives you a dated trail of what was done and when.

If an honest read says your project is routine development, we’ll tell you before you budget around an offset or a grant. See our R&D Tax Incentive page for how we document projects, or our startup MVP service if you’re planning a first version.