ChatGPT Plus student discount: two free-month offers, no student price

Does ChatGPT Plus have a student discount?

Both of OpenAI's student windows stayed open for about two months. So did Google's 6 August 2025 free year of AI Pro, which closed to new students on 6 October 2025. The chart plots all eight free student offers OpenAI, Google and Microsoft opened to US students since March 2025, each on the day it closed. The orange points were still open when we checked every vendor page on 3 October 2026.

The first offer ran from 31 March to 31 May 2025. Sam Altman announced it on 3 April 2025. It gave full and part-time students at degree-granting schools in the US and Canada two free months of Plus, and SheerID checked their enrollment. The second, OpenAI's 2026 Back to School offer, opened in late August 2026. It gives four free monthly billing periods of Plus to current college and graduate students at eligible US degree-granting institutions who claim by 31 October 2026, per the OpenAI Help Center. Canada dropped out between the two. After the fourth month the subscription renews at $20 unless you cancel it.

Two rules in the 2026 terms catch people out. A Plus plan billed through the Apple App Store or Google Play can't take the offer while the store still bills it. A new subscriber also adds a payment method before the free months begin. OpenAI's own developer forum still carries a thread asking for a $10 a month student tier. As of 3 October 2026 no such tier exists. The cheapest OpenAI plan below Plus is ChatGPT Go at $8 a month for everyone.

Which AI companies give students a discount, and who qualifies?

Google gives students the most. Only two student prices here have no claim window: Perplexity Education Pro at $10 a month, and Google AI Pro with YouTube Premium at up to 70% off for up to four years. Anthropic sells nothing to individual students. The table is every student route from the five companies people ask about, plus GitHub, because its offer is the one coding students use. We read each row from the vendor's own page on 3 October 2026.

Google's is the largest offer by dollars: 12 months of AI Pro at $19.99 is $239.88, against $80 for OpenAI's 4 months of Plus at $20. Its terms, in the 19 August 2026 announcement, require SheerID, exclude school-issued accounts, take a card at sign-up and charge $19.99 a month once the year ends unless you cancel. It's Google's third offer to US students. The April 2025 one gave AI Premium through spring 2026 to students who signed up by 30 June 2025. The 6 August 2025 one gave a free year of AI Pro to students 18 and older in the US, Japan, Indonesia, South Korea and Brazil who signed up by 6 October 2025. Google's regional student years had deadlines too. India's closed on 15 September 2025, and the one for Europe, the Middle East and Africa on 9 December 2025. Perplexity's Education Pro help page lists everything in Pro plus Learn Mode and unlimited Pro Searches. The SheerID email doesn't have to match the Perplexity login. GitHub's student setup doc says verified students get free access to Copilot's features, and GitHub reevaluates eligibility every month.

Microsoft's paid student offers all closed before October 2026. Students could claim a free year of Microsoft 365 Personal by 31 October 2025 (then half price) and a free year of Microsoft 365 Premium with LinkedIn Premium Career by 1 March 2026. The last was a year of Premium bundled with a new Windows PC bought between 15 April and 31 August 2026. What remains is Copilot Chat. Microsoft made it generally available to students aged 13 and older on school accounts in May 2025.

Is there a Claude student discount?

No. Anthropic charges a student the same $20 a month for Claude Pro, or $17 a month billed yearly at $200, that it charges anyone. Its pricing page read on 3 October 2026 offers education only to institutions: "Get a comprehensive university-wide plan for an institution, including its students, faculty, and staff."

The route for a student runs through the university. Anthropic launched Claude for Education on 2 April 2025 with campus-wide agreements at Northeastern University, the London School of Economics and Champlain College. It also shipped a learning mode that answers with questions such as "How would you approach this problem?" instead of solutions. The same announcement set up Claude Campus Ambassadors and API credits for students building projects with Claude. So the test is one email to your IT desk, or one look at its software page. If your school has a Claude for Education agreement, you sign in with the school account and the school pays. If it doesn't, any site selling a "Claude student discount code" is selling something Anthropic doesn't issue.

How do you claim a ChatGPT Plus student offer?

You claim it on OpenAI's offer page, never with a code. The check is SheerID. The same four steps cover Google's and Perplexity's student offers, which also verify through SheerID:

1. Open the offer page in a web browser, not the phone app, while signed in to the account you want upgraded.
2. Verify with SheerID. Depending on the school it matches you against enrollment records, sends you through the school's single sign-on, or asks for a document; a dated enrollment letter or this term's class schedule is what to have ready.
3. Return to the offer and activate it. A new subscriber adds a card or other payment method here, and nothing is charged during the free months.
4. Put a reminder in your calendar for two days before the last free month ends. OpenAI's and Google's offers renew at full price by default: $20 for Plus, $19.99 for AI Pro.

Three things stop a claim. A subscription billed by Apple or Google Play can't take OpenAI's offer until ChatGPT bills it directly. Google refuses school-issued Google accounts, so claim its year on a personal Google account. Perplexity's help page says a rejected SheerID check can't take Education Pro. The fix is a clearer document, not a second account. Shared or resold "student accounts" from marketplaces are no vendor's offer at all. The seller keeps the login and every chat in it.

What is the cheapest legitimate way for a student to get ChatGPT-level AI?

The cheapest route is the one your university already pays for. Next comes a free coding or free-month offer, and only then a paid plan. In order, as of October 2026:

1. Ask whether your school already pays, which costs you $0. California State University gave ChatGPT Edu to more than 460,000 students across 23 campuses from 4 February 2025, per CSUN's announcement; Claude for Education campuses and Microsoft 365 schools with Copilot Chat turned on work the same way.
2. For coding, take GitHub Copilot Student at $0 for as long as GitHub Education verifies you.
3. Claim any open free-month window: Google's student year can be redeemed until 31 December 2026, OpenAI's 4 months until 31 October 2026.
4. For research with citations, Perplexity Education Pro is $10 a month.
5. With no offer open, Google AI Plus at $4.99 or ChatGPT Go at $8 is the cheapest paid step, under half the price of Plus; the cheapest way to AI Pro is Google's student bundle with YouTube Premium at $8.99 a month in the US.

Whizi, which publishes this page, has no student price, and every option in that list is cheaper than it. Starter is $15.99 a month, or $10.99 a month billed yearly at $131.88, with the first week at $0.99. It reaches ChatGPT Luna, Gemini Flash and Whizi AI, while Claude Sonnet starts on Pro at $29.99. It makes sense for a student only after the free windows close, and only if one bill for GPT and Gemini beats two apps. Either way, the students page has the study prompts.

When will OpenAI offer a student discount again?

OpenAI had announced no third student offer as of 3 October 2026. It has never published a standing student price, so the only guide is timing. Its two offers opened on 31 March 2025, ahead of spring finals, and in late August 2026, at the start of term. Google's US offers opened on 17 April 2025, 6 August 2025 and 19 August 2026. Our bet, from that pattern and nothing more: if OpenAI runs another, it opens between late March and early September 2027. Expect free months with a deadline again, not a lower monthly price.