AI student discounts for 13 tools: Google gives a free year, Claude and Grok give none

Which AI tools give students a discount, and how much is each one worth?

We read the student page of 13 AI tools on the vendors' own sites on 18 October 2026, then priced each offer's first year against the list price the same vendor charges. Google AI Pro costs $19.99 a month after its free year. Adobe's student rate saves more in dollars, $600, but Adobe sells design software with AI inside, not a chatbot.

Each figure is the list price a student would otherwise pay over 12 months, less what the offer charges. Perplexity's saving is measured against its cheapest Pro rate, $17 a month billed yearly, so a student who'd pay monthly saves more. GitHub Copilot Student sits outside the chart. It's free, but it isn't the paid Copilot Pro plan with a new label, so a dollar figure would flatter it.

Only OpenAI and Google print a claim deadline. OpenAI's ChatGPT Plus offer takes claims until 31 October 2026, 13 days after our read, and Google's offers take them until 31 December 2026. Grammarly calls its offer limited time and gives no date. Every other offer in the table prints no end date at all.

Every AI student discount as of 18 October 2026, in one table

Every row below was read on the vendor's own page on 18 October 2026, and each price is in US dollars as the vendor printed it. The table covers offers a student can claim alone. Campus deals, where a university pays, are in the Claude and Canva rows and in the section on Claude below.

Thirteen tools, fifteen rows, because Google runs three separate student offers. OpenAI and Google both make you add a payment method before the free months start, on ChatGPT Plus and on all three Google offers. Google's terms say AI Pro "will automatically charge $19.99/month after the trial ends" unless you cancel. OpenAI's terms are just as plain. "Claim the offer by October 31, 2026," its help centre says, and a ChatGPT Plus plan billed through the App Store or Google Play can't take it. Microsoft's education page still advertised a free year of Microsoft 365 Premium on 18 October 2026, but its offer page wouldn't load for us, so it isn't in the table.

Which AI student discounts are free?

Five AI student offers cost nothing to claim: Google AI Pro (US), Google AI Plus (outside the US), ChatGPT Plus for 4 months (US, claims by 31 October 2026), GitHub Copilot Student, and OpenAI's $100 of Codex credits. Notion's free Plus plan is a sixth if you count a note app whose AI is a trial. Google's two are the only free years. Google's US student page says new students and those "whose 2025 AI Pro trial has expired can qualify", so last year's claim doesn't lock you out.

Free months aren't free forever. Google AI Pro bills $19.99 a month from month 13, Google AI Plus bills $4.99 or the local price, and ChatGPT Plus bills $20 from month 5. GitHub is the exception. Copilot Student stays free while GitHub Education still sees you as a student, and GitHub checks that every month. It's also the one free AI offer a student under 18 can claim alone: GitHub takes students from 13 in "a degree or diploma-granting course of study", with a school email or dated proof of enrollment.

Perplexity is the cheapest paid offer that never expires on a date. Education Pro is $10 a month after SheerID verification, and Perplexity's plan page says it includes everything in Pro, though the same page's table puts weekly limits on Pro Searches. The full numbers and the closed free offers are in Perplexity Pro student discount, and Google's three offers have their own page at Gemini student discount.

Is there a Claude student discount?

No. Anthropic's help centre says "We don't offer standard discounted pricing for individual plans (Pro and Max)," and on 18 October 2026 a student pays the same $20 a month, or $17 a month billed yearly, as anyone. Anthropic sells education to schools. Its pricing page offers universities "Comprehensive access for all university members at discounted rates". A student gets that only if the university signs.

So the student route to Claude runs through a campus, and your IT desk knows whether yours signed. Claude student discount lists which universities give students access and the lab route for graduate students in the sciences.

Which AI coding tools have a student discount?

GitHub Copilot is the AI coding tool with a real student plan: Copilot Student is free to verified students, with an allowance of GitHub AI credits and model choice limited to Auto. GitHub's plan table says it "Excludes third-party agents". Copilot Pro, the plan most coding guides describe, is $10 a month. GitHub also says a verified student can't cancel the free plan.

OpenAI's student offer for coders is credit, not a plan. A verified student at a US or Canadian university gets $100 of Codex credits once, which shows as 2,500 credits on a Free, Go, Plus or Pro account. Lovable, the app builder, takes half off Pro for up to 12 months: $12.50 a month against $25. It only applies to accounts still on Lovable's free plan, and canceling loses the discount for good.

Cursor has no student price. Its students page says "look out for promotions at our on-campus and online events starting this fall." Since 12 October 2026 Cursor and Grok have sold one subscription, the X Subscription, at $8, $30, $100 or $200 a month with a shared usage pool. The x.ai pricing page lists no student tier, and it warns that "We do not authorize any resellers or third-party sellers." Treat a "student discount code" for either as a resold account.

Can students outside the US get an AI discount?

Yes, but the two biggest chatbot offers are US only. Outside the US, Google AI Plus is the free year: 12 months in more than 140 markets, though not in Canada, Albania, Bolivia, Hong Kong, Macau or Tunisia. OpenAI's 4 free months of ChatGPT Plus need a US college or graduate school. Google AI Pro needs a US college too.

Canada is the odd case. It's shut out of Google AI Plus and of OpenAI's Plus offer, yet it's one of two countries in OpenAI's Codex credit offer. Perplexity, Grammarly, Lovable and GitHub print no country list. All four check you through a school email, SheerID or GitHub Education instead, so the real test is whether that check recognises your school. Prices outside the US are local, and Google says AI Plus renews at "$4.99/month or local currency equivalent."

Every free AI student plan renews at full price unless you cancel

Every free student plan in the table with a card on file renews at the full price: $20 for ChatGPT Plus, $19.99 for Google AI Pro, and $4.99 or the local price for Google AI Plus. Put the renewal date in your calendar the day you claim. ChatGPT's 4 free billing periods start on the claim date, so a claim made on 31 October 2026, the last day, is first billed at the end of February 2027. Google bills from month 13.

If you cancel, the free time you already have stays. OpenAI says Plus access continues to the end of the current period. Google says you can "cancel anytime." Grammarly's 50% applies to one subscription period, and it doesn't combine with other offers or with purchases made in the App Store or Google Play.

Whizi, which publishes this page, has no student price, so claim the free year first. Once it ends, Whizi Starter is $15.99 a month, or $10.99 a month billed yearly, with the first week at $0.99. It reaches ChatGPT Luna, Claude Haiku and Whizi AI. Claude Sonnet, Claude Opus and ChatGPT Sol start on Pro at $29.99. It suits a student who wants GPT and Claude on one bill after the free months close, not one still inside a free year.