Funding your AI project,
without funding a compliance problem.
France and the EU both subsidize AI adoption — diagnostics, loans, direct grants. None of that money exempts you from the AI Act. This page maps both: what you can get funded, and what you'll owe once the system is live.
⚠ Amounts, rates, and deadlines below are checked against official sources as of September 2026 but change often — grant windows close, co-financing rates get revised, thresholds move. Confirm the current terms directly on the linked official page before you plan a budget around them.
National and regional
programs
Led by Bpifrance and the Direction Générale des Entreprises (DGE) under the France 2030 "Osez l'IA" plan — plus regional add-ons that vary by région.
Diag Data IA (Bpifrance)
An 8-person-day audit by an approved expert: a technical and operational assessment of your AI potential, concrete use cases identified and prioritized into an action plan. Co-financing rate reported between 25% and 40% depending on the source — confirm the exact rate for your case directly with Bpifrance.
Éligibilité : SMEs and mid-caps, 10 to 2,000 FTEs, registered in France, at least 1 year old, ≥ €1M revenue over the last 12-month balance sheet.
Diag Data IA — Bpifrance ↗"Osez l'IA" plan — France 2030
The umbrella plan: awareness (AI ambassadors via chambers of commerce and French Tech), an AI Academy training platform, a solution catalog, subsidized diagnostics, and state-guaranteed loans. Goal: 80% AI adoption among SMEs/mid-caps by 2030.
Éligibilité : SMEs, mid-caps, very small businesses — entry point varies by sub-program.
Osez l'IA — Bpifrance ↗"Pionniers de l'IA" call for projects — France 2030
Direct grant for ambitious AI innovation projects — open to startups, SMEs, mid-caps, and research labs. Several waves of laureates already selected.
Éligibilité : Startups, SMEs, mid-caps, research laboratories.
Pionniers de l'IA — enseignementsup-recherche.gouv.fr ↗France Num — free digital diagnostic
A free 15-minute online maturity diagnostic, or a full audit with a France Num "Activator" expert. France Num itself doesn't hand out money for tools — it funds the diagnostic and guidance, then points you to your région's own digital/AI voucher for the actual spend (the old flat €500 national voucher no longer exists).
Éligibilité : Any TPE/SME/mid-cap; regional vouchers have their own eligibility set by each région.
francenum.gouv.fr ↗Île-de-France example: AI Booster
A regional illustration of how AI-specific packages layer on top of the national plan — every région runs its own scheme with its own amounts and rules, so check your own région's economic development agency.
Éligibilité : Companies based in Île-de-France (or the equivalent regional program elsewhere).
R&D tax credits (CIR / CII)
Not AI-specific, but an AI project with a genuine research or innovation component (novel model, new architecture, not just deploying an off-the-shelf tool) can qualify for France's long-standing research and innovation tax credits.
Éligibilité : Companies subject to French corporate tax, spend meeting the CIR/CII definition of R&D or innovation.
EU-level
funding programs
Larger tickets, longer application processes, usually best suited to a structured project with EU partners or a scaling ambition beyond France alone.
Digital Europe Programme — AI & Supercomputing
Co-financed at 50% standard, up to 75% for SME-support actions. Focused on AI adoption, public-sector transformation, and data-driven innovation across the EU.
Éligibilité : Organizations (including SMEs) established in the EU or associated countries; consortium requirements vary by call.
Digital Europe Programme — European Commission ↗Horizon Europe — Cluster 4 (Digital, Industry, Space)
Funds the "Apply AI" agenda alongside broader digital/industry research. The 2026 window closed 15 April; the next opens 17 November 2026, deadline 18 March 2027.
Éligibilité : Typically requires a multi-partner EU consortium; single-entity SME instruments exist under other Horizon Europe strands.
GenAI4EU
An EU-wide push specifically for generative AI "made in Europe" — funding is distributed through the other programs on this list rather than as a single standalone grant line.
EIC Accelerator
The EU's largest single-company blended-finance package (grant + equity). €634M budget for 2026. Well suited to a deep-tech AI startup or SME ready to scale, not a diagnostic-stage project.
Éligibilité : Startups, SMEs, and small mid-caps up to 499 employees.
EIC Accelerator — European Commission ↗None of this money exempts you from
the EU AI Act
The AI Act (Regulation (EU) 2024/1689) applies to any organization — business or public body — that develops, deploys, or uses an AI system in the EU. It's already partially in force, and the remaining deadlines land through 2026, 2027, and 2028.
Deadlines below reflect the "Digital Omnibus" amendment that pushed back several dates from the original 2024 timeline — check ec.europa.eu for the definitive, current schedule before committing to a compliance deadline.
Your obligations scale with the AI system's risk level
Minimal / limited risk
A chatbot, marketing content generation, internal drafting assistance.
Light obligations: mainly the Article 50 transparency duty (say it's AI).
High risk
CV screening, credit scoring, systems affecting employment, education, or access to public services.
Full conformity assessment, risk management system, human oversight, logging — required by 2 December 2027, no size exemption.
Unacceptable risk
Social scoring, certain real-time biometric surveillance, manipulative techniques.
Banned outright since February 2025 — no funding or compliance program makes this legal.
We map the funding you can claim
and the AI Act box your project falls into — in the same 30-minute audit.
An AI project audit isn't just "what can we automate." It's also: which grants apply to your size and sector, and which AI Act risk tier your use case lands in before you build it — not after.