Cursor student discount: the $240 free year ended in June

Is the Cursor student discount still available?

No, not for new students. Cursor's student discount help article says "Cursor discontinued new sign-ups for the legacy student discount on June 25, 2026." It gives the reason too: "The program had become a target for fraud and held Cursor back from reaching students globally." Here's every route a student has left, as of 8 November 2026:

None of the five tiers on Cursor's pricing page carries a student price. The students page now says "Anyone can get started with Cursor for free" and points to event promotions instead.

What did the old Cursor student discount include?

The old discount was a free year of Cursor Pro, worth $240. Cursor staff announced it on the Cursor forum on 8 May 2025 as "1 year of Pro for free" for verified students. It worked as a $20 discount on each monthly bill for 12 months, so the plan showed as monthly with a $0 checkout.

It never covered everyone. The same post said "only certain countries and schools can claim this discount." You verified a school email at cursor.com/students, then logged in with that same address. A card stayed on file for usage past Pro's allowance. It was easy to game. Within hours of launch, Cursor staff wrote that they'd "had to withdraw the eligibility for some schools and areas."

How do you get Cursor as a student now?

You start on Cursor's Free plan and watch for event credits, or ask for credits if you're past your first degree. There's no verification step any more, because there's no discount to verify. The steps, as Cursor describes them on 8 November 2026:

1. Make a Cursor account on the Free plan. It costs $0 and needs no school email.
2. If you're an undergraduate, join Cursor's campus newsletter. Cursor says it gives early notice of events, discounts and beginner guides.
3. Go to a Cursor on-campus or online event. Undergraduates "can claim credits and discounts" there, per the help article.
4. If you're a master's student, PhD candidate, researcher or educator, fill in the credit request form.
5. Skip any site selling a "Cursor student account". Cursor's pricing page says subscriptions are sold only directly, and other accounts may be suspended.

Cursor publishes no credit amounts for either route. Treat event credits as a bonus, not a plan. If an event does hand you credits, use them to find out whether a normal week of your coursework fits in Cursor's own models before you put a card on file for $30 a month.

Does Cursor have a free trial?

No, Cursor's pricing page lists no free trial for Plus, Premium, Super or Ultra, as of 8 November 2026. The Free plan is the way to try it. xAI's 12 October announcement mentions "limited-time offers", but only for people switching an existing Cursor, SuperGrok or X Premium plan.

Guides that promise a 14-day Pro trial describe a plan Cursor no longer sells. Cursor's legacy plans page lists Pro as a legacy plan, with Premium at $30 as its nearest replacement. Free includes no third-party models. So you can't test Claude or GPT in Cursor without paying. That's the real gap. If you want to know how Claude handles your code before you pay for it, Claude's own free plan is where you'll find out.

What happens when your Cursor student year ends?

Your plan renews at the regular price, which is $20 a month for legacy Pro, unless you cancel first. The help article says: "Your subscription continues at the regular rate for your plan unless you cancel." Since the last discounts were redeemed by 25 June 2026, the last free years end by late June 2027.

Legacy Pro at $20 is the better deal if you code with Claude or GPT. It keeps a separate monthly pool for third-party models. If you've used Claude inside Cursor all year and you let the plan renew, you keep that pool for $20 a month, which is $10 less than the plan Cursor would sell you today. Check your renewal date. Premium, its replacement at $30, bills those models at API list price on top. Cursor's legacy page says switching to the new plans is optional and permanent. It also says legacy plans aren't sold to new customers, so don't count on getting Pro back after you cancel.

If you only use Cursor's own models, the math flips. Plus at $8 runs Grok 4.7 and Composer 2.5 and costs $12 a month less than Pro. Cursor pricing works through every plan and what a month of Claude use adds.

What does a school year of Cursor cost now?

A nine-month school year costs $72 on Plus or $270 on Premium, paid month by month. That's less than the yearly prices of $80 and $300, so a student who stops over the summer shouldn't bill yearly. Yearly billing charges ten months for twelve, and it only wins at ten months or more. Prices from Cursor, Anthropic and GitHub, read 8 November 2026, before tax:

The old free year was worth $240. The nearest plan a new student can buy, Premium, costs $300 billed yearly and includes no Claude usage. That's $300 for what cost $0 last spring. Plan for it. Claude Pro at $17 a month billed yearly is the cheaper paid route to a coding agent, and GitHub Copilot Student is free for verified students, limited to "auto model selection only."

What does Cursor cost next to a student's other AI bills?

A student can code with AI for $0: Cursor Free for the editor, GitHub Copilot Student if verified, and a free chat app on top. The paid version adds up fast. Cursor Premium plus ChatGPT Plus is $50 a month, $450 over a nine-month year. Our list of the best AI apps for students compares the chat side, and Grok's student discount covers the bundle Cursor now sits in.

Whizi, which publishes this page, has no student price and no coding agent, so keep Cursor or Copilot for code. Its free tier gives 10 messages a day on Whizi AI, Auto and Claude Haiku 5.5. Whizi Pro at $29.99 a month puts Claude, GPT and Gemini in one chat. That's worth it only if you'd otherwise pay for two chat plans. The cheapest way to use Claude and GPT and one subscription for every AI model show where one plan beats two.