Free Copilot Pro for students ended on March 12, 2026. It was replaced by a Copilot Student plan, but new sign-ups for that and for Pro were paused on April 20, 2026 with no reopen date. Newly verified students today get only Copilot Free. Here is what still works and the live alternatives.
How to claim it
- Know what is available. The free student Pro benefit is gone. Verifying with
GitHub Educationtoday grants only Copilot Free (2,000 completions per month plus limited chat). - Use Copilot Free if it is enough. Copilot Free still helps with basic completions and occasional chat. It is a fallback, not the full Pro experience this page once described.
- Switch to a live alternative. For a full AI coding assistant,
Zedoffers students free Pro for a year, andChatGPT CodexandKirohave current student offers. - Get alerted if it returns. Sign up for our
deal alertsand we'll email you if GitHub reopens Copilot sign-ups or brings back a student benefit.
Who's eligible
What's included
This offer has ended. GitHub retired free Copilot Pro for verified students on March 12, 2026 and replaced it with a paid 'Copilot Student plan' (unlimited completions plus 200 AI credits per month, automatic model selection only). Then, on April 20, 2026, GitHub paused new sign-ups for Copilot Pro, Pro+, and the Student plan, and that pause is still in effect with no reopen date. The practical result: a student verifying today gets only Copilot Free, which includes 2,000 code completions per month plus limited chat and agent usage. GitHub also changed its whole pricing model, so the old '300 premium requests/month' and '$0.04 per extra request' figures no longer exist. If you already subscribe to a paid Copilot plan, note that cancelling during the pause is permanent: you would not be able to re-subscribe until sign-ups reopen. For a full AI coding assistant today, several alternatives still have live student offers: Zed gives students free Pro for a year, and ChatGPT Codex and Kiro both run current student programs.
- Copilot Free (What You Get Today)Newly verified students get only Copilot Free: 2,000 code completions per month plus limited chat and agent usage. The unlimited-completions Pro benefit is gone.
- Free Pro Benefit EndedThe free Copilot Pro for students ended March 12, 2026. It was replaced by a paid Copilot Student plan, not another free tier.
- New Sign-Ups PausedSince April 20, 2026, GitHub has paused new sign-ups for Copilot Pro, Pro+, and the Student plan, with no announced date to reopen them.
- Cancellations Are PermanentIf you hold a paid Copilot plan and cancel during the pause, you cannot re-subscribe until GitHub reopens sign-ups.
Fine print & gotchas
- Free Copilot Pro for students ended March 12, 2026. It was replaced by a paid Copilot Student plan, not another free tier.
- New sign-ups are paused since April 20, 2026. Copilot Pro, Pro+, and the Student plan are closed to new users with no announced reopen date.
- Newly verified students get only Copilot Free, which is 2,000 completions per month plus limited chat and agent usage.
- Cancelling a paid plan during the pause is permanent until GitHub reopens sign-ups.