Student developer programmes in 2026: GitHub Education, Azure, JetBrains, AWS and Google

Professional developer tools are expensive for a student: a paid IDE, cloud hosting, an AI coding assistant and a database service can easily cost more each month than a textbook. Several large vendors run student programmes that remove most of that cost while you are enrolled, but the eligibility rules, verification steps and limits differ a great deal.

This guide compares five programmes we checked on 7 October 2026: GitHub Education (including the GitHub Student Developer Pack), Azure for Students, JetBrains free educational licences, AWS Educate and Google Cloud for students. For each one we describe who qualifies, how you prove it, what you get and what to watch out for. All figures come from the vendors' own pages on that date; offers change often, so confirm on the official page before you apply.

A practical note for readers in India and other countries where institutions do not always issue academic email addresses: most of these programmes accept other proof of enrolment, and we point out where they do.

Quick comparison

Programme	Who can join	How you verify	Main benefit	Card required?
GitHub Education (Student Developer Pack)	Students aged 13+ enrolled in a degree- or diploma-granting programme, including high school and homeschool	Academic email where required, plus documents such as a dated school ID, class schedule, transcript or enrolment letter	Partner offers bundled in the pack; free Copilot access for verified students	Not mentioned in the application steps
Azure for Students	Full-time university students	School email address	$100 Azure credit for 12 months, free monthly amounts of selected services	No
JetBrains educational licence	Students in an accredited programme of one or more years of full-time study	Institutional email, ISIC/ITIC card, official school documents, or GitHub Student Developer Pack	Free individual licence, renewable yearly while studying	No
AWS Educate	Anyone aged 13+, student or not	An email address	Free self-paced training, hands-on labs and digital badges	No
Google Cloud for students	Students	Request through the student page	200 free Google Skills credits, expiring one year after issue	Not stated for the credits

GitHub Education and the Student Developer Pack

The GitHub Student Developer Pack bundles offers from GitHub and partner companies. The pack page organises offers into "Experiences", curated bundles such as Intro to GitHub, Intro to Copilot, Intro to Open Source and preparation for the GitHub Foundations certification. Partners shown on the page include Microsoft Azure, DataCamp, Travis CI, GitKraken, GitLens and Visual Studio Code, alongside GitHub's own tools such as Codespaces and Copilot.

Eligibility and verification

According to GitHub's documentation, you qualify if you are enrolled in a degree- or diploma-granting programme (high school, college, university or homeschool), can provide documents proving current student status, own a GitHub personal account and are at least 13 years old. Accepted documents include:

• a picture of your school ID with a current enrolment date;
• your class schedule;
• your transcript;
• an affiliation or enrolment verification letter.

Academic email rules depend on your school. If recent applicants from your school verified with an academic email, you must add and verify one on your GitHub account too. If your institution does not issue academic email addresses, GitHub asks for official documentation explaining that policy, such as a school web page or a letter on school letterhead. If your school's domain is not recognised, you contact GitHub Education Support with the school's name, website and email domain.

You apply from the Education benefits section of your GitHub settings. Once approved, benefits appear in the GitHub Education portal.

GitHub Copilot for students

GitHub's Copilot documentation refers to users "granted free access to Copilot as a verified student, teacher, or maintainer of a popular open source project". It also notes that such complimentary plans cannot be cancelled by the user, and that GitHub reevaluates eligibility for free Copilot Pro access every month. Check the documentation for the current plan name and limits that apply to students, as these have changed over time.

Partner offers worth claiming early

Some partner offers are tied to the pack. For example, MongoDB's student page says students get a free MongoDB certification (which it values at $150) and $50 of MongoDB Atlas credit through the GitHub Student Developer Pack. Partner offers have their own terms and expiry dates, so read each one before you activate it rather than activating everything on the first day.

Azure for Students

Azure for Students lets you sign up with your school email and renew yearly while you are a student. The page we checked listed:

• availability only to full-time university students;
• no credit card required;
• a $100 credit to use on Azure services within 12 months;
• free monthly amounts of 20+ popular services for 12 months (for new Azure customers only) and of 65+ always-free services;
• access to the full catalogue of services up to the free amounts and the credit, including Azure OpenAI.

The page also mentions an Azure for Students Starter option without a credit card. Read the terms of whichever option you choose, and delete resources you are no longer using: a forgotten virtual machine can use up a $100 credit quickly.

JetBrains free educational licences

JetBrains offers free individual educational licences to students and faculty at accredited institutions. Its eligibility article says students must be enrolled in an accredited educational programme that takes one or more years of full-time study to complete. The same help centre has a separate article on whether students of online courses or bootcamps qualify, which is worth reading if that describes you.

The application article lists three ways to verify: an email address associated with your educational institution, ISIC/ITIC card details, or the "Authorize with GitHub" option if you already have the GitHub Student Developer Pack. A further help article covers applying with official documents provided by your school, which helps if your institution has no academic email domain.

Licences are renewed for another year at a time. JetBrains' renewal article says you renew through a link in your JetBrains Account or in a reminder email sent two weeks before expiry, as long as you are still studying in a full-time programme.

AWS Educate

AWS Educate is different from the other programmes: it is not limited to students. The page says it is open to any individual regardless of education or experience, that learners as young as 13 can register with just an email address, and that no credit card is needed.

It offers free, self-paced training and hands-on labs, with "Getting Started" courses on storage (Amazon S3), compute (Amazon EC2), networking (Amazon VPC), databases (Amazon RDS) and cloud operations. You can earn shareable digital badges. Learners aged 18 and over can also use the AWS Educate Job Board to search for jobs and internships.

AWS Educate is a learning environment rather than a credit programme. If you want to deploy your own projects on AWS, look at the AWS Free Tier on AWS's pricing pages and set up a budget alert before you start.

Google Cloud for students

Google Cloud's student page lets students request 200 free Google Skills credits, which expire one year after they are issued. The credits give access to online labs, skill badges and courses. The page also points to Google Developer Student Clubs, the Google Skills Arcade (a gamified learning programme with badges), and Google Cloud Certificates for students who want a shareable credential.

Like AWS Educate, this is mainly a learning programme. Skills credits are for labs and courses, not for running your own production workloads.

How to get the most out of student programmes

1. Apply to GitHub Education first. Several other offers, including the JetBrains licence and MongoDB's student benefits, can be claimed or verified through the pack, so approval there simplifies the rest.
2. Keep your proof of enrolment ready as a clear scan or photo with a visible current date. Most rejected applications fail on unclear or undated documents.
3. Use cloud credits for learning projects, not experiments you forget about. Set a budget alert on day one and tear down resources when a project ends.
4. Write down renewal dates. Azure for Students and JetBrains licences renew annually while you study; losing access in the middle of a semester is avoidable.
5. Plan for graduation. Student benefits end when you are no longer enrolled. Export anything you need and move personal projects to free tiers or paid plans you can afford before your status changes.

Next steps

If you are currently enrolled, start with the GitHub Education application this week, then claim the JetBrains licence and, if you want hands-on cloud practice, Azure for Students. If you are not a student, AWS Educate and the free learning material from Google Cloud are still open to you, and the free curricula we cover in our learning resources guide do not require any student status at all.