Learn & Docs
GitHub Student Developer Pack 2026: What to Claim
Who qualifies for the GitHub Student Developer Pack, how verification works, what Copilot Student includes, and which offers to claim first.
The GitHub Student Developer Pack is free for anyone 13 or older who is enrolled in a degree- or diploma-granting program and can prove it. Once you are verified you get GitHub Pro, Copilot Student, Codespaces hours, and a long list of partner offers. The ones most developers should claim first are Copilot Student, the JetBrains IDEs, a free domain, and Frontend Masters. Everything else is worth claiming only when a project actually needs it, because many offers start a clock the day you redeem them.
Every offer below was checked on October 18, 2026, against GitHub Education's pack page, GitHub's docs, and the partner's own page where one exists. Partners change their terms often, so the page you redeem on is the final word.
Who qualifies
GitHub's student application docs list four requirements. You must:
- be enrolled in a degree- or diploma-granting program, such as high school, college, university, or homeschool
- provide documents that prove your current student status
- own a personal GitHub account
- be at least 13 years old
Teachers, researchers, and other school staff are not eligible for the pack, according to GitHub's pack terms. Several partners add their own conditions on top. Heroku's credit is for students 18 or older, and Azure lists one offer for students 18+ and a smaller one for ages 13 to 17.
How verification works
You apply from your Education benefits settings: click Start an application, fill in the form, and submit. GitHub accepts these as proof of enrollment:
- a photo of your school ID showing a current enrollment date
- your class schedule
- your transcript
- an affiliation or enrollment verification letter
Two details catch people out. First, if recent applicants from your school were verified with an academic email, GitHub will expect you to use one too. If your school does not issue student emails, you can submit official documentation, such as a school web page or a letter on letterhead, and reapply. Second, approval and Copilot activation are separate steps. GitHub says the student benefit can take several days to finish applying after you are verified.
Copilot Student: what is actually free
Copilot Student is one of GitHub's individual Copilot plans, and it costs nothing for verified students. Here is how it compares with the plans either side of it:
| Plan | Price | Code completions | Models | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Copilot Free | Free for anyone | Up to 2,000 a month | Auto model selection only | Limited chat and agent use |
| Copilot Student | Free for verified students | Unlimited | Auto model selection only | Limited chat and agent use, excludes third-party agents |
| Copilot Pro | $10 a month | Unlimited | A selection of models | 1,500 GitHub AI Credits a month |
So the main thing Copilot Student gives you over Copilot Free is unlimited completions. Chat and agent use are still limited, both plans include an allowance of GitHub AI Credits whose size GitHub does not state on the plans page, and you cannot pick a specific model. Copilot chooses for you.
To turn it on, open your Education benefits, click Learn more under the free developer resources, and follow the prompts to activate Copilot Student. GitHub re-evaluates your eligibility every month, so the plan stays tied to your student status rather than to a fixed term.
If you want a chat assistant rather than an editor assistant, the student plans from Google, OpenAI, and others are compared in free AI tools for students. That post covers the assistants. This one sticks to the pack.
GitHub's own benefits
- GitHub Pro, free while you are a student.
- Codespaces: GitHub's docs say verified students get up to 180 core hours a month of Codespaces for their personal accounts, the same allowance as GitHub Pro.
- GitHub Pages: one site per account or organization, plus unlimited project sites. Pages is free for everyone, but it pairs well with the domain offers below.
The partner offers most useful to developers
The pack lists dozens of partners. These are the ones with the broadest use for someone building software, with the terms as each partner states them.
IDEs and editor tools
JetBrains. The JetBrains Student Pack covers the professional IDEs, from IntelliJ IDEA and PyCharm to GoLand and RustRover, plus courses and AI tools. Your GitHub Student Developer Pack account is one of the accepted ways to verify. It stays free while you are a student, but has to be renewed every year.
GitKraken and GitLens. The GitKraken Student plan is free for six months, then up to 80% off Pro for as long as you are a student, as listed on GitHub's pack page.
Domains
| Offer | What you get | After year one |
|---|---|---|
| Namecheap | A .me domain and one SSL certificate, free for 1 year | Renews automatically at the standard price unless you cancel |
| .TECH | One standard .tech domain for 1 year | Renewal terms not stated |
| Name.com | A free domain from 25+ extensions, including .dev and .app | Not stated on GitHub's listing |
Namecheap lists the standard .me renewal at $4.88 a year, subject to change, and says it emails you 30 days before the free year ends. Pick the domain you want to keep, not a throwaway, because each offer can be redeemed once.
Cloud credits
Microsoft Azure. Azure for Students gives $100 of credit to use within 12 months, with no credit card, and you can renew each year while you are a student. GitHub's listing says this one is for students 18 and up.
Heroku. The Heroku student offer is $13 of platform credit a month for 24 months, $312 in total, for students 18 or older. It needs a credit or debit card on file, usage above $13 in a month is charged to it, and unused credit does not roll over.
MongoDB Atlas ($50 in credits) and Stripe ($25 toward fees) are also on GitHub's list, worth claiming the week a project needs a database or payments.
Learning
Frontend Masters, which now redirects to Master.dev, gives six months of the full course library with no card. GitHub's list also includes three months of DataCamp, three months of Boot.dev, six months of Educative courses, and one month of Scrimba Pro. If you need a plan for what to study with that access, roadmap.sh lays out step-by-step paths by role.
Security and monitoring
1Password. Two years free on an individual account, redeemable once. Students may be able to get 50% off after that.
Sentry (an error and replay quota for one renewable year), Datadog (a Pro account with 10 servers for two years), and New Relic (free while you are a student) are on the list too. They matter most once something you built has real users.
What to claim first
Claim the open-ended offers right away and save the ones with a clock for later.
- Copilot Student and GitHub Pro. Both last as long as you stay verified, and Copilot activation can take a few days, so start early.
- JetBrains. No end date while you study, just a yearly renewal.
- A domain. Claim one when you know what your portfolio or main project is called. The free year starts on redemption.
- Azure for Students. No card, renewable each year. Claim it when a class project needs to run somewhere real.
- Frontend Masters. Six months goes fast. Claim it at the start of a term when you have time to actually work through courses.
- Everything time-limited and project-specific (Heroku, 1Password, Sentry, Datadog, DataCamp) only when you will use it in the next few weeks.
The reason for the order is in GitHub's terms: offers cannot be redeemed more than once, and you cannot reset a time-limited offer by making a new partner account or re-verifying.
FAQ
Is GitHub Copilot free for students?
Yes. Verified students get Copilot Student at no cost. It includes unlimited code completions and an allowance of GitHub AI Credits, with limited chat and agent use and automatic model selection only. Full model choice is part of the paid plans, starting with Copilot Pro at $10 a month.
How long does the GitHub Student Pack last?
As long as you are a student and stay verified. GitHub's terms say student validation lasts two years, after which you revalidate. Copilot eligibility is checked every month. Individual partner offers have their own terms, from one month to two years, and those start when you redeem them.
How do I get the GitHub Student Developer Pack?
Apply from your GitHub Education benefits settings with a document that shows current enrollment, such as a dated school ID, class schedule, transcript, or enrollment letter. Use your school email if your school issues one.
Can high school students get the GitHub Student Pack?
Yes, if they are at least 13 and enrolled in a degree- or diploma-granting program, which GitHub says includes high school and homeschool. Some partner offers, including Heroku and the main Azure offer, are limited to students 18 and older.
Does the GitHub Student Pack include free domains?
Yes. Namecheap gives a .me domain with an SSL certificate, .TECH gives a .tech domain, and Name.com offers a domain from more than 25 extensions. The Namecheap and .TECH domains are free for the first year only.
The pack sits alongside the other student deals we track, from Google AI Pro to Zed and Kiro, on the offers page.