Free tools and AI offers for students¶
~7 min
In short¶
Several companies give college students free or discounted developer and AI tools. Search for what your college and these vendors offer, and try them. The offers below were read on the vendors' own pages on 18 Oct 2026. Offers change often, have end dates, and some turn into paid plans, so check the official page and the terms before you rely on one.
Use them to learn, not to skip the work¶
This is my advice, not a sourced finding. Attempt the problem yourself first. Then use an AI tool to explain a solution you could not reach, to review your code, to suggest edge cases, or to generate extra practice questions. If a tool writes your first attempt, you practise reading, not solving, and interviews test solving. The same goes for system design: draw your own design first, then ask for gaps. See AI and you for more.
Offers confirmed on the official page¶
| Tool | What the page says | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Google AI Plus for students | One year free for eligible college students aged 18 or older in India. Redeem by 31 Dec 2026. | Needs a payment method. After the year it charges Rs 399 a month unless you cancel. Re-confirm eligibility yearly. |
| Google AI Studio and Gemini API | A free tier with limited access to some models. | Rate limits apply, some models have no free tier, and free-tier content may be used to improve Google products. |
| Azure for Students (India) | USD 100 credit for 12 months, renewable yearly while you are a student. No credit card. Sign up with a school email. | The service is disabled when credit runs out unless you move to pay-as-you-go. |
| Notion Education Plan | Free plan for students at accredited colleges. Good for a problem log and notes. | Your school email must be the main account email. Re-verify yearly. |
| AWS Educate | Free self-paced cloud training and labs. | No cloud credits are mentioned on the page. |
| GitHub Student Developer Pack | A bundle of partner tools, including GitHub Copilot for verified students. | The page does not say how verification works or which countries are covered. Apply from your GitHub account and read the terms. |
| Groq free plan | A free plan for an LLM API, with rate limits. | I did not read the free-plan numbers. Check the page. |
Offers I could not confirm¶
Check these yourself on the vendor's page in a normal browser, and ask your college, which may have a deal:
- ChatGPT and OpenAI. The official student pages were not readable for my tool. Secondhand news mentioned licences for Indian students, but I have no confirmed terms.
- Claude. The official education page lists no individual student plan. A campus programme exists on Anthropic's site, but I did not confirm its current status.
- JetBrains student pack. The page exists, and the terms are worth reading. I could not confirm them or whether AI features are included.
- Cursor. The page states no formal student discount, only promotions at student events.
- Replit, Perplexity, Microsoft 365 Copilot, Colab Pro. I found no current official student offer for India.
How to check an offer yourself¶
- Open the vendor's own education page in a browser, not a blog or a reel. Look for an India version and read the terms for the country list and the end date.
- Sign up with your college email first. If it is rejected, ask your college IT team, or use the alternative proof the page lists, such as the GitHub Student Developer Pack.
- Before you enter a card, find the price after the free period and the cancel date. Set a calendar reminder.
Try this¶
Pick one tool from the confirmed table that you do not already use. Spend 30 minutes on it with a problem you have already attempted yourself. Write down one thing it did well and one thing it got wrong.
Sources¶
- Google AI for students, read 18 Oct 2026: https://gemini.google/students/
- Google Gemini API pricing, read 18 Oct 2026: https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/pricing
- Azure for Students, India, read 18 Oct 2026: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-in/free/students/
- Notion for Education, read 18 Oct 2026: https://www.notion.com/product/notion-for-education
- AWS Educate, read 18 Oct 2026: https://aws.amazon.com/education/awseducate/
- GitHub Student Developer Pack, read 18 Oct 2026: https://education.github.com/pack
- Groq rate limits, read 18 Oct 2026: https://console.groq.com/docs/rate-limits