80+ dev tools, free
If you're enrolled in a college, university or diploma course, your student status unlocks paid developer tools at no cost: Copilot, JetBrains IDEs, domains, cloud credit and courses. Here's what's inside, who qualifies, and exactly how to apply.
- TL;DR and key numbers
- What the Student Developer Pack is
- Who can get it
- The best offers, by what you're building
- What the credits are worth
- How to apply, step by step
- After approval: switch things on
- Getting approved the first time
- So, are you wasting money?
- Caveats and limits
- FAQ
- Glossary and sources
TL;DR
- The GitHub Student Developer Pack is a free bundle of developer tools for verified students, run by GitHub Education.
- GitHub's Pack page lists 84 offers from 83 partners: AI coding (Copilot Student), IDEs (JetBrains), domains, cloud credit ($100 on Azure), databases, monitoring and paid courses.
- You qualify if you're 13 or older, enrolled in a degree or diploma programme, and can show proof such as a college ID with your current enrolment date.
- Apply from GitHub → Settings → Education benefits → Start an application. Applying costs nothing.
- After approval, some benefits switch on by themselves (GitHub Pro); others you claim one by one, and Copilot Student you activate from the same benefits page.
What the Student Developer Pack is
GitHub Education is GitHub's programme for students and teachers. Once GitHub verifies that you're a current student, you get access to the Student Developer Pack: GitHub's own paid features for free, plus offers from partner companies that want students to learn on their tools.
A few of the partners on the Pack page.
GitHub's own benefits
- GitHub Pro, free while you're a student.
- GitHub Copilot Student, "available to verified students" (Pack page). It's a separate free plan, not Copilot Pro.
- GitHub Codespaces at Pro level: cloud dev environments you open in the browser.
- GitHub Pages: one site per account and organisation, plus unlimited project sites. A free home for your portfolio.
- GitHub Campus Experts: a programme you can apply to while you're a student.
Who can get it
GitHub Docs lists four conditions. You need to:
Be eligible
- Be enrolled in a degree- or diploma-granting programme (high school, college, university or homeschool)
- Be at least 13 years old
- Own a personal GitHub account
Prove it with one of
- A picture of your school ID showing your current enrolment date
- Your class schedule
- Your transcript
- An affiliation or enrolment verification letter
College email: if the form asks for an academic email, add and verify it on your GitHub account before you apply. Addresses with a plus sign (like name+github@college.edu) aren't accepted. No college email? GitHub's blog says other proof can still work, such as a dated ID or a time-stamped screenshot of your school portal.
The best offers, by what you're building
All wording below is from GitHub's Pack page. Offers have different lengths, so check the duration before you rely on one.
| For | Offer | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| AI coding | GitHub Copilot Student | Free for verified students; includes agent mode, the cloud agent and code review |
| IDEs | JetBrains | A free student subscription, renewed every year (IntelliJ IDEA, PyCharm and more) |
| Your domain | Namecheap · .TECH · Name.com | A .me domain for 1 year + 1 SSL certificate; a .tech domain for 1 year; a free domain on 25+ extensions like .dev and .app |
| Cloud & hosting | Microsoft Azure · Heroku | $100 Azure credit + 25+ free services (18+); $13/month of Heroku credit for 24 months |
| Databases | MongoDB | $50 in Atlas credits + MongoDB University |
| Notes & planning | Notion | The Education plan with extra AI responses |
| Learning | Frontend Masters · Educative · DataCamp · Boot.dev | 6 months of all courses · 6 months, 70+ courses · 3 months · 3 months |
| Monitoring | New Relic · Datadog · Sentry | Free while a student ("$300/month value") · Pro, 10 servers, 2 years · a student plan |
| Payments | Stripe | $25 in Stripe credits |
| Passwords | 1Password | Free for 2 years, developer tools included |
| Interview prep | AlgoExpert · InterviewCake | 20 free questions + 10% off · 1 week of the full course |
A first-year starter kit: Copilot Student and a JetBrains IDE to write code, GitHub Pages plus the free .me domain for your portfolio, MongoDB Atlas credit and Heroku credit to put a project online, and Frontend Masters while you learn.
What the credits are worth
GitHub doesn't publish a total value for the Pack, so we won't invent one. Here are only the offers that state a dollar amount, drawn to scale:
Worked out: Heroku's $13 × 24 months = $312; with Azure, MongoDB and Stripe these four alone come to $487 of credit. That's before subscriptions such as JetBrains, Copilot Student, Frontend Masters or New Relic, whose value depends on what you would otherwise pay. (Our arithmetic from the Pack page's figures.)
How to apply, step by step
Use your personal GitHub account
Sign in to (or create) the account you'll keep after college. The benefits belong to that account.
Add your college email
Settings → Emails → add your academic address and verify it from your inbox. Skip this only if your college has no student email.
Start the application
Go to Settings → Education benefits (github.com/settings/education/benefits) and click Start an application.
Upload your proof
A clear photo of your college ID showing the current enrolment date works; a class schedule, transcript or verification letter also counts.
Fill in the basics and submit
Your school and how you plan to use GitHub, then Submit application.
Wait for the review
GitHub reviews it and emails you. GitHub Docs doesn't state a fixed review time, so allow a few days.
After approval: switch things on
Copilot Student
- Open
github.com/settings/education/benefits - In the free developer resources section, open the details
- Follow the prompts to activate Copilot Student and set your Copilot policies
GitHub re-checks your eligibility every month.
Partner offers
- Open
education.github.com/packwhile signed in - Pick an offer and follow its link
- Each partner has its own claim flow; follow its steps to confirm you're a student
Claim what you'll use now. Many offers start a timer when you claim them (6 months, 1 year, 2 years). Claiming a course you won't open until next year wastes most of it.
Getting approved the first time
The rules in section 3 come from GitHub; these habits follow from them:
- Show the date. The proof has to show you're a current student, so the enrolment date or validity year must be readable. An old ID with no date is the easiest way to get rejected.
- Verify the email first. An academic email you added but never verified doesn't count.
- No plus-addresses.
you+gh@college.eduisn't accepted. - One clear photo. Flat, well lit, the whole card in frame, nothing covering your name or the college name.
- Rejected? Fix the proof and apply again from the same Education benefits page.
If you're enrolled and paying for an AI coding assistant, a JetBrains IDE, a portfolio domain or small cloud bills, check the Pack first. Many of those have a free student version through GitHub Education. If you aren't a student, or the offer you need isn't on the list, it's not for you, and that's fine.
Caveats and limits
- Copilot Student isn't Copilot Pro. On the Student plan, models come through auto model selection only, and the plan has an allowance of AI credits (GitHub Docs). Pro is the paid plan.
- Copilot sign-ups were paused once. On 20 April 2026 GitHub paused new sign-ups for its Student, Pro and Pro+ plans, then said on 16 June 2026 that it was reopening them gradually. GitHub Docs shows no pause today, but if activation fails, check the GitHub Community discussions for the current status.
- Offers change. Partners join and leave, and durations differ (1 month to "while you are a student"). The Pack page is the source of truth.
- Age limits. The $100 Azure offer is for students 18+; there's a separate Azure offer for ages 13–17.
- Review time. GitHub doesn't publish one. "A day or two" is a common experience, not a promise.
- Student status is re-checked. GitHub can ask you to re-verify; when you graduate, the student-only benefits end.
FAQ
Does it cost anything?
No. Applying is free, and the offers are free while they last. Some partners ask you to sign up on their own site.
Can I apply without a college email?
Yes. GitHub's blog says other dated proof works, such as a dated student ID, a registration document or a time-stamped screenshot of your school portal.
Is it only for computer science students?
No. The rule is enrolment in a degree- or diploma-granting programme, whatever the subject.
Do I get Copilot Pro?
You get Copilot Student, a separate free plan. It includes agent mode, the cloud agent and code review, with models picked automatically.
What happens when I graduate?
Student-only benefits end when you're no longer eligible. Anything you built stays yours: repos, sites and your domain until it expires.
Which offer should I claim first?
The ones you'll use this month: usually Copilot Student, a JetBrains IDE and GitHub Pages for your portfolio.
Glossary
- GitHub Education
- GitHub's programme for verified students and teachers.
- Student Developer Pack
- The bundle of free GitHub and partner offers you get once verified.
- Copilot Student
- GitHub's free AI coding plan for verified students.
- Codespaces
- A full development environment that runs in the cloud and opens in your browser.
- GitHub Pages
- Free static website hosting straight from a repository.
- Cloud credit
- Money-like balance a cloud provider applies to your bill.
- GitHub Student Developer Pack. All offers and their wording (read Oct 2026).
- Apply to GitHub Education as a student. GitHub Docs.
- Access GitHub Copilot for free as a student. GitHub Docs.
- Copilot plans for individuals. GitHub Docs.
- How to get the Student Developer Pack without a student ID. GitHub blog.
- Changes to GitHub Copilot plans for individuals. GitHub changelog, 20 Apr 2026, and the GitHub Community update of 16 Jun 2026.
