AI student discounts, verified live: who still offers one

The stale-SERP problem: Cursor edition

The sequence, per Cursor's own pages (accessed 2026-09-06 and re-checked 2026-09-07):

1. New student sign-ups ended 2026-06-25, cited to fraud and a desire to reach students globally. If you did not claim before that date, there is currently no student route to Cursor Pro.
2. Legacy claimants keep their rate until the plan expires, then: “Your Pro subscription continues at the regular $20/month rate unless you cancel” ( cursor.com/help/account-and-billing/student-discount). That is an unconditional auto-bill, not a re-verification gate — a month-13 charge of $240/year if you do not act.
3. The replacement path is event-based: “Undergraduates can claim credits and discounts at on-campus and online events starting this fall” — undated as of 2026-09-07 — plus a credits request form for master's, PhD, researcher, and educator applicants.

If you hold a legacy claim, the entire defense is a calendar reminder 30+ days before your free year ends.

The verified live table

Every row checked against an official page on the access date. “Via index” means the page 403s to our fetcher and the wording came from search-indexed official copy.

Status count as of 2026-09-07: three live student routes — GitHub Copilot Student, Google AI Pro's free year, and OpenAI's 4-month window (the last one has a hard claim deadline) — plus two adjacent teacher/nonprofit programs; two ended (Cursor for new sign-ups, Windsurf entirely); one never existed for individuals (Claude).

“Will I be charged later?” — the question behind the query

Every “free for students” AI offer is a timed subscription, not a gift. Three renewal mechanics, and they are genuinely different:

1. Re-verify or lapse (GitHub, Google): free access lasts only while you can prove enrollment again. Google states it plainly: “Eligibility must be verified each year to maintain access” — and its trial still auto-charges $19.99/mo unless cancelled, so a missed re-verify email and a card on file are the same event.
2. Hard end dates (OpenAI's 4-month window, teachers' program): the countdown starts at claim, not at graduation, and the claim itself has a deadline — waiting costs the offer entirely.
3. Unconditional auto-bill (Cursor legacy, Windsurf legacy): the paid rate takes over at expiry with no gate in between. Cursor: “continues at the regular $20/month rate unless you cancel.”

The pattern worth knowing from the rest of the software market: education programs that are licenses to a tool (Notion, Figma, JetBrains) downgrade you when verification lapses — they do not charge. Education programs that are metered AI access on a card you supplied (everything in the table above) trend the other way. Disputed conversions refund only under the vendor's ordinary terms, which are narrow: Cursor's 14-day-plus-zero-usage rule, Claude's regional cooling-offs, GitHub Copilot's “no exceptions.” Assume no refund.

If you missed the Cursor window

• GitHub Copilot Student is the strongest like-for-like coding-assistant substitute for a verified student — completions plus an AI-credit allowance, free while verified.
• Watch cursor.com/students — the page promises event credits “starting this fall,” undated as of 2026-09-07. Our weekly pass re-checks it; there was nothing live to publish at verification.
• Routes that need no student ID at all: the NVIDIA dev route (verdict) and Z.ai's zero-priced GLM flash models on the leaderboard.
• Cheapest paid option may beat chasing promos: if a $19 tier clears your volume, the monthly vs annual math applies to students too.

Adjacent: the education offers that never auto-charge

Verified 2026-09-06 against each help center; useful because they invert the pattern:

FAQ