The American Academy offers residential fellowships to emerging as well as established scholars, writers, and professionals who wish to engage in independent study in Berlin. Around two dozen Berlin Prizes are conferred annually. Past Berlin Prize recipients have included historians, economists, poets, art historians, journalists, legal scholars, anthropologists, musicologists, public policy experts, and writers, among others. The Academy does not accept project proposals in mathematics and the hard sciences.

In addition to placing a high priority on the independent work of its fellows, the Academy is in a unique position to aid fellows in establishing professional and general networks both in Berlin and beyond. The Academy’s public outreach, which facilitates the introduction of a fellow's work to a wider audience, serves its mission of fostering transatlantic ties through cultural exchange.

Berlin Prize winners are typically in residence for a full academic semester. The fall semester begins in mid-August and ends in mid-December; the spring semester is from late January through late May. Fellowships are occasionally awarded for an academic year.

Fellowships are restricted to candidates based permanently in the US. US citizenship is not required, and American expatriates are not eligible. Candidates in academic disciplines are expected to have completed a doctorate at the time of application.