5 Free Subscriptions Every Student Needs (Before You Lose Your .edu Email)

GitHub Student Pack
Go to education.github.com/pack → verify with your .edu email or student ID/proof of enrollment → unlock 100+ tools instantly. Verification lasts 2 years, then you re-verify.

GitHub Copilot Student
Cursor ended its free 12-month student Pro plan on June 25, 2026 (existing redemptions keep their rate until expiry; new signups now only get discounts at campus events). The most reliable free AI coding assistant for students today is GitHub Copilot Student, which activates automatically once you're verified for the GitHub Student Pack above — no separate application. It works inside VS Code, JetBrains IDEs, and more.

Notion Education Plus
Go to notion.com/help/notion-for-education → sign in with your school email → Settings → Upgrade plan → "Get free education plan." Thousands of school domains qualify, not just .edu.

Figma Education
Go to figma.com/education → click "Get verified" → verify with your school email or upload a student ID → full Professional plan features free (re-verify every 2 years).

Perplexity Education Pro
Go to perplexity.ai/students → verify via SheerID → get Education Pro at $10/mo (50% off standard Pro), plus your first month free. It's no longer a fully free year — that promo ended in January 2026.

What it is: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams, OneDrive — the core suite.
Normal price: $70–$100/yr
How to get it: Go to microsoft.com/en-us/education/students → enter your school email → free access instantly.
Still true, one caveat: The free tier (Office 365 A1) doesn't include the consumer Copilot AI features baked into paid Microsoft 365 plans — you get the core apps and 1TB+ storage, which is what most students need anyway.

What it is: Your school's Google account, often with generous storage and pro collaboration features.
Normal price: $12/user/month for businesses
How to get it: Check with your school IT department — most universities already have this activated for students.
Updated note: Google ended true "unlimited" storage a while back. Schools now get a shared pool (baseline 100TB across the whole institution), so your personal storage depends on how your school allocates it — still generous, but not literally unlimited per student.

What it is: Advanced grammar, tone, clarity, and plagiarism checks beyond the free version.
Normal price: $144/yr
How to get it: Grammarly has no universal student discount — access depends entirely on whether your university has an institutional license. Ask your school's IT department or writing center whether they participate in "Grammarly for Education."
Why it matters: If your school doesn't have a license, the free tier (100 AI prompts/month) still covers basic essays and emails.

What it is: The full suite of JetBrains IDEs used by professional engineers.
Normal price: $249/yr
How to get it: jetbrains.com/academy/student-pack → verify with .edu email, GitHub Student Pack, or ISIC/ITIC card → all IDEs free. Renew annually while you're still enrolled.
Still fully active — no changes.

What it is: AWS relaunched this program — it's now open to anyone 13+ with just an email (no .edu needed), and centers on free self-paced cloud training, labs, and badges.
Normal price: Pay-as-you-go for real AWS usage
How to get it: aws.amazon.com/education/awseducate → sign up → free training and hands-on labs.
What changed: The old guaranteed "$100 in credits" is no longer automatic for everyone — some students still get promotional credits depending on their institution, but the core free offering now is training and labs, not cash credits.

What it is: Browser-based coding environment — no local setup required.
Normal price: $15/month (Core plan)
What changed: Replit discontinued its free "Teams for Education" tier. Verified educators can still get free Replit access, and students with a .edu email now get 50% off the Core plan rather than a fully free plan.
How to get it: replit.com/edu → verify with your school email for the discount.

What it is: The entire Adobe suite — Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere Pro, After Effects, and 20+ more.
Normal price: $840/yr (Creative Cloud Pro)
How to get it: adobe.com/creativecloud/buy/students.html → verify with a school email or student ID → roughly 65–70% off for your first year (currently around $240/yr), then a smaller ongoing discount. Some schools also provide it fully free — check your IT portal first.
Still a discount, never fully free — this matches what was true before, just updated pricing.

What changed: Canva for Education (the fully free, self-serve student signup) is now K-12 only. College and university students are no longer eligible to self-verify for free Canva Pro directly.
How to actually get it now: Check whether your university has "Canva for Campus" (institution-provided, ask your school). If not, you're on Canva Free, which still covers most design needs — templates, basic tools, and Magic Write are included at no cost.
Link: canva.com/education for eligibility details.

What it is: Courses from Stanford, Google, IBM, and 200+ top universities.
Normal price: $49–$79/course, or Coursera Plus subscription
How to get it: Check coursera.org/campus with your school — many universities provide free access. Otherwise, apply for Coursera Financial Aid on individual courses for free access including the certificate.
Still true — institution-dependent, same as before.

What changed: Scribd split its business — books, audiobooks, and magazines now live under a separate brand, Everand (everand.com), while Scribd itself is now focused on documents/slides. There's no longer a strong free-forever student tier: Everand offers a 30-day free trial for new users and about 15% off gift subscriptions via Student Beans, not a permanent free plan.
Why it still matters: Many university libraries offer free access to similar content through their own digital library systems — worth checking before paying for either Scribd or Everand.

What it is: Step-by-step solutions for calculus, statistics, physics, chemistry, and more.
Normal price: $66/yr
How to get it: wolframalpha.com/pro/pricing/students → verify via UNiDAYS, Student Beans, or SheerID → around 30% off. This was never a free tool — it's a paid student discount, matching the original claim.

What it is: Access to Bloomberg's financial data platform used by Wall Street professionals.
Normal price: $2,000+/yr
How to get it: Many business schools have Bloomberg terminals on campus — ask your finance or econ department. This remains campus-dependent with no individual online signup; check with your school directly since availability wasn't independently verifiable outside institutional access.

What changed: LinkedIn no longer offers a dedicated free 6-month student trial. Everyone (student or not) gets one free 1-month Premium trial every 12 months. The only real free-for-longer routes are: your university providing LinkedIn Learning access, or being a veteran/active military member (12 months free via LinkedIn for Veterans).
How to get it: Start your one free month at linkedin.com/premium, and check with your school's career center about LinkedIn Learning access separately.

What it is: Ad-free music, podcasts, and offline listening, bundled with Hulu (US).
Updated price: $6.99/month (up from $5.99), about 50% off standard Premium, plus a free first month for new subscribers.
How to get it: spotify.com/student → verify via SheerID → discount lasts up to 4 years with annual re-verification.

What changed: The free trial is 1 month, not 6 months as originally listed — then $5.99/month (about 45% off), plus free access to Apple TV+ for the duration of your student plan.
How to get it: music.apple.com/us/student → verify your student status → student pricing lasts up to 4 years with annual re-verification.