Public grants: who can get part of their digital project funded?

There is no “national digital voucher”

This is the first thing to understand, and it goes against what many articles suggest: no single, universal scheme funds the digitalisation of French businesses. What exists is a patchwork of nearly 200 grants listed by France Num, mostly run by regions, départements, groups of municipalities or chambers of commerce. Your eligibility therefore depends first on your postcode, then on your activity, your headcount and how long your business has existed. Two identical businesses in two neighbouring towns can have completely different rights.

What these grants really fund

The scope is wider than most business owners imagine. Depending on the scheme, eligible expenses regularly cover:

• Creating or redesigning a website through a professional provider
• Setting up an online store, click & collect or a booking system
• Search engine optimisation (SEO) and online visibility services
• Buying business software, a CRM or management tools
• Consulting, digital diagnostics and support for digital transformation
• In some areas: hosting, domain names, keyword advertising, online ad campaigns and community management

Three concrete examples of active local grants

The Lacq-Orthez community of municipalities funds 30% of an expense between €1,000 and €5,000 excluding VAT, i.e. a grant of €300 to €1,500, with an exclusion for businesses whose turnover exceeds €750,000 excluding VAT. The Pays d’Uzerche covers 30% of expenses up to €3,000, with only one application allowed per calendar year. Saint-Pourçain Sioule Limagne funds 15% up to €1,500 for businesses with 0 to 10 employees and turnover below €2 million — and its scale explicitly includes SEO, keyword purchases, social media ad campaigns and one year of community management. These three examples show how much the terms differ from one area to another. Note: for these local grants, the France Num page is often the only public source with figures, as the local authorities’ own websites do not always publish the rates. A call to the economic development department of the group of municipalities remains essential before committing.

Regional schemes go much further

At regional level, the amounts change by an order of magnitude. The CAP’TN scheme in Centre-Val de Loire covers up to 50% of a consulting service of €3,000 to €20,000, and up to 30% of an investment of €10,000 to €200,000: by far the most generous of the regional schemes we have checked. In Nouvelle-Aquitaine, the Les Défis Numériques programme is aimed at businesses with fewer than 10 employees and turnover below €2 million, and covers support at 100% — within a limit of four days of work, split between a diagnostic and its implementation, through the digital adviser of the departmental chamber of commerce (CCI) or chamber of trades (CMA). It is an ideal starting point for a business that knows it must go digital but does not know where to begin.

AI projects: be careful, the rules changed in June 2026

This is the point on which the most outdated information circulates. Bpifrance’s Diag Data IA was completely overhauled in June 2026 as part of the “Osez l’IA” plan. The current format covers 8 person-days for a total cost of €10,000 excluding VAT, with 40% covered — not 80% as many articles still state — leaving €6,000 excluding VAT to pay. Above all, the scheme is reserved for SMEs and mid-sized companies with 10 to 2,000 employees and turnover above one million euros: businesses with fewer than 10 employees are now excluded. If you are a craftsperson, shopkeeper or self-employed and want to automate a few processes, this is not the right scheme. Look instead at regional AI grants, such as the Pack IA in Île-de-France or the Impulse programme in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté.

When no grant applies: the loan route

If your area offers nothing or your project exceeds the ceilings, Bpifrance’s Prêt Boost Transformation numérique remains available. It is aimed at very small businesses and SMEs of up to 49 employees, registered in France and at least three years old, with no guarantee or personal surety, entirely subscribed online, with a repayment deferral of 9 to 12 months. Be careful, though: it is a loan, not a grant. The money has to be repaid. It is a way to smooth the cash flow of a major project, not to reduce its cost. The amount ranges from €5,000 to €100,000, at a fixed rate, with funds released within 48 hours of signing. Two conditions rule out part of our readers: sole proprietorships are not eligible, and support from a chartered accountant is mandatory.

The closed schemes still talked about everywhere

Two important warnings, because much online content is no longer up to date. In Île-de-France, the Chèque numérique pour un commerce connecté, which could reach €1,500, is permanently closed: applications have been closed since 24 October 2025, and even the deadline to submit invoices for already accepted files passed on 30 June 2026. No action is possible on this scheme any more. In La Réunion, Kap Numérik — often cited for covering 80% up to €3,200 — is currently suspended for new applications while it is redesigned, with a renewal announced but not confirmed to date. If a provider promises you funding through either of these two schemes today, be wary.

The standard process, and the trap to avoid at all costs

The pattern is roughly constant from one scheme to another: you put together a file, the body checks your eligibility, you carry out the project once approved, then you send the paid invoice to trigger the payment. The trap is the order of the steps: many grants require the application to come before any expense is committed. Signing a quote or paying a deposit before submitting the file can make the project permanently ineligible. The documents usually requested are:

• A Kbis extract or proof of registration in the national business register (RNE)
• The manager’s ID and the company’s bank details (RIB)
• Headcount and turnover information
• A detailed quote from the provider, line by line
• Depending on the case: balance sheet or tax return, social and tax compliance certificates, a prior digital diagnostic

How we help

Our role stops where the funding body’s begins: we do not decide whether a grant is awarded and we never guarantee one. What we can do is check with you the active schemes in your town, prepare a detailed quote that meets the file’s requirements, size the project so that it falls within eligible expenses, and wait for your funding approval before starting when the scheme requires it. In practice: tell us your postcode, your activity, your headcount and the project you have in mind, and we will tell you what exists — including if nothing does, in which case we will tell you that too.