Best offer on record: Figma Starter plan (free tier, open to everyone incl. students and startups). 4 verified findings, checked 2026-10-22.
Offers
Figma Starter plan (free tier, open to everyone incl. students and startups) high confidence
Permanent free plan: unlimited draft files shareable with unlimited viewers; co-editing with unlimited users limited to 3 files (3 pages per file); UI kits and templates; 150 AI credits/day capped at 500 AI credits/month; Figma Buzz beta available. 'We do not have any discounts for non-profits. Anyone is welcome to use Figma's free plan.' No free trials of paid plans exist; Figma directs all startups to this free Starter plan.
Eligibility
Open to all individual users, no verification. No .edu email, no funding cap, no application. No credit card is mentioned or required for a free account (payment methods listed only for paid plans). No stated region limits. Credit-card requirement: not required for the free plan (FAQ silent; sign-up is email-only).
How to claim
Create a free account at figma.com (email signup). No claim step, no form, no partner referral. Account lands on Starter automatically.
Expiry
No expiry; limits (3 co-edit files, 3 pages/file, 500 AI credits/mo, 150/day) apply continuously. AI credits reset monthly and do not roll over.
Gotchas
Freemium, not unlimited: >3 co-editable files or >3 pages/file forces upgrade; advanced Dev Mode inspection, team libraries, MCP server and Figma Make workflows are paid-plan features (Starter gets basic access only). AI credits: 150/day daily cap + 500/month cap, no purchase option on Starter — hitting the cap blocks paid-tier AI features until the next month. This is the fallback Figma recommends to startups whose dedicated program was discontinued.
Figma for Education: free Professional plan for verified students & educators (age 13+) high confidence
'Figma & FigJam are 100% free for students, educators and schools.' Higher-ed, approved bootcamps, and secondary/high school students and educators get free Professional-tier access: unlimited files/projects, team-wide design libraries, advanced Dev Mode inspection and MCP Server. AI: 'Eligible education users get full access to Figma's AI toolkit, including Figma Make and AI-powered tools on the canvas' — but AI tools, the Figma agent, and Figma Sites are restricted to higher-ed and bootcamp Education users (not K-12/high-school); Education seats get 3,000 AI credits/month (per person, monthly reset, no rolver). Figma Sites: each eligible user may publish one self-created Site file; custom domains not available. No way to purchase extra AI credits on the Education plan — overage requires upgrading to paid Professional.
Eligibility
Current student or educator in a structured classroom (high school, university, post-grad, trade school, polytechnic, college, select curriculum-based online courses/bootcamps/workshops, design & coding academies); must be old enough to consent personally (13+ self-serve path); school-issued email REQUIRED — 'Non-school emails will be auto-rejected'; not strictly .edu (any school-issued email; personal accounts must switch to the school email before applying). Higher-ed verification goes through SheerID; bootcamp/online-course users cannot self-verify — the bootcamp admin applies as a trusted partner and submits user lists. Excluded: school staff in non-teaching roles, self-directed learners, startups/edtech companies, non-profits, and programs whose parent org's primary purpose is not educational. 'Figma for Education is only available in select regions and may not be accessible everywhere' (no published country list).
How to claim
1) Have/switch Figma account to a school-issued email; sign up selecting School > role (Student/Educator) > institution type (High school / Higher Education / Bootcamp or online course). 2) 'Verify your status' under the Professional plan card at Figma.com/education/apply — high school: agree to terms and submit; higher ed: complete SheerID form; bootcamp: admin applies on your behalf. 3) A free Education team is created. K-12 districts / under-13 use instead: school contacts Figma and signs school terms (apply at /education/k-12/#contact).
Expiry
Per official validity table: high-school students 1 year; high-school educators 2 years; higher-ed students 1 year; higher-ed educators 2 years; bootcamp students 6 months; bootcamp educators 2 years; K-12 set by the domain administrator. Renewal: reapply for education status at term end. On lapse, team members drop to view-only and the team converts to a free Starter team (locked if it holds 4+ files) until re-verification or paid upgrade.
Gotchas
Education status is tied to the verified email — changing the account email revokes it. AI tools/Figma Make/Figma Sites unavailable to K-12 and high-school Education users (higher-ed and bootcamp only); even eligible users lack some AI features (e.g., visual search in editor). 3,000 AI credits/month is a hard per-person cap with no top-up on Education — hitting it blocks credit-based AI features until monthly reset. UK/Japan note: Figma may only be used by students above the age of consent; younger students require the district process. Data hosted on US servers; only email + name collected. Bootcamp educators stay free 2 years while students only 6 months.
Figma for Education: free Enterprise plan for K-12 districts (under-13 path) high confidence
K-12 districts 'qualify for free access to the Enterprise tier' — the most premium plan: custom team workspaces, design system theming and APIs, SCIM seat management, enterprise-level security. Provided at no cost via school-signed terms, replacing paid Enterprise (listed at $90/mo Full seat for commercial customers).
Eligibility
K-12 schools/districts intending to use Figma with students under 13; the school must be the applicant — individual self-serve not available. In UK and Japan, Figma 'may only be used by students above the age of consent', so under-13 use there requires this district route.
How to claim
School/district contacts Figma and signs the terms for schools; started via the form linked at /education/k-12/#contact ('Apply for K-12 program'). Domain administrator then manages the K-12 education status. Optional supports: bi-weekly free live training sessions and free on-site PD sessions for schools.
Expiry
K-12 education status duration is 'set by the domain administrator' — institution-controlled, not a fixed consumer term.
Gotchas
Not self-serve; K-12 users do NOT get AI tools, Figma Make, or Figma Sites (higher-ed/bootcamp only). The Education FAQ answers COPPA/FERPA/GDPR compliance by restating the age gate and school-signature process rather than a flat 'yes' per jurisdiction — compliance review needed for districts. US data residency; Figma deletes personal data within 30 days of request; Google Workspace/Microsoft Education SSO and classroom integration (FigJam Classroom add-on) available for managed rollouts.
Figma for Startups program — DISCONTINUED; no live offer as of 2026-10-22 high confidence
The dedicated startup program (historically: free Organization plan for 24 months for VC-backed/accelerator-referred startups, or '$1,000 in Figma credits' per aggregator listings; one listing described 'up to 100% off Professional for 1 year, or 50% off for 6 months, new customers that raised under $10M') no longer exists on Figma-owned surfaces. figma.com/startups returns HTTP 404 (verified by direct fetch on 2026-10-22); no application form, no help-center article, and no startup mention in the pricing pages or pricing FAQ. Third-party trackers confirm: 'We could not verify this program on any Figma-owned page as of September 13, 2026' and 'No. Figma has no startup program: figma.com/startups is a 404, and Figma points everyone to its free Starter plan' (checked 2026-10-14).
Eligibility
None currently. Historical eligibility (per aggregators, now stale): VC-backed or accelerator-affiliated startup, referral by an approved Figma startup partner, new Organization-customer, Series A or below, <50 employees, raised under ~$10M. Note: early-stage startups are explicitly excluded from the Education plan ('Figma does not provide free Education teams for: Early stage Startups').
How to claim
No active claim path. Startups' only official free route is the unlimited free Starter plan. Accelerator/VC perk books may still republish the old offer, but no working application link exists on Figma-owned domains as of today.
Expiry
N/A — program discontinued; figma.com/startups 404 as of 2026-09-13 and re-verified 2026-10-22.
Gotchas
Aggregator sites (foundery.space, creditforstartups.com, startupintros.com, startup-perks.com) still list 'Figma for Startups' as Active with old terms — those listings are stale, not evidence the offer exists; always confirm on figma.com. Figma discounts do not stack — historically the largest single qualified discount applied. No nonprofit discount of any kind (FAQ: 'We do not have any discounts for non-profits'), so aggregator claims of '40-80% off nonprofit' are also stale.
Figma for Startups: sunset/paused — figma.com/startups 404, no application form, no help-center article, confirmed unverified by multiple independent trackers Sept-Oct 2026; the program previously offered ~24 months of the free Organization plan (or ~$1,000 in credits) for VC/accelerator-referred startups and should not be counted as a live offer. Related 2025 sunset: Figma's affiliate program was deprecated in early 2025 (no new applications). Material 2025-2026 changes: paid plan pricing and seat structure changed (now Full/Dev/Collab seats: Professional $16/$12/$3 per month per seat, Organization $55/$25/$5, Enterprise $90/$35/$5 annual billing; Professional was ~$18/editor and Organization ~$35 pre-restructure) — do not quote old per-editor prices. AI credits are now built into every plan/seat (Starter 500/mo with 150/day cap; Pro Full 3,000/mo; Org Full 3,500/mo; Enterprise Full 4,250/mo; all other seats 500/mo) and Figma explicitly states there are no free trials of paid plans and no nonprofit discounts. New products included in seats (Figma Make, Motion, Sites, Buzz, Specs) are beta on paid seats. The Education program itself is live and current: free Professional for 13+ verified students/educators, free Enterprise for K-12 districts, 3,000 AI credits/month for higher-ed and bootcamp education seats, with 1-year (students) / 2-year (educators) / 6-month (bootcamp students) validity terms.