GitHub Student Developer Pack (2026): Free AI and Dev Tools for Students

Short answer: the GitHub Student Developer Pack is a free bundle for verified students aged 13+. It includes GitHub's own paid features (GitHub Pro, Pro-level Codespaces and the Copilot Student plan) and about 80 partner offers, from $100 of Azure credit to free years of SaaS tools. You apply once through GitHub Education, then redeem each partner offer separately. Most of the value is in a handful of items. This page shows which ones, how to get approved and what ends when you graduate.

What you get: the most valuable items

The official pack page lists the offers in one long list with tags. These are the items most students actually use, with the wording from the page:

AI and data tools in the pack

• GitHub Copilot Student: the biggest AI item. It includes unlimited completions and a monthly AI Credits allowance, with models chosen by Auto model selection. Full details, including limits and upgrade options, are on our Copilot for students page.
• Camber: a free Student plan while enrolled with 40 CPU hours, 5 GPU hours, 50 GB storage and 50 agent messages per month. Useful for data-science coursework that needs a GPU.
• Deepnote: a free Team plan while you are a student, with unlimited members and projects, 30-day version history and basic machines (up to 5 GB RAM, 2 vCPU).
• Microsoft 365: free or discounted Office apps with built-in AI features.
• Notion: the Education plan with extra AI responses. See our Notion Education plan page.

The pack does not include API credits from OpenAI, Anthropic or Google. For those, see Codex credits for students and the Gemini API free tier.

Learning and career offers

Several partners give time-limited course access: Frontend Masters (6 months free), Educative (6 months of 70+ courses plus 30% off a subscription), Codédex (6 months of Codédex Club), DataCamp (3 months), Boot.dev (3 months), Scrimba (1 month of Pro), GoRails (12 months), SymfonyCasts (3 months), AlgoExpert (20 free interview questions and 10% off) and Interview Cake (1 week). Because these timers usually start when you activate them, save them for when you have time to study.

Developer tools that last while you're a student

Many tools are free for as long as you remain verified: Termius Pro and Team, Clerk Pro, Doppler Team, New Relic, Testmail Essential, Tower Pro, Working Copy Pro, PopSQL Premium, Bootstrap Studio, Xojo Pro, Imgbot, Pageclip and Travis CI private builds. Others are free for a fixed period: Sentry (one year, renewable), BrowserStack and LambdaTest (one year), Requestly Professional (one year), Polypane (one year), DevCycle Starter (one year), Honeybadger (one year), GitKraken and GitLens (6 months free, then up to 80% off Pro while a student) and Appwrite's Education plan (6 months).

Who qualifies

According to GitHub Docs, you must be enrolled in a degree- or diploma-granting program (high school, college, university or homeschool), be at least 13 years old, have a personal GitHub account and provide documents that prove your current student status. GitHub Docs also says GitHub Education is open to students at accredited educational institutions.

Edge cases

• High school and homeschool students qualify. Some partner offers have their own age limits, such as Azure's $100 credit for 18+. A separate Azure offer gives ages 13-17 free access to App Services, Functions, MySQL and Azure DevOps.
• Bootcamps and online courses: GitHub says informal learning programs that aren't part of the GitHub Campus Program don't qualify.
• Schools without email addresses: provide official documentation instead, such as a school web page or a letter on school letterhead.
• Schools that issue email before paid enrollment: GitHub asks for additional proof of status.
• One email, one account: an academic email used for one Student Developer Pack can't be used on another GitHub account, and discounts can't be moved between accounts.
• Teachers: faculty use GitHub's separate teacher benefits, not the Student Pack.

How to apply, step by step

1. Sign in to the personal GitHub account you plan to keep after graduation.
2. If your school gives you an email address, add it under Settings > Emails and verify it. Use the plain, all-lowercase address with no plus-addressing.
3. Go to education.github.com/pack and click Sign up for Student Developer Pack, or open your Education benefits settings directly.
4. Under GitHub Education, click Start an application.
5. Complete the form. If you're asked for proof, upload a clear photo of a school ID with a current enrollment date, a class schedule, a transcript or an enrollment verification letter. GitHub says the document must clearly show your current academic status and include at least one date.
6. Click Submit application and watch for an email with the decision.
7. After approval, open the GitHub Education portal. GitHub Pro and Codespaces benefits are applied to your account. Copilot Student is activated separately, as described in GitHub's Copilot setup docs.
8. Go back to the pack page and redeem each partner offer you want. Each partner has its own sign-up flow.

GitHub doesn't publish an official review time. Benefits such as Copilot Student can take several days to appear on your account after approval. Don't buy a paid plan in the meantime.

Why applications get rejected

GitHub's troubleshooting docs list these common reasons:

• The uploaded image is blurry or doesn't clearly show your current academic status and a date.
• Your academic email domain isn't recognized. Contact GitHub Education Support with your school's full name, website URL and email domain.
• Recent applicants from your school verified with an academic email, so GitHub now expects one from you too.
• The academic email has already been used on another GitHub account.
• You're in an informal learning program, or you're under 13.

After fixing the problem, reapply with the same steps. If you're still stuck, use the GitHub Education Support contact form and describe what you tried.

How long it lasts and what happens after

GitHub Pro, Codespaces benefits and Copilot Student last while you remain a verified student. GitHub's Copilot docs say student eligibility is rechecked regularly. When your GitHub Education access expires, the docs say you "may reapply if you're still eligible". Two details matter for partner offers:

• "Some of our partner offers for GitHub Student Developer Pack cannot renew." A one-year free domain, for example, renews at the registrar's normal price if you keep it.
• "Most of the timed offers from our partners start once you set them up." A 6-month course pass starts when you activate it, not when you're approved.

Before graduation, check each service you rely on for auto-renewal and a card on file, export anything you need from Codespaces, and move Copilot work to a paid or free plan. Our GitHub Copilot pricing page shows what each plan costs after the student plan ends.

Getting the most out of the pack

• Build a portfolio site: use GitHub Pages with a free domain from Namecheap (.me), Name.com or .TECH. Don't forget the domain's renewal price after year one.
• Deploy a full-stack project: Heroku's $13/month for 24 months covers a small app and database. MongoDB Atlas credit and Azure credit cover data and extra services.
• Code with AI: pair Copilot Student with a free JetBrains student license or VS Code. Codespaces lets you code from a school computer without installing anything.
• Data science: Camber's GPU hours and Deepnote's Team plan cover notebooks for coursework and small models.
• Interview prep: time Frontend Masters, Educative and AlgoExpert for the months before internship applications.

How it compares with other student offers

For a full list of free routes, including startup programs and free API tiers, see our guide to getting free AI credits.