--- title: Join the Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge: Ghost... description: DEV's final Hacktoberfest 2026 challenge, themed 'Ghost in the Machine,' runs through October 31. Participants build new projects using open-source AI and... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/join-the-hacktoberfest-open-source-ai-challenge-ghost-in-the-machine-2-850-in-prizes-across-21-wi-otpm3pwig twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Join the Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge: Ghost in the Machine! $2,850 in Prizes Across 21 Winners. | daily.dev og:description: DEV's final Hacktoberfest 2026 challenge, themed 'Ghost in the Machine,' runs through October 31. Participants build new projects using open-source AI and... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/join-the-hacktoberfest-open-source-ai-challenge-ghost-in-the-machine-2-850-in-prizes-across-21-wi-otpm3pwig og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/otPM3pWig.png og:image:alt: Join the Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge: Ghost in the Machine! $2,850 in Prizes Across 21 Winners. og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Join the Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge: Ghost in the Machine! $2,850 in Prizes Across 21 Winners. **[DEV](https://daily.dev/sources/devto)** · 4 min read · 2 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary DEV's final Hacktoberfest 2026 challenge, themed 'Ghost in the Machine,' runs through October 31. Participants build new projects using open-source AI and open-weight models. One overall winner gets $250, a DEV++ membership, and a badge. Six featured-category winners get $200 each, and 14 partner-category winners get $100 each, covering partners like Render, TabPFN, Arduino, DigitalOcean, Gemma, Auth0, MongoDB Atlas, and Temporal. Judging weighs write-up quality most heavily, followed by relevance to the theme, creativity, and technical execution. Submissions are due by 11:59 PM PDT on October 31, with winners announced the week of November 2. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### When is the deadline for the final Hacktoberfest 2026 DEV challenge week? Submissions for Week 4, themed 'Ghost in the Machine,' are due by 11:59 PM PDT on October 31. The challenge began October 26 and winners are announced the week of November 2. It is the last challenge in DEV's Hacktoberfest 2026 series, requiring projects built with open-source AI or open-weight models. _Developers tracking community coding events and deadlines can follow challenge updates on daily.dev._ ### How much prize money is available in DEV's Hacktoberfest 2026 Week 4 AI challenge? A total of $2,850 is distributed across 21 winners. The overall winner receives $250 plus a DEV++ membership and badge, six featured-category winners get $200 each, and 14 partner-category winners get $100 each, with partners including Render, TabPFN, Arduino, DigitalOcean, Gemma, Auth0, and MongoDB Atlas. _Builders weighing whether a hackathon prize pool is worth the effort can compare opportunities on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [One Weekend: 3,000 Open-Source AI Projects](https://daily.dev/posts/one-weekend-3-000-open-source-ai-projects-6zhlogneb) · DEV · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [GitLab AI Hackathon 2026: Meet the winners](https://daily.dev/posts/gitlab-ai-hackathon-2026-meet-the-winners-2cehmn6x4) · GitLab · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Dev Opportunity Radar \#19: Hacktoberfest, $20K AI Agent Hackathon, and Pear Prime 2027](https://daily.dev/posts/dev-opportunity-radar-19-hacktoberfest-20k-ai-agent-hackathon-and-pear-prime-2027-grstii7l7) · DEV · 3 upvotes · 0 comments - [Build Your Game Challenge: Join in and Compete for Prizes](https://daily.dev/posts/build-your-game-challenge-join-in-and-compete-for-prizes-o0ijvlhs4) · JetBrains · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#ai](https://daily.dev/tags/ai), [#open-source](https://daily.dev/tags/open-source), [#hackathon](https://daily.dev/tags/hackathon), [#hacktoberfest](https://daily.dev/tags/hacktoberfest) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/join-the-hacktoberfest-open-source-ai-challenge-ghost-in-the-machine-2-850-in-prizes-across-21-wi-otpm3pwig) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Join the Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge: Ghost in the Machine! $2,850 in Prizes Across 21 Winners.","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/join-the-hacktoberfest-open-source-ai-challenge-ghost-in-the-machine-2-850-in-prizes-across-21-wi-otpm3pwig","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/join-the-hacktoberfest-open-source-ai-challenge-ghost-in-the-machine-2-850-in-prizes-across-21-wi-otpm3pwig"},"datePublished":"2026-10-27T01:03:15.036Z","dateModified":"2026-10-27T01:04:27.449Z","description":"DEV's final Hacktoberfest 2026 challenge, themed 'Ghost in the Machine,' runs through October 31. Participants build new projects using open-source AI and...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/6f0f1b1fa648b7d3fab189d057226813?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/6f0f1b1fa648b7d3fab189d057226813?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"DEV","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"DEV","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/devto","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/devto"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/join-the-hacktoberfest-open-source-ai-challenge-ghost-in-the-machine-2-850-in-prizes-across-21-wi-otpm3pwig","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":2},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"ai,open-source,hackathon,hacktoberfest","timeRequired":"PT4M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"DEV","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/devto"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Join the Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge: Ghost in the Machine! $2,850 in Prizes Across 21 Winners."}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/join-the-hacktoberfest-open-source-ai-challenge-ghost-in-the-machine-2-850-in-prizes-across-21-wi-otpm3pwig#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"When is the deadline for the final Hacktoberfest 2026 DEV challenge week?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Submissions for Week 4, themed 'Ghost in the Machine,' are due by 11:59 PM PDT on October 31. The challenge began October 26 and winners are announced the week of November 2. It is the last challenge in DEV's Hacktoberfest 2026 series, requiring projects built with open-source AI or open-weight models. Developers tracking community coding events and deadlines can follow challenge updates on daily.dev."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"How much prize money is available in DEV's Hacktoberfest 2026 Week 4 AI challenge?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"A total of $2,850 is distributed across 21 winners. The overall winner receives $250 plus a DEV++ membership and badge, six featured-category winners get $200 each, and 14 partner-category winners get $100 each, with partners including Render, TabPFN, Arduino, DigitalOcean, Gemma, Auth0, and MongoDB Atlas. Builders weighing whether a hackathon prize pool is worth the effort can compare opportunities on daily.dev."}}]} ```