Congrats to the Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge Week 2: Side Hustle Winners!

We're excited to announce the winners of the Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge Week 2: Side Hustle!

This week, we asked you to build something with open-weight models or open-source AI that someone would actually pay for. You delivered small, specific, useful tools for freelancers, small businesses, job seekers, and niche communities, and plenty of you went the extra mile to put your project in front of a real first user. We loved seeing how often running open models was what made the business work, whether that meant keeping costs low, keeping customer data private, or tuning for a niche that general-purpose APIs miss.

Thank you to everyone who participated. Now, let's celebrate our winners!

Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge Week 2: Side Hustle Submission 💸

3 comments 14 min read Featured Category Winners Best Use of Render Contains: I built an allergen checker for home bakers that says “I’m not sure” instead of guessing Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge Week 2: Side Hustle Submission 💸

Add Comment 16 min read Best Use of TabPFN pricecheck: my friend didn't know what to offer for a used monitor, so now he gets three numbers Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge Week 2: Side Hustle Submission 💸

2 comments 11 min read Best Use of Tinker I stopped asking AI to count. Now it catches 95.6% of the mistakes in crochet patterns, on a laptop Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge Week 2: Side Hustle Submission 💸

2 comments 16 min read Best Use of Arduino LLMs Have No Nose, So We Built One: an AI Nose on the Arduino UNO Q Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge Week 2: Side Hustle Submission 💸

Picked as gem by you Comments Add Comment 9 min read Best Use of DigitalOcean “Simple site hai, 15k mein ho jayega na?” I built Panga so freelancers stop saying yes too fast Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge Week 2: Side Hustle Submission 💸

Add Comment 17 min read Best Use of Gemma 'Kal' means yesterday and tomorrow. I built home bakers a WhatsApp order sheet that never guesses which. Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge Week 2: Side Hustle Submission 💸

Add Comment 10 min read Partner Category Winners Best Use of Backboard ReplyDesk: a 4B model that answers Google reviews and stops promising refunds it can't give Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge Week 2: Side Hustle Submission 💸

Add Comment 11 min read Best Use of ElevenLabs Auditly: the shopkeeper talks, the ledger writes itself Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge Week 2: Side Hustle Submission 💸

Add Comment 8 min read Best Use of Entire NetCortex Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge Week 2: Side Hustle Submission 💸

Add Comment 8 min read Best Use of GitHub Copilot ClearToList: Is that thrift find recalled? A photo check against CPSC recalls with Gemma 4 Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge Week 2: Side Hustle Submission 💸

Add Comment 9 min read Best Use of Mastra ParcelProof: the customer's voice note says the box was empty. Gemma checks it against the receipts, then reads you the case. Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge Week 2: Side Hustle Submission 💸

Add Comment 8 min read Best Use of MongoDB Atlas DocScout: find open-source API docs you can contribute to, picked by Gemma Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge Week 2: Side Hustle Submission 💸

2 comments 6 min read Best Use of Sentry Agent Tracing "red label adha kg 2 box": an offline WhatsApp order reader for Indian shops that asks before it guesses Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge Week 2: Side Hustle Submission 💸

10 comments 9 min read Best Use of SerpApi We Searched eBay for 237 Recalled Products. Only 45 of 12,562 Listings Named the Model. Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge Week 2: Side Hustle Submission 💸

2 comments 20 min read Best Use of a.tech Domain My beautician can't answer the phone when her hands full, so I built her a Gemma 4 receptionist Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge Week 2: Side Hustle Submission 💸

Add Comment 15 min read Best Use of Temporal chaptermill: a podcast's back catalog to show notes for 3¢ an audio hour, on an old PC I kept crashing on purpose Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge Week 2: Side Hustle Submission 💸

Add Comment 9 min read Best Use of Tiger Data Perforvisor: a 5★ review said "Needs to be more clean." Open models caught it. Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge Week 2: Side Hustle Submission 💸

1 comment 10 min read Prizes Overall winner: $250 USD, a DEV++ membership, and an exclusive DEV badge Featured category winners: $200 USD and an exclusive DEV badge each Partner category winners: $100 USD and an exclusive DEV badge each All participants with a valid submission will receive a completion badge.

A huge thank you to our partners for making these prizes possible!

Hacktoberfest isn't over yet! Week 3: Slow and Steady is live right now, with $2,850 in prizes across 21 winners. There's still time to jump in:

Picked as gem by you Comments 25 comments 7 min read Week 4 kicks off Monday, October 26. Sign up now so you don't miss the theme reveal:

Register now to be notified as details drop.

Happy Hacktoberfest, and congrats again to all of our winners! 🎃