AI Tool Student Discounts and Free Plans in 2026

The best AI student discounts in 2026 are Google’s free year of Google AI Pro for US college students (or Google AI Plus in India), ChatGPT Plus free for four months for US college students, GitHub’s free Copilot Student plan, and 12 months of Cursor Pro for US university students. Notion Plus is free with a school email, and Otter.ai takes 20% off Pro. Students outside the US get fewer deals, but strong free plans cover most coursework.

This guide lists every student offer we could verify on an official page in 2026, what each one is worth in dollars, who qualifies, and the free plans to use when no discount applies to you. Several offers have hard deadlines in October and December 2026, so check the dates before you plan around them.

Every verified AI student discount in 2026 at a glance

We only list offers confirmed on a vendor page or official help center in 2026. Student deals change often, and many blog lists still repeat offers that have ended. If a tool is missing here, we could not confirm a current student price for it.

The “value” column is what the same plan would cost at the normal price for the free or discounted period. We show the arithmetic for each one below.

Free AI assistant plans for students: Google, ChatGPT and Perplexity

Google AI Pro free for a year (US) or AI Plus free for a year (India)

Google’s offer is the most valuable general AI deal for students right now. According to Google’s official student offer page, eligible US college students aged 18 and over get Google AI Pro free for one year. Students whose 2025 AI Pro trial already expired can qualify again.

The math: AI Pro is $19.99 a month, so 12 x $19.99 = $239.88 over the year. You get 4x the Free plan’s Gemini usage limits, 5 TB of storage, a 1M token context window, Gemini in Gmail and Docs, and the Jules coding agent. The full plan breakdown is in our Google Gemini pricing guide.

In India, the offer is Google AI Plus instead of Pro. Eligible university students aged 18 and over get one year free, then it renews at Rs 399 a month. That is 12 x Rs 399 = Rs 4,788 of value. AI Plus doubles the Free plan’s limits and adds video generation, 200 Google Flow credits a month, Gemini in Gmail and Docs, and 400 GB of storage.

Students also get a lot from Gemini Notebook (formerly NotebookLM). Higher Google AI tiers raise its limits, for example from 50 to 500 chats a day on Pro. See how to use NotebookLM for study and research.

ChatGPT Plus: 4 free months for US college students

OpenAI’s Back to School offer gives 4 free monthly billing periods of ChatGPT Plus, including ChatGPT Work. After that, Plus renews at $20 a month. The value is 4 x $20 = $80.

The rules are strict. It is US only, for full-time and part-time college and graduate students at eligible US degree-granting institutions. SheerID (a third-party service that checks enrollment) verifies you. You must claim it by October 31, 2026, you can redeem it once, and it does not work with app store billing, so sign up on the web. Details are on OpenAI’s Back to School help article.

We found no current ChatGPT student offer for India. If you are not eligible, ChatGPT Free still includes unlimited text chats with GPT-5.6 Luna, and ChatGPT Go costs $8 a month in the US. Our ChatGPT pricing breakdown compares every tier.

Perplexity Education Pro

Perplexity offers Education Pro “to verified students and educators at a discount.” It includes everything in Pro, plus Learn Mode and study prompts. You verify through SheerID by choosing the Education plan on the upgrade screen. Perplexity’s help page does not state the price, and we could not confirm the figure some third-party sites quote, so check the upgrade screen before you pay. Regular Pro is $20 a month, as covered in our Perplexity pricing guide.

Claude: no individual student discount

Anthropic does not sell a discounted Claude Pro to individual students. Claude for Education is sold to universities and colleges, so ask your school whether it has a license. Otherwise, Claude Free includes Sonnet and Haiku models, web search, file creation and Artifacts. If you need more, Pro is $20 a month or $17 a month billed annually. Our Claude pricing guide covers the limits.

Student discounts on AI coding tools

Developers in school get the strongest deals of any group. Two tools stand out.

GitHub Copilot Student

GitHub has a dedicated free Copilot Student plan for verified students. Verified teachers and maintainers of popular open source projects can get Copilot Pro free instead. GitHub rechecks eligibility every month. For comparison, paid Copilot Pro is $10 a month with 1,500 AI credits. Copilot moved to usage-based AI credits in June 2026, which our GitHub Copilot pricing guide explains.

Cursor Pro free for 12 months

A Cursor staff post on the official forum (May 2026) describes 12 months of Cursor Pro free for students. You need a .edu email, you must be a full-time student at an accredited US university, and SheerID verifies you. Country domains such as .edu.au do not qualify. It is once per lifetime, and normal billing starts after the year.

The value is 12 x $20 = $240. Cursor’s students page now says only that anyone can start free and that more promotions will come through campus events, so confirm the offer still shows when you apply. Plan details are in our Cursor pricing guide.

Productivity, writing and design discounts for students

Notion Plus free with a school email

Notion’s pricing page says students and educators get the Plus plan free for one member with a school email. Plus normally costs $10 a month, so that is up to 12 x $10 = $120 a year. Note that Plus includes only a limited AI trial. Full Notion AI needs Business, as our Notion AI pricing guide explains.

Otter.ai: 20% off Pro

Otter takes 20% off Pro for .edu students and teachers. The annual price drops from $99.96 to $79.99 a year, a saving of $99.96 minus $79.99 = $19.97. Monthly billing drops from $16.99 to $13.59. If you record lectures, the free Basic plan already gives 300 minutes a month, with up to 30 minutes per recording. For other options, see Otter vs Fireflies.

Adobe Creative Cloud Pro for students

Adobe’s student and teacher plan for Creative Cloud Pro costs $19.99 a month for the first year on an annual plan, or $239.88 prepaid. After that it moves to the standard student rate, currently $39.99 a month or $479.88 a year. So year one costs $479.88 minus $239.88 = $240 less than year two. It is for students 13 and over, first-time members only, with a 12-month contract. Creative Cloud plans include a monthly Firefly credit allowance.

Microsoft Office 365 A1

Students with an eligible school email get Office 365 A1 free. It includes web versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote. Microsoft does not list Copilot as part of A1, so for AI inside Office you would need a paid plan. See our Microsoft Copilot pricing guide.

Canva: free for K-12 only

Canva Education is free for K-12 (primary and secondary) teachers and students. College and university students are not eligible. Canva tells them to ask their campus about Canva for Campus, which has no public price. Everyone else can use Canva Free with up to 20 AI uses, or Pro at $144 a year (Rs 4,000 a year in India). Read our Canva pricing guide for the details.

Best free AI plans when you do not qualify for a discount

Most student deals are US only. If you study elsewhere, or you are a part-time learner without a school email, free plans still cover a full semester of normal work.

For a ranked list by use case, see our picks for the best AI tools for students and the best free AI tools overall. If ChatGPT Plus is the specific thing you want, our guide to free ChatGPT Plus alternatives shows what comes close.

How to claim an AI student discount without surprise charges

1. Use your school email. Most offers check your enrollment through SheerID or your school domain. Cursor accepts only .edu addresses, and Notion and Microsoft need a school email.
2. Sign up on the web, not in an app. The ChatGPT offer does not work with app store billing. Web checkout is also easier to cancel.
3. Add a payment method you control. Google and OpenAI both require one. Use a card with a low limit or a virtual card if your bank offers one.
4. Set a reminder before renewal. ChatGPT Plus renews at $20 after four months, Google AI Pro at $19.99 after a year, and Cursor bills at the normal rate after 12 months.
5. Re-verify every year. Google rechecks student status yearly and GitHub monthly. If you graduate, plan which paid plan, if any, you will keep.

Frequently asked questions

Our verdict: which student offers to claim first

If you are a US college student, claim Google AI Pro first because it runs a full year and is worth $239.88. Then add ChatGPT Plus before the October 31 deadline if you want a second assistant during exams. Coding students should add Copilot Student and, if eligible, Cursor Pro. In India, Google AI Plus is the one major free student plan, and the free tiers of ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini fill the gaps. Student offers change and end without much notice, so confirm the current terms on each vendor’s page before you sign up.

Related reading: annual vs monthly AI plans and our Grammarly review.