Cursor Student Discount (2026): Free Pro Year Ended, What's Left

Short answer: no, Cursor no longer gives students a free year of Pro. New sign-ups for that discount closed on June 25, 2026. Students can still use Cursor's Free plan, collect credits at Cursor events, request research credits if they are graduate students or academics, or apply to be a Campus Lead. If you need a free AI coding assistant today, GitHub Copilot Student is the closest replacement.

What changed, and when

Cursor's help center now says: "Cursor discontinued new sign-ups for the legacy student discount on June 25, 2026." The reason given is that the program "had become a target for fraud" and limited Cursor's ability to reach students worldwide. On the same day, Cursor's new Campus Community Lead announced the change on the official forum together with a set of replacement programs. Users in Cursor's long-running student discount forum thread had been posting about resold student credentials. That is user commentary, not an official statement, but it is consistent with the reason Cursor gives.

If you already have the student discount

You keep it. The help page says: "If you already redeemed your student discount, you'll keep your current rate until your plan expires." When the year ends, your subscription "continues at the regular rate for your plan unless you cancel". For a legacy Pro plan, that is $20/month.

• Check your renewal date in your Cursor account settings under billing, and set a reminder a week before.
• Decide before it renews. If you don't want to pay $20/month, cancel before the renewal date. Cancelling stops the next charge. Cursor does not publish a student-specific refund policy, so don't count on getting a charge back after renewal.
• You stay on the legacy plan. Cursor's docs list Hobby, Pro, Pro+ and the old Ultra as legacy plans that continue for existing customers. Legacy subscribers keep two monthly usage pools, Cursor models and other models, plus on-demand usage. They don't move to the new weekly pool.
• Once you cancel, you can't get the legacy price back. New buyers only see the new plan lineup.

Getting credits as an undergraduate

Cursor says undergraduates "can claim credits and discounts at on-campus and online events starting this fall". The Cursor for Students page points to a campus newsletter for "early access to upcoming events, exclusive discounts, and beginner guides". The June 2026 forum announcement adds a partnership with Major League Hacking (MLH): Cursor will run workshops and give credits and swag to students at MLH events.

1. Open cursor.com/students and sign up for the campus newsletter.
2. Look for a Cursor workshop or event at your university, or an MLH hackathon that lists Cursor as a partner.
3. Attend and follow the event's redemption instructions. Credits are applied to your Cursor account, so create the account with an email you'll keep after graduation.

Cursor publishes no amount for event credits and no expiry rules. Treat them as a top-up, not a replacement for a year of Pro.

Credits for master's students, PhD candidates and researchers

Graduate students, academic researchers and educators can request credits through a form linked from the student discount help page. Cursor doesn't say how requests are judged, how much it gives or how long a decision takes. When you apply, describe concretely what the credits are for, such as a thesis codebase, a research tool or a course you teach. Use your institutional email so your affiliation is clear.

Campus Leads: the most generous route left

Campus Leads run workshops, events and hackathons on their campus, help other students start building with Cursor and pass feedback to the Cursor team. According to the Campus Leads page, the role includes:

• An all-expenses-paid trip to Cursor's San Francisco office for the program kick-off
• Six months of Cursor Ultra access
• Funding and resources for hosting campus events
• Reimbursed travel to one hackathon from a verified list
• Early access to new features and a private Slack workspace with the Cursor team
• Custom Campus Lead swag

You must be a current university student, complete the application, accept the Code of Conduct and commit about 5 hours per week. The program runs in fall and spring cohorts. Applications are closed now and the page says they reopen in January, with an interest list in the meantime. The June 2026 announcement said 40 new ambassadors would join in fall 2026, so places are limited.

Cursor's plans now: what the Free plan gives you

Cursor changed its pricing in October 2026. The official pricing page and docs now list the plans below. Included usage covers Cursor's own models (Grok-based). Third-party models such as Claude and GPT are only on Premium and above, billed separately at API list price. Paid plans share one weekly usage pool across Agent, CLI, Cloud Agents and the Grok apps. Full details are on our Cursor pricing page.

Worked cost example: if you used to rely on a free student year of Pro, the cheapest paid replacement is Plus at $8/month, or $80/year if paid annually. That saves $16 compared with 12 x $8 = $96. If you need Claude or GPT inside Cursor, Premium at $30/month is the floor, and model usage is charged on top at API list prices. Prices exclude tax.

Free alternatives for students

If Cursor's Free plan isn't enough, these student offers on our site cover most of the same ground at no cost:

A practical setup for many students is VS Code with Copilot Student for daily coding, plus Cursor's Free plan when you want to try its agent. For terminal-based agents, compare Claude Code pricing. Claude has no individual student discount, as explained on our Claude student page.

History of the Cursor student offer

• 2025: Cursor offered verified university students a free year of Pro. Third-party guides describe student status being checked through SheerID. Questions and updates were collected in a "Student Discount - Details, Updates, Q&As" thread on Cursor's official forum.
• June 25, 2026: Cursor closed new sign-ups for the legacy student discount, citing fraud, and announced Campus Leads, the MLH partnership and the research credit form.
• Fall 2026: event-based credits and discounts for undergraduates began, and the first new Campus Leads cohort started.
• October 2026: Cursor moved to Free, Plus, Premium, Super and Ultra plans. Hobby, Pro and Pro+ became legacy plans for existing customers.

Common mistakes

• Following old guides. Many guides still describe a SheerID verification flow for a free Pro year. That flow is closed. Don't pay third parties who claim they can verify you.
• Forgetting the auto-renewal. Existing student-discount holders are billed at the regular rate when the year ends unless they cancel first.
• Assuming the Free plan includes Claude or GPT. It doesn't. Third-party models require Premium or higher on the new plans.
• Missing the Campus Leads window. Applications open in January. Join the interest list early.