Best offer on record: GitHub Copilot Free (perpetual free tier, no credit card). 122 verified findings, checked 2026-10-22.
Live check of “GitHub for Startups program — $10,000 credits (education/startup front: startup program)”:Confirmed
GitHub for Startups offers "Eligible startups receive $10,000 in GitHub credits," usable across GitHub Enterprise licenses and eligible add-ons (Copilot, Advanced Security, Actions) for up to 12 months from approval. Eligibility: affiliation with an approved GitHub for Startups partner, outside funding up to Series B or earlier, new to GitHub Enterprise (no Enterprise plan in the past six months), no prior GitHub credits or Enterprise licenses, Enterprise Cloud on GitHub.com only, one-time redemption; approval typically takes 2-3 business days. The program is still active with no deadline or closure notice as of 2026-10-22 — the page's "discontinued" note refers only to the earlier free-seat startup offer, not this $10,000 credits program.
Live check of “GitHub for Startups (startup program) — $10,000 Enterprise credits”:Confirmed
GitHub for Startups offers $10,000 in GitHub credits, valid for up to 12 months from approval, applied to the startup's GitHub Enterprise account and usable across Enterprise licenses, Copilot, Advanced Security, Actions and other metered products. Eligibility requires affiliation with a GitHub for Startups partner, outside funding up to Series B or earlier, and being new to GitHub Enterprise (not on an Enterprise plan in the past six months, no prior GitHub credits or Enterprise licenses); the program is open to new applicants as of 2026-10-22.
GitHub Copilot Free (perpetual free tier, no credit card) high confidence
$0/month, no subscription or payment/credit card required. Includes up to 2,000 code completions/month, a (not numerically disclosed) allowance of GitHub AI Credits (1 AI credit = $0.01 USD), limited chat and agent usage via auto model selection only, Copilot CLI and the Copilot app. Under the legacy request-based system this was 50 premium requests/month; after the 2026-06-01 migration to AI-credit usage billing GitHub does not publish a fixed credit figure for the Free plan. Not available to users whose account is managed by an org/enterprise; personal use only. Never expires; limits reset monthly.
Eligibility
Any individual with a GitHub account not managed by an organization/enterprise and without an existing Copilot paid/Student/teacher/maintainer plan. No email domain, age, or region criteria stated. No credit card required. Region-limited only where Copilot is unavailable (standard Copilot availability restrictions apply).
How to claim
Sign up directly in VS Code/Visual Studio ('Sign up for Copilot Free'), via github.com/settings/copilot ('Start using Copilot Free'), or chat at github.com/copilot. No verification steps.
Expiry
Perpetual; monthly caps reset. Free/Student/teacher plans are reevaluated only where verification applies (Free has no verification, so no expiry).
Gotchas
Auto model selection only — no manual model picker, entry-level models only. Hitting the cap prompts an upgrade to Pro ($10). If you later join an org that assigns Copilot, Free access is lost. No code review, cloud agent, app modernization, or third-party agent delegation included. 'Unlimited completions' applies only to paid plans; Free caps at 2,000.
GitHub Copilot Student (free education license for verified students) high confidence
Free for students verified through GitHub Education: unlimited code completions and next-edit suggestions (completions never consume credits), plus a monthly GitHub AI Credits allowance — community-reported at 200 credits/month (~$2.00 of agent/chat usage) since the 2026-06-01 credit-based billing; GitHub does not publish a single official dollar figure for students, so verify in your plan's usage display. Limited chat/agent usage, auto model selection only. Since 2026-03-12 students are on a dedicated 'Copilot Student plan' (UI shows it alongside GitHub Education benefits); premium models incl. GPT-5.4, Claude Opus and Sonnet are no longer self-selectable (GPT-5.3-Codex removed from the picker 2026-04-27); access to OpenAI/Anthropic/Google models continues via Auto routing. Eligibility is reevaluated monthly by GitHub.
Eligibility
Students aged 13+ enrolled in a degree- or diploma-granting course at an accredited institution. Verification is via school-issued email and/or official, dated proof of enrollment (no strict .edu requirement, but .edu helps). No credit card required. Global program (thousands of universities). Not available to managed org accounts.
How to claim
Apply at github.com/settings/education/benefits ('Start an application', complete verification — school email/proof). Once verified, under 'Free GitHub developer resources for students and teachers' click Learn more and activate Copilot Student (or github.com/github-copilot/free_signup). Activation can lag verification by a few days; do not complete a paid checkout while waiting.
Expiry
Persists while academic verification remains valid; GitHub reevaluates eligibility every month — access is withdrawn when no longer enrolled/verified. Model/limit adjustments are being rolled out in stages (GitHub said more model/limit changes would follow the 2026-03 transition).
Gotchas
Credit allowance (~200 credits / ~$2) is small: agent-mode sessions with newer models can exhaust it in one day (community reports of 4-20 agent requests using the full allocation post-June 2026). Auto model selection only, no manual picker. No third-party agents, code review, or cloud agent included. ~2M students use the program; GitHub is actively trimming it for sustainability.
GitHub Copilot Pro free for verified teachers and open-source maintainers (education/OSS license) high confidence
Full Copilot Pro at $0: unlimited completions, model selection, chat/agent/CLI, code review and cloud agent, and a $15/month AI-credit allowance (Base 1,000 + Flex 500 = 1,500 AI credits, 1 credit = $0.01). Two qualifying paths: (1) verified teacher on GitHub Education, (2) maintainer of a popular open-source repository (eligibility is determined by GitHub; objective repo thresholds are not publicly published — GitHub directs you to Copilot settings to see if you qualify).
Eligibility
Teachers: faculty at an accredited educational institution, verified via GitHub Education. OSS maintainers: maintainers of 'popular' open-source repos as judged by GitHub's criteria. Eligibility reevaluated monthly by GitHub.
How to claim
Teachers: apply/verify at github.com/settings/education/benefits, then activate in Copilot settings ('Get access to GitHub Copilot'). Maintainers: open Copilot settings; if eligible, a 'GitHub Copilot Pro' eligibility page appears — click Get access and save use policies. No payment info required for the free grant.
Expiry
While eligibility holds (monthly reevaluation). Note: if you are granted this free access you cannot cancel the plan — only losing eligibility ends it.
Gotchas
'Popular' OSS-maintainer criteria are opaque; if you don't see the offer you likely don't qualify. Free access is personal, not shareable to the team. If you later join an organization that assigns Copilot seats, the free grant may be displaced.
GitHub Education / Student Developer Pack benefits bundled with Copilot Student high confidence
Verified students also get a free GitHub Pro account (unlimited private repos with advanced collaboration), 3,000 GitHub Actions minutes/month, up to 180 GitHub Codespaces core hours/month (plus ~20 GB Codespaces storage), 2 GB GitHub Packages storage, and the Student Developer Pack (dozens of third-party partner offers for professional dev tools). These are GitHub's education-license companions to Copilot Student; the Copilot benefit is claimed from the same GitHub Education portal.
Eligibility
Students aged 13+ enrolled in a degree- or diploma-granting program at an accredited institution; apply with school-issued email and/or official dated proof of enrollment. Check first whether your school is a GitHub Campus Program partner (in that case benefits may be pre-arranged). No credit card required.
How to claim
Apply via education.github.com / github.com/settings/education/benefits, complete verification, then claim offers under 'Free GitHub developer resources for students and teachers' in that portal.
Expiry
Tied to active student verification (reevaluated monthly). Codespaces hours/Actions minutes reset monthly; unclaimed Codespaces hours are lost, not banked.
Gotchas
Actions minutes and Codespaces hours are per-month allowances that reset — no rollover. Usage in class/teacher-owned repos bills the owning org instead. 180 core-hours figure is what the docs state ('up to 180 core hours'); exact storage figures come from the marketing page.
Trial credits / startup program: none GitHub-side for Copilot medium confidence
No time-limited free trial of paid Copilot plans is offered on the current plans page (the $0 Free plan is the entry point, not a trial), and GitHub does not run a GitHub Copilot startup program, startup credit pool, or funded 'Copilot for startups' offer. The nearest adjacent program is Microsoft's Cloud Startups initiative (Azure credits for eligible startups; GitHub is a Microsoft company, but Copilot Free/Student/Pro are not part of it and no Copilot-specific startup benefit was found). Confirmed by absence across the official plans, docs, and education pages reviewed today; web-search budget was exhausted before independently verifying Microsoft Cloud Startups terms.
Eligibility
n/a — no GitHub Copilot startup offer exists to claim.
How to claim
n/a.
Expiry
n/a.
Gotchas
Do not expect 'startup credit' or 'Copilot Pro trial' offers that third-party activation/activation-marketplace sites advertise (e.g., shared-account 'Copilot activation' services) — those are unofficial and violate ToS. The free path is strictly Free plan, verified-student plan, or teacher/OSS-maintainer Pro.
Free GitHub Pro while verified as a student: 3,000 GitHub Actions min/month, 180 Codespaces core-hrs/month, 2GB GitHub Packages, 20GB Codespaces storage. Core of the pack; most-featured benefit.
Eligibility
GitHub account owned by a student verified through GitHub Education (school/.edu email or enrollment proof). Must be enrolled; benefits renew while student status is maintained.
How to claim
1) Create a GitHub account owned by the student. 2) Verify as a student at education.github.com (school email or enrollment docs). 3) Pro benefits are applied automatically to the account once verified; manage via the pack page.
Expiry
Continuous while verified; re-verify as enrollment changes. Not a fixed trial.
Gotchas
Actions minutes beyond 3,000/mo are billable; Codespaces overage beyond 180 core-hrs incurs charges. Benefits lapse if student verification lapses.
Copilot Student plan included free: unlimited code completions, an allowance of GitHub AI Credits for chat/agent/CLI/Spaces, and limited chat/agent usage restricted to auto model selection. More generous than the base Copilot Free tier (which is 2,000 completions/mo + a limited AI-credit allowance, 1 credit = $0.01, models incl. Haiku 4.5 / GPT-5 mini, no CC required).
Eligibility
Verified student via GitHub Education (the pack). Student plan is a dedicated tier; verified students link to the student offer from the copilot features page.
How to claim
1) Verify student status in GitHub Education. 2) Activate the Copilot Student plan from the pack / Copilot page. 3) Use in editor, CLI, web, or Claude Code/agents.
Expiry
Tied to student/enrollment status; renews while verified.
Gotchas
Student plan chat/agent is capped and limited to auto model selection (vs. Pro/Pro+ choice). 2026: from ~Apr 24 GitHub may use Free/Pro/Pro+ interaction data for model training unless you opt out; from Jun 1, 2026 code-review workflows start consuming Actions minutes.
Microsoft Azure for Students (18+) high confidence
$100 Azure credit usable within 12 months, plus free monthly amounts of 20+ popular services for 12 months (new customers), plus 65+ always-free services. (Live page today shows a single flat student tier, not the older 'monthly $-credit' structure some sources still cite.)
Eligibility
Full-time university students 18+; sign up with a school email; renew yearly while enrolled; no credit card required; one account per person.
How to claim
1) From the pack, open the Azure for Students claim link. 2) Sign up with school email. 3) Receive $100 credit + free monthly service amounts; renew yearly.
Expiry
$100 credit valid 12 months; free monthly amounts for 12 months; renew while a student.
Gotchas
Beyond free amounts and the $100 credit, metered/egress charges apply. Region availability varies. Always-free tiers have their own caps (e.g. 750 B1 hrs, 32GB storage).
Microsoft Azure for Students (ages 13-17) medium confidence
For students aged 13-17: free access to a subset of Azure services (App Services, Functions, Notification Hubs, MySQL in-app, Application Insights, Azure DevOps). No credit card required.
Eligibility
Students aged 13-17 via GitHub Education; separate tier from the 18+ offer.
How to claim
Claim through the pack's 13-17 Azure link; no CC.
Expiry
Continuous while enrolled in the 13-17 tier.
Gotchas
Service subset only; not the full 18+ catalog; no $ credit tier for this age band.
Azure for Startups (startup offer, not in SDC pack) high confidence
For the 'Startup' front: $1,000 Azure credits instantly with no application, and up to $5,000 total credits after business verification. Initial credits valid 90 days; post-verification credits valid 180 days.
Eligibility
Early-stage startup (business), NOT the student program; separate from the GitHub Student Developer Pack. Business verification required for the larger tier.
How to claim
Apply at Azure for Startups; instant $1,000 tier, then complete business verification for up to $5,000.
Expiry
$1,000 credits 90 days; up-to-$5,000 credits 180 days post-verification.
Gotchas
Not available to the SDC student pack; it is a distinct startup program with its own criteria and verification.
$13 USD/month for 24 months (Heroku platform subscription discount).
Eligibility
Verified student via the pack; valid payment/claim method required by Heroku.
How to claim
Claim through the pack's Heroku link; create Heroku account and apply the 24-month offer.
Expiry
24 months. A 24-month committed/discounted subscription, not free-forever.
Gotchas
This is a 24-month discounted subscription that can auto-continue past 24 months unless cancelled - read renewal terms. Add-ons and extra resources are billed separately.
Verified student via the pack (or directly at JetBrains with .edu email / school email + student status).
How to claim
1) Verify student status. 2) Claim via JetBrains (pack link) or jetbrains.com/student using school email. 3) Install IDE and sign in with the student license.
Expiry
Annual; renew each year while a student.
Gotchas
Student licenses are for learning, not commercial production work; re-verify each year; some enterprise features excluded.
Free Team plan while a student: unlimited members/projects, 30-day version history, unlimited basic machines up to 5GB RAM / 2 vCPU, premium integrations.
Eligibility
Verified student via the pack.
How to claim
Claim through the pack's Deepnote link.
Expiry
While a student.
Gotchas
Basic machines capped at 5GB/2vCPU; GPU/larger compute and storage beyond free limits can incur charges.
GitHub Pages free hosting tier (GitHub Free plan) high confidence
$0/mo flat-free hosting, no credit card required. Limits: up to 1 user or organization site per account plus unlimited project sites; recommended source-repo limit 1 GB; published site size capped at 1 GB; soft bandwidth limit of 100 GB/month; soft build limit of 10 builds/hour (this cap is waived when you build/publish via a custom GitHub Actions workflow); deployments time out after 10 minutes. Sites that hit rate limits return HTTP 429. Custom domains and HTTPS are supported at no cost. Pages on public repos is available on GitHub Free; hosting Pages for private repos requires GitHub Pro/Team/Enterprise (or the free student tier).
Eligibility
Any personal or organization GitHub account. GitHub Free is $0 with no credit card. Public Pages sites work on GitHub Free (public repos). Private-repo Pages requires GitHub Pro/Team/Enterprise (paid plans) OR free GitHub Education student status. No founding-age, funding, or geographic restriction on the free tier.
How to claim
1) Create a free GitHub account (no card). 2) For a user/org site name the repo <user>.github.io or <org>.github.io; for project sites use any project repo. 3) Add an entry file at the source root (index.html / index.md / README.md). 4) In repo Settings > Pages, choose the publishing source (branch/folder or a custom Actions workflow). 5) Click 'Visit site' to see the live deployment; add a custom domain + HTTPS under Pages settings if needed.
Expiry
Indefinite: part of the free GitHub plan; no expiry while the account/plan stay active. GitHub can change limits at any time without notice; no 2025-2026 sunset of the free tier observed.
Gotchas
1 GB site size and 100 GB/mo bandwidth are SOFT limits, not hard caps: exceeding them can cause the site to stop being served or trigger an email asking you to reduce server impact. 10 builds/hour is a soft cap and 10 min is a build timeout. No separate egress/data-egress charge on the free plan beyond the soft bandwidth cap. On GitHub Free, the repo hosting the Pages site must be public; private Pages pushes you to a paid plan unless you have free student status.
GitHub Education / Student Developer Pack (education license) high confidence
Verified students get GitHub Pro FREE (unlimited private repos with advanced collaboration tools), free GitHub Pages hosting (incl. for private repos), GitHub Copilot Student (free access to Copilot and its premium features), GitHub Codespaces up to 180 core hours/month with Pro-equivalent storage (~20 GB Codespaces storage and ~2 GB Packages storage), ~3,000 GitHub Actions minutes/month, and roughly 80 third-party 'Student Developer Pack' partner offers (e.g., a free domain, ~$100 Azure credit, JetBrains, 1Password). Student validation lasts 2 years.
Eligibility
13 years or older; enrolled in a degree- or diploma-granting program (high school, college, university, or homeschool; bootcamps qualify only if part of GitHub's Campus Program). Requires a personal GitHub account. Verify with a school-issued email OR dated proof of enrollment (school ID photo, class schedule, transcript, or affiliation/enrollment letter showing a date and current status) — a .edu email is NOT strictly required. No credit card required. No GitHub-imposed regional cap, though individual third-party partners may add their own age/region limits. Teachers/faculty/staff get free/discounted GitHub but are NOT eligible for the Pack.
How to claim
1) Sign in to the personal GitHub account you want benefits on. 2) Add/verify your school email under Settings > Emails (or rely on uploaded enrollment proof if your school issues no email). 3) Make your profile name match your documents. 4) Go to Settings > Education benefits, under 'GitHub Education' click 'Start an application'. 5) Fill the form, select your school, upload dated proof of enrollment, submit. 6) After approval (usually a few days), open the GitHub Education portal / Student Developer Pack page and claim each offer individually. No credit card needed.
Expiry
Student validation lasts 2 years, then must be re-validated. GitHub Pro, Pages, Copilot Student, and Codespaces access continue only while you remain a verified, enrolled student. Each third-party partner offer carries its own terms and duration.
Gotchas
The third-party partner offers (free domain, Azure credits, JetBrains, 1Password, etc.) are the de-facto 'trial credits' — they churn, pause, or are removed at the partner's request (the 2024-10 partner list already removed Netwise, Typeform, and a .Tech email offer). You cannot re-redeem a time-limited offer by re-verifying student status; some partners disallow stacking. Individual partners may impose age/country limits. The 180 Codespaces hours/month are for your personal account; Codespaces usage in GitHub Classroom assignment repos is billed to the classroom org, not you. The free-domain offers are typically time-limited (often 1 year). GitHub Pro/Pages/Copilot/Codespaces access lapses when student status lapses.
Must be referred/affiliated with a GitHub for Startups partner (VC, accelerator, or incubator; any such org can submit a partner application). Must have received outside funding up to Series B or earlier (non-equity credits do not count). Must be NEW to GitHub Enterprise (no Enterprise plan in the prior 6 months and no prior GitHub credits or Enterprise licenses). Enterprise Cloud on github.com only (Enterprise Server and Data Residency excluded). No founding-age cap, no company-size cap, and no geographic restriction stated. A payment method IS required (an authorization charge is expected within weeks of onboarding). One-time offer: previously credited accounts are ineligible.
How to claim
1) Get referred by a VC / accelerator / incubator that is a GitHub for Startups partner (or have that org submit a partner application). 2) Alternatively reach out via the page's 'Contact sales' link. 3) Approval email arrives in ~2-3 business days. 4) Onboard to GitHub Enterprise Cloud on github.com and add a payment method (authorization charge expected). 5) Spend the $10,000 Enterprise credits across Copilot / Advanced Security / Actions (50k min) / Packages within 12 months. This is partner-gated (not open self-signup), requires a payment method, and is a credits grant, not free Pages hosting.
Not a free-forever frontend hosting tier: it is a $10k Enterprise-credits grant. Partner referral is mandatory (not open application). A payment-method authorization charge is required despite the credit coverage. After credits are consumed or 12 months elapse, active products automatically transition to standard paid billing. Downgrading before the credits are exhausted forfeits the remaining credits AND bars reapplication. Enterprise Cloud on github.com only — not Enterprise Server or Data Residency. Funding cap: Series B or earlier. One-time offer only.
GitHub Actions Free plan (available to everyone, incl. students & startups) high confidence
Verified today at docs.github.com/en/billing/concepts/product-billing/github-actions and github.com/pricing. Private repos: 2,000 CI/CD minutes/month and 500 MB artifact storage (pooled with GitHub Packages) on the Free plan; Pro is 3,000 min/1 GB, Team 3,000 min/2 GB, Enterprise Cloud 50,000 min/50 GB; cache 10 GB/repo. Public repos using standard GitHub-hosted runners: minutes are free/unlimited ('GitHub Actions usage is free for self-hosted runners and for public repositories that use standard GitHub-hosted runners'). Self-hosted runners: free. GitHub Pages and Dependabot runs: free. No credit card required for the free tier. Startups: there is no separate startup program — any startup just gets this free tier.
Eligibility
Everyone with a GitHub Free account; no .edu email, no age/region limit (min account age standard). Credit card NOT required.
How to claim
Already active by default on any GitHub Free account — no application needed. Usage is charged to the repo owner/billing account, not the workflow trigger.
Expiry
No expiry; allowance resets monthly. Larger runners and excess usage beyond 2,000 private min are billed per minute (e.g. Linux 2-core $0.006/min, macOS $0.062/min) once you exceed the quota.
Gotchas
Standard-runner public-repo minutes are unlimited; larger/custom runners are always charged even in public repos. Artifact storage is a shared pool with GitHub Packages. Minutes charged to repo owner, so a team/organization shares the 2,000 min per account, not per person. One github.com/pricing rendering I fetched suggested 'Unlimited public repo minutes — Students only; all other users 2,000 min/mo public', which contradicts the docs fetched the same day ('public repositories ... free', no student-only language) — trust the docs and treat public-repo minutes as free for all.
GitHub Education for students (Student Developer Pack): free Copilot, Codespaces hours, free Pro high confidence
Verified today at docs.github.com/en/education/.../about-github-education-for-students, the apply page, the Student Developer Pack T&C page, and github.com/education. After verification: free GitHub Copilot 'Student' tier ('Verified students get free access to Copilot and its premium features'); GitHub Codespaces up to 180 core hours/month for personal accounts; Student Developer Pack with 80+ partner offers (cloud hosting to dev platforms to premium content, 'use professional tools at no cost'); the github.com/pricing education section lists free GitHub Pro for students/educators plus the same Codespaces/Copilot/pack benefits. GitHub Pro duration is not itemized in the current docs (historically 1 year; T&C do not restate it).
Eligibility
Student or faculty at an accredited educational institution, or enrolled in a degree/diploma-granting program (high school, college, university, or homeschool). Proof of enrollment: school ID with current date, class schedule, transcript, or enrollment verification letter. If your institution issues academic emails, you must add and verify one on your GitHub account (i.e. .edu/academic email where applicable; otherwise supply official documentation). Own a personal GitHub account; age 13+. No credit card required.
How to claim
Settings → Education benefits (github.com/education) → 'Start an application' under GitHub Education → fill form (proof of enrollment) → submit; verify academic email first. Check first whether your institution is already a GitHub Campus Program partner. Benefits appear in the Education portal after approval.
Expiry
Student validation lasts 2 years, then revalidation required. Offers cannot be redeemed multiple times (including via new accounts). Third-party partners can change or remove offers at will; GitHub says it will try to notify in advance. Codespaces 180 core hours is a recurring monthly allowance; Pro offer (historically) 1 year.
Gotchas
The current docs 'About' page no longer itemizes free GitHub Pro or Actions minute allowances — only Copilot, Codespaces 180 h, and the pack; free Pro was confirmed from the pricing page's education section, not the docs (medium confidence there). Pack is partner-dependent: offers vary, no stacking of promos, terms are student-vs-partner. Faculty/teachers get a separate track; a school club can get a free GitHub Team with unlimited users + private repos for free.
GitHub Campus Program (education license for schools): free GitHub Enterprise high confidence
Verified today at docs.github.com/en/education/.../about-github-campus-program. Schools get GitHub Enterprise Cloud and GitHub Enterprise Server free of charge, free for one year with automatic annual renewal, 'so long as you continue to operate within the terms of the agreement'. The license bundles 50,000 GitHub Actions minutes and 50 GB GitHub Packages storage. This is the main 'education license' offer — it benefits students at partner schools by making Enterprise tooling available campus-wide.
Eligibility
Any school that grants degrees, diplomas, or certificates. Application must be signed by a school employee with authority to adopt technology school-wide (CTO/CIO, Dean, Department Chair). Internal IT, research groups, and other departments may use the licenses provided they do not profit from them. Students themselves do not apply.
How to claim
Apply through the Campus Program (referenced from the GitHub Education docs; application via the official Campus Program site / GitHub Education Resource Guide). Check institution status on the education docs before any individual student applies.
Expiry
Free for 12 months; auto-renews annually as long as terms are met.
Gotchas
For institutions, not individuals — individual students can't claim it. If your school is already a Campus partner, students at that school should not submit a separate individual application. Enterprise Server deployment implies self-managed infrastructure; no cost but operational burden on the school.
Copilot Free (no-credit-card free tier, all individual users) high confidence
$0 tier: 2,000 completions per month, 'an allowance of GitHub AI Credits' (page says 'Limited chat and agent usage'; no fixed credit number published on the marketing page; 1 AI credit = $0.01 USD). Auto model selection only (as of 2026-06-24 the only model-selection experience on Free/Student); agents 'Limited'; Copilot Chat skills not available; no app modernization, no cloud agent, no code review. New signups remain open even when paid plans were paused. Open to everyone at github.com/sign-up.
Eligibility
Individual developers who do NOT already have Copilot through an organization/enterprise. No credit card required, no trial. No region limit stated on the pages fetched.
How to claim
Sign up for GitHub -> choose Copilot Free (no card). Available from github.com/features/copilot/plans; IDEs/CLI/GitHub mobile included.
Expiry
No expiry; monthly rolling limits. (Free tier itself: none published.)
Gotchas
Marketing page wording: 'No credit card required' appears on the Free card at github.com/features/copilot. Free users are 'limited to 2,000 completions and access to entry level models per month' — entry-level model access despite the full model list being shown in the table. If you have an org-provisioned Copilot you can't use Free on the same account.
Copilot Student (free plan for verified students via GitHub Education) high confidence
Dedicated free 'Copilot Student' plan (introduced 2026-03-12/13, replacing the old 'free Copilot Pro for students' benefit): unlimited code completions + 200 monthly included GitHub AI credits (credit allowance added 2026-06-01) + agent mode; auto model selection ONLY (manual premium model choice removed; auto routes across OpenAI/Anthropic/Google 'subject to plan restrictions'; GPT-5.3-Codex dropped from picker 2026-04-27; (Preview) labels retired 2026-06-24). Excludes third-party agents. Replaces the old free-access entitlement that had unlimited premium models.
Eligibility
Verified student in GitHub Education (accredited school; school-issued email and/or official dated proof of enrollment; Student Pack age floor is 13+ per education page). GitHub reevaluates eligibility every MONTH. No credit card. New Student signups were paused 2026-04-20 and reopened from ~2026-06-16/17; as of 2026-10-22 signups are open.
How to claim
github.com/settings/education/benefits -> apply as student; after approval, 'Free GitHub developer resources for students and teachers' -> Learn more -> activate Copilot Student (activation can lag verification by days; direct URL github.com/github-copilot/free_signup). No action was needed for existing students at the 2026-03 transition.
'200 monthly AI credits' figure comes from the official community discussion of the transition, not a docs table — medium confidence on that number specifically. Monthly re-verification means losing eligibility (graduation) drops the benefit; the plan is not a paid subscription, so 'free plan runs out the moment you graduate'. Existing premium-request-unit (PRU) entitlements for pre-existing students were kept at transition. Student tier no longer includes premium-model manual selection — the biggest 2025->2026 change.
Copilot Pro free for verified teachers/educators high confidence
GitHub Copilot Pro (normally $10/mo; 1,000 base + 500 flex = 1,500 AI credits/mo on the $10 price; base-credit pool quoted on marketing page as $15/mo worth) is free for verified educators. Also free: GitHub Teams account (unlimited private repos) for teachers.
Eligibility
Currently employed educator at an accredited educational institution. Verification requires an official institutional email plus supplementary proof (faculty ID or employment verification letter). No credit card mentioned anywhere on the page. No region limit stated.
How to claim
Apply via the GitHub Education for Teachers portal (github.com/settings/education/benefits). If rejected: ensure clear academic email + employment documentation, update info and reapply. Copilot Pro then appears as the included plan.
Expiry
Tied to ongoing educator verification (GitHub reevaluates education eligibility monthly); no published sunset date.
Gotchas
Teacher verification is document-based, not just .edu-email. Docs (plans page) phrase it as 'Verified teachers... may be eligible for free access to Copilot Pro' — a benefit, not a guaranteed signup. Pro signups were briefly paused (2026-04-20 to ~2026-06-16) during the billing restructure; free-for-teachers activation follows the same plan plumbing. Opus models were removed from Pro (2026-04-20) even in the free-teacher grant.
Copilot Pro free for maintainers of popular open-source projects medium confidence
GitHub's open-source benefits: 'Copilot Pro is free for open source maintainers of popular projects and verified students'; GitHub cites 280,000+ maintainers with program access. Free Pro = 1,000 base + 500 flex = 1,500 AI credits/mo (paid-plan equivalent; $15/mo worth base pool on marketing page).
Eligibility
Maintainer of a 'popular' project — the current pages do NOT document the popularity threshold (no stars/followers number published on github.com/open-source or the plans docs page; historically tied to project popularity, e.g. high star/follower counts). Claim is through the normal Copilot sign-up, where eligible accounts get Pro instead of paid checkout.
How to claim
Sign up via github.com/features/copilot ('Sign-up for Copilot' CTA from the open-source page); eligible maintainers' accounts receive Pro-tier access; users who get Pro 'through... an existing verified OSS, student, faculty, or MVP account may elect to use Free instead' (features/copilot FAQ).
Expiry
No published expiry; tied to maintaining a popular project; not monthly like student status per pages fetched (unverified).
Gotchas
Exact 'popular project' criteria are not documented on any page fetched today — verify case-by-case at signup; don't claim a specific star threshold as fact. Benefit is not a paid subscription, but Pro plan mechanics (model restrictions, e.g. Opus removed from Pro 2026-04-20) apply. Pro signups were paused 2026-04-20 to ~2026-06-16.
GitHub for Startups program ($10,000 GitHub Enterprise Cloud credits, incl. Copilot) high confidence
Eligible startups receive $10,000 in GitHub credits applied to their Enterprise Cloud account, valid up to 12 months (expire on full consumption or 12-month end, whichever first). Credits cover Enterprise licenses, Copilot licenses/premium models/agentic capabilities, Advanced Security, Actions, and other metered offerings; includes 50k included Actions minutes under Enterprise tier. The page notes a PREVIOUS startup offer has been discontinued and is no longer available.
Eligibility
Must be tied to an approved partner (VC, accelerator, incubator); received outside funding 'up to Series B or earlier' (stage cap, non-equity credits don't count as funding); NEW to GitHub Enterprise — not on an Enterprise plan within the past 6 months and no prior credits/licenses; GitHub.com Enterprise Cloud only (no Enterprise Server/Data Residency). Pages fetched state NO founding-age cap, no dollar funding ceiling, and no geographic restriction.
How to claim
1) Get referred/apply through a GitHub for Startups partner (partner directory + partner-application form on the page). 2) Submit the Enterprise application; applicant's primary email gets a reply within 2-3 business days. 3) Complete onboarding INCLUDING adding a payment method. A valid payment method (credit card) IS required — 'Failure to have an authorization... will result in your account being locked.'
Expiry
Credits: 12 months or full consumption; program: no end date published.
Gotchas
Payment method required (unlike all the offers above). One-time redemption; after credits expire/12 months, products 'automatically transition to standard paid billing'; violations can have credits revoked. No specific seat counts/Codespaces hours published on the page — the old 'X free seats' style offer was discontinued. Partner-gated: you cannot self-serve without a partner referral.
GitHub Codespaces Free plan (all users) high confidence
Personal Free accounts include 120 core-hours of codespace compute + 15 GB of codespace storage per month (renew each billing cycle). A 2-vCPU codespace burns 2 core-hours per active hour, so 120 core-hours = 60 hours on 2 cores, 30 hours on 4 cores ($0.36/hr), 15 hours on 8 cores ($0.72/hr). 16/32-core sizes cost $1.44/$2.88 per hour. Storage overage: $0.07/GB-month; compute overage only if you add a payment method and raise the spend limit. Free accounts (github.com/pricing) have a $0 spend limit by default, so no CC is required and charges cannot accrue unless you opt in. No free quota exists for organization/enterprise accounts on the Free plan.
Eligibility
Any GitHub account on the Free plan (personal accounts only; 'GitHub Free for organizations' includes none). No credit card, no verification.
How to claim
Create a free GitHub account; codespaces work immediately in a web/VS Code session. Check usage at github.com/settings/billing (Codespaces section) or github.com/codespaces. No application or enrollment needed.
Expiry
Quota renews automatically each monthly billing cycle (based on personal billing day). No sunset of the free tier announced as of 2026-10-22.
Gotchas
When the 120 core-hours or 15 GB run out, creating/opening new codespaces is blocked unless you add a payment method and set a budget. Storage accumulation is cumulative within the cycle: deleting codespaces does not claw back current-month storage. Stopped codespaces auto-delete after ~30-day retention but count toward storage until then; prebuilds are disabled once storage is exhausted. Dev containers using default images do not count toward storage. Orgs on the Free plan have 0 included core-hours — a common trap.
GitHub Free for students (free Pro via Student Developer Pack) — 180 core-hours + 20 GB medium confidence
Verified students get GitHub Pro free for the duration of their student status, which carries Pro-level Codespaces: 180 core-hours/month + 20 GB codespace storage (the Pro included-quota values read today from the Codespaces billing docs; students map to Pro, not a separate student codespace quota). Also included at no cost: full GitHub Pro plan, GitHub Copilot for students ('unlimited code completions + GitHub AI credits, limited chat/agent, auto model selection'), GitHub Pages limits, plus third-party partners (Azure $100 credit, JetBrains, Datadog, 1Password, etc.).
Eligibility
Enrolled students; verification through GitHub Education (education.github.com/pack). Typically a school-issued email (.edu or equivalent) or proof of enrollment; school/issuer photo ID may be used. No credit card required. No stated region limit. Teachers: verified academic faculty get GitHub Team free for teaching/research (separate offer, see sunset notes for plan-table changes).
How to claim
Sign in at education.github.com/pack -> verify student status with school email/ID -> pack benefits apply automatically account-wide (Pro plan + Codespaces Pro quota). No separate codespaces enrollment.
Expiry
Lasts 'while you are a student' (pack states the Pro benefit persists during enrollment; re-verification happens when status changes, effectively each school year). Included codespace quota resets monthly with the billing cycle.
Gotchas
The old dedicated 'Free for students' codespace tier (120 core-hours/15GB distinct from Pro) is no longer documented — students now receive Pro's 180 core-hours/20GB, so the figures are read via the Pro row. Pro included usage does not cover metered add-ons (Copilot usage, GHAS, etc.) — plan discounts don't apply to usage-based billing. Copilot student tier is 'limited' chat/agent — agent-heavy use exhausts quickly. Pack partner offers (Azure, Datadog) are trial/credit-based, not perpetual.
GitHub for Startups program — $10,000 credits (education/startup front: startup program) high confidence
Current startup offer (verified on github.com/enterprise/startups today): eligible startups get $10,000 in GitHub Enterprise platform credits usable across Enterprise, Copilot, Advanced Security, Actions (50,000 included Action minutes) and other metered add-ons (i.e. codespaces compute billed to the Enterprise org) for up to 12 months. Includes onboarding/office hours. This is a credits program on Enterprise Cloud, not a free codespaces tier for startups.
Eligibility
Company must have outside funding up to Series B or earlier (non-equity credits excluded); must be new to GitHub Enterprise (no Enterprise plan in prior 6 months and never received GitHub credits or Enterprise licenses); must apply through an approved partner (VC, accelerator, or incubator); GitHub Enterprise Cloud on github.com only (no Enterprise Server/Data Residency); one-time redemption.
How to claim
Go via a partner: browse github.com/enterprise/startups/partners (or the partner you are affiliated with applies on your behalf). Ineligible companies get a free Enterprise trial instead (github.com/get_started?with=enterprise). Support: ticket under 'Credit Offers - GitHub for Startups'.
Expiry
Credits valid for up to 12 months from approval or until fully consumed, whichever comes first; single redemption, no re-entry after a prior redemption.
Gotchas
A card authorization charge hits your payment method within weeks of onboarding (a failed charge locks the account) — so unlike the free tiers, this program effectively requires a payment method. Downgrading before credits are consumed forfeits the balance and bars re-application. All program/billing notices go to the primary account email. No free Pro/Team plan for startups is offered anymore — value is credit-based only.
GitHub Team free for verified academic faculty (education license) medium confidence
Verified academic faculty can apply for GitHub Team free 'for teaching or academic research' — unlimited private repos and unlimited collaborators, per the discounted-plans docs. Team is a metered/usage-based plan, so faculty-driven codespaces on Team are usage-billed (no free core-hours included), making this more an IDE/CI license than a codespaces offer.
Eligibility
Verified academic faculty (school-affiliated accounts via GitHub Education); institutions/nonprofits route through the education/nonprofit portals.
How to claim
Apply through the GitHub Education benefits/verification flow (linked from docs.github.com/en/billing/concepts/discounted-plans); faculty Team grant is account-level, no CC required on the free grant itself.
Expiry
Tied to active academic status (school year / employment).
Gotchas
No codespaces core-hour allocation with the free Team grant — codespaces usage bills against usage-based billing; nonprofit/library variant is free Team or 25% off Enterprise Cloud via nonprofits.github.com.
Free GitHub Pro plan (core student benefit) high confidence
The full personal GitHub Pro plan is free for the duration of student status. Current official limits per docs.github.com product-usage reference (fetched 2026-10-22): 3,000 GitHub Actions minutes/month, 180 GitHub Codespaces core hours/month + 20 GB Codespaces storage, 10 GB Git LFS, unlimited private repos, and Pro security/advanced features. No credit card required. NOTE: older 2024-25 materials state 5,000 Actions minutes and 50 GB Codespaces storage; those no longer match the current docs.
Eligibility
GitHub personal account + verified student status: enrolled in a degree-/diploma-granting program (high school, college, university, or homeschool), minimum age 13, proof of enrollment (school ID with current date, class schedule, transcript, or enrollment letter). A .edu/academic email is required only at schools where GitHub has detected recent applicants verified via academic email; otherwise documents suffice. Not a one-off trial — recurring benefit tied to student status.
How to claim
Sign in at github.com/settings/education/benefits -> Start a student application -> submit enrollment proof -> on approval the account is switched to Pro and benefits activate automatically.
Expiry
Student validation lasts 2 years, then re-validation is required; access lapses when no longer a verified student. Some sub-benefits (e.g. Copilot) are re-evaluated monthly.
Gotchas
Verify the current Actions figure (docs show 3,000/min, not 5,000). Excess Actions/Codespaces/LFS become metered pay-as-you-go. Teachers/educators are NOT eligible for this (separate teacher benefit). No-credit-card applies to the GitHub-side Pro tier.
GitHub Codespaces (Pro tier, free for students) high confidence
Pro-tier Codespaces included with the free Pro plan: 180 core hours/month and 20 GB storage (vs 120 core hours + 15 GB on the standalone Free plan). 'Core hours' is the post-2025 name for what was called 'premium hours'. Overage billed at compute rates from ~$0.18/hour (2-core) and storage ~$0.07/GB-month.
Eligibility
Same verified-student status as the free Pro plan. No credit card required for the included allowance.
How to claim
Activated automatically with the free Pro plan; create/launch a codespace at github.com > Codespaces. Set a budget/stop-usage limit to avoid overage.
Expiry
Allowance resets monthly; lapses when student status lapses.
Gotchas
Long-running, high-CPU, or large-storage codespaces burn through 180 core hours quickly and then cost real money (compute + egress/storage). '50 GB storage' from older sources is not current (docs show 20 GB).
GitHub Copilot Student plan (free, Pro-equivalent) high confidence
Copilot's premium features free for verified students: unlimited code completions plus a monthly allowance of GitHub AI Credits for chat/agent features and premium models. Pro-equivalent tier = 1,500 AI credits/month (1,000 base + 500 flex; 1 AI credit = $0.01 USD). Verified teachers and popular-OSS maintainers also get free Copilot Pro (same 1,500 credits). No credit card required; GitHub re-evaluates eligibility monthly. Note: 2025 restructure renamed the billing unit from 'premium requests' to 'GitHub AI credits' and added Pro+ ($39, 7,000 cr) and Max ($100, 20,000 cr) tiers; Pro is $10/month if not a student/teacher.
Eligibility
GitHub Education verified student (13+). No CC required. Separate from the general Free Copilot plan (Free = 2,000 completions/month, limited models).
How to claim
github.com/settings/education/benefits -> Copilot 'Learn more' -> enable; do NOT complete a purchase (docs warn 'if only paid options appear, do not complete a purchase').
Expiry
Tied to verified student status; eligibility re-evaluated monthly.
Gotchas
Completions are unlimited but chat/agent usage is capped by AI credits; the exact student-plan credit cap mirrors Pro (1,500) but the plans doc does not print a separate student number, so treat the exact student credit figure as medium-confidence.
GitHub Actions minutes (free, via Pro) high confidence
3,000 GitHub Actions minutes/month included on the free Pro plan (vs 2,000 on the standalone Free plan; 50,000 on Enterprise). Public-repository runs are free/unlimited on Free; private-repo runs draw down the allowance. Overage is metered.
Eligibility
Verified student via free Pro plan. No CC required for included minutes.
How to claim
Included automatically with the free Pro plan; no separate claim.
Expiry
Resets monthly.
Gotchas
Current docs = 3,000 minutes, NOT the 5,000 assumed in the task's 'known so far'. Self-hosted runners have separate usage rules.
GitHub Pages + GitHub Classroom (free) high confidence
GitHub Pages free hosting: one user site per account/org plus unlimited project sites. GitHub Classroom is free for students and for verified teachers/educators to run courses and assignments.
Eligibility
Any GitHub account for Pages; verified student/teacher for Classroom. No CC required.
How to claim
Pages available automatically; create a classroom at classrooms.github.com.
Expiry
Ongoing while account exists.
Gotchas
Pages traffic has fair-use limits and very high bandwidth can be metered/billed.
GitHub Education for teachers (free Team + free Copilot Pro) high confidence
Verified teachers/educators get: free GitHub Team (Teams) plan with unlimited users + private repositories; free GitHub Classroom; free GitHub Copilot Pro (~1,500 AI credits/month); plus a swag bag and access to education events. Teachers/faculty/staff are explicitly NOT eligible for the Student Developer Pack — this is the separate teacher track.
Eligibility
Verified teacher/educator status (in-class instructor or higher-ed faculty/staff). No CC required on the GitHub side.
How to claim
github.com/settings/education/benefits -> apply as a teacher/educator.
Expiry
Tied to educator verification; re-validate periodically. No explicit duration stated on the doc page.
Gotchas
Team plan is org/teaching-scoped; no student-pack partner perks on this track.
Pack eligibility, claiming, and renewal (meta) high confidence
The GitHub Student Developer Pack = 80+ resources (the 2026 catalog lists ~73 partner offers) PLUS the free GitHub Pro tier. Eligibility: enrolled in a degree-/diploma-granting program (high school to university, incl. homeschool), proof of enrollment, personal GitHub account, minimum age 13; some partner offers add their own age limits. Claim at github.com/settings/education/benefits. Student validation lasts 2 years then re-validation. Offers may not be redeemed more than once and partners may not 'stack' with a prior free trial. Third-party terms are between the student and the partner.
Eligibility
.edu/academic email only where GitHub detects recent school-level email verification; otherwise acceptable documents (school ID w/ current date, class schedule, transcript, or enrollment letter). No credit card required for GitHub-side benefits.
How to claim
settings/education/benefits -> Start an application (student) -> complete form -> Submit -> on approval, partner offers appear to claim individually.
Expiry
2-year student validation, then re-verify. Each partner offer has its own duration (from 1 week to 'while a student' to 'free forever').
Gotchas
Cannot re-claim an expired partner offer by making a new account/re-verifying. A partner free trial already used can block the pack version of that offer. Third-party partners can change offers; GitHub has no liability for partner products.
Microsoft Azure for Students (partner) high confidence
In the 2026 pack: 'Microsoft Azure (18+)': $100 Azure credit + 25+ cloud services, while a student, NO credit card. A separate '13-17' tier offers a limited set of Azure services (App Service, Functions, Notification Hubs, MySQL, App Insights, Azure DevOps) with no credit card. Also Microsoft 365 (productivity apps + 1 TB cloud storage) while a student.
Eligibility
Verified student; 18+ for the $100 credit tier, 13-17 tier separate. No CC required.
How to claim
Via the pack partner link (Microsoft/Azure student portal) using your verified GitHub student account.
Expiry
While a student; credit offers carry partner expiry terms.
Gotchas
Some Azure services are region-limited; unused credit can lapse. No-CC applies to the $100 student offer.
Visual Studio Dev Essentials (partner, ~$200 first-month credit) high confidence
1-year offer: VS Community + Pluralsight training + '1 free year of Azure services with $200 credit for the 1st month'. The '$200' figure in older pack versions maps to this Dev Essentials Azure-credit offer (distinct from the $100 'Azure for Students' credit).
Eligibility
Verified student; some elements 18+. No CC required for the credit component.
How to claim
Via the pack partner link (Microsoft Dev Essentials).
Expiry
1 year.
Gotchas
Distinguish the $200 Dev Essentials first-month credit from the $100 'Azure for Students' credit — they are two separate lines in the pack.
Notion Education plan (equivalent to Plus) free while a student, with increased sharing/collaboration, longer page history, and additional AI responses; plus a Notion template collection for CS dashboards/hackathons/portfolios.
Eligibility
Verified student.
How to claim
Via the pack partner link (Notion).
Expiry
While a student.
Gotchas
Student/education plan is distinct from a commercial Notion trial; separate Notion account signup required.
DigitalOcean — no longer in the pack (removed) medium confidence
The task's 'known so far' lists a '$200 DigitalOcean' partner perk, but DigitalOcean does NOT appear among the ~73 partners in the 2026 official pack catalog (education.github.com/pack), and DigitalOcean's own student/academia page (digitalocean.com/community/academia) returns a 404. Treat the DigitalOcean pack perk as removed/sunset as of 2026. DigitalOcean separately runs its own free-trial program (not part of the GitHub pack) which would need independent re-verification.
Eligibility
N/A as a GitHub-pack offer (removed).
How to claim
Not claimable through the GitHub Student Developer Pack as of 2026; verify DigitalOcean's standalone offer directly if a DO credit is required.
Expiry
Removed from the pack.
Gotchas
Assumed $200 figure is stale; confirm current DigitalOcean academic/trial terms on DigitalOcean's own site before relying on them.
GitHub Copilot Free plan (free tier, not student or startup specific) medium confidence
Price $0/month. Code completions capped at 2,000 per month. Chat and agent usage 'Limited' (no numeric cap found on any page read). Agent mode, CLI, MCP and custom instructions included; IDE chat skills not available; third-party agents (Claude by Anthropic, OpenAI Codex) not included. Model access conflicts across official pages: docs.github.com plans page says 'Auto model selection only'; github.com/features/models says 'Access to Haiku 4.5, GPT-5 mini, and more'; github.com/features/copilot/plans lists 34 named models in the Free column while its FAQ says 'entry level models'. Paid tiers are not free and are excluded here.
Eligibility
No student, startup, or verification requirement stated on the pages read. Region limits not stated.
How to claim
Self-serve Free plan listing; enablement steps were not captured in this run.
Expiry
No expiry stated. The 2,000-completion allowance is monthly.
Gotchas
Not an API: the GitHub Models inference API that offered free model calls is retired (see sunset_notes). Verify which models your account can select before relying on any model. 'No credit card required' appears only in the summarized github.com/features/models page; the plans docs say nothing about payment. Completion cap is hard; chat and agent limit undefined.
GitHub Copilot Student (verified students) medium confidence
Tier name 'GitHub Copilot Student' in the Student Developer Pack. Price: free. Includes unlimited code completions, an allowance of 'GitHub AI Credits' (amount not stated), and limited chat and agent usage restricted to auto model selection only. Third-party agents excluded. Also described as 'available for free to verified students, teachers, and open-source maintainers'. Duration, renewal, and expiry not stated on any page read.
Eligibility
Verified students. Pack benefits go to 'verified learners who have approved accounts confirming student status'. The Pack FAQ names 'a school-issued email address and/or official, dated proof of enrollment' (stated for the Pack; Copilot-specific proof not confirmed). .edu domain not stated as a requirement. Teachers and open-source maintainers are listed as eligible on the education page.
How to claim
Get verified through GitHub Education benefits (github.com/settings/education/benefits, linked from 'Get verified' and 'Join GitHub Education'). Copilot-specific steps not listed; the student setup guide was referenced but not fetched.
Expiry
Not stated.
Gotchas
Auto model selection only. 'GitHub AI Credits' amount unknown. Verification proof for Copilot unconfirmed. Card requirement at signup not stated on pages read.
GitHub for Startups credits ($10,000, partner-referred) high confidence
$10,000 in flexible platform credits, usable toward Enterprise license costs and add-ons such as Copilot and Advanced Security. Credits last up to 12 months after approval and end sooner if fully used. Includes onboarding help and office hours. No seat count or standalone free tier listed. Startups that do not qualify can request a trial of Enterprise, Advanced Security, or Copilot (trial length not stated).
Eligibility
Must be tied to an approved partner (VC or accelerator). Outside funding required, 'up to Series B or earlier'; non-equity credits do not count. No Enterprise plan in the past six months and no earlier GitHub credits or Enterprise licenses. Must use Enterprise Cloud hosted on GitHub.com (Server and Data Residency excluded). Startup age, company size, and location not stated.
How to claim
Go through an approved partner listed on the site (investors can join as partners via a separate application). Approval email arrives within 2-3 business days at the primary address. Questions go to support as a ticket in the 'Credit Offers - GitHub for Startups' category.
Expiry
Up to 12 months after approval, ending early if credits run out. Credits are non-transferable and redeemable once. Downgrading early forfeits leftover credits and bars reapplying.
Gotchas
Credits, not a free tier. A valid payment method on file is required (the page does not say 'credit card'). An authorization charge on the payment method arrives a few weeks after onboarding; a missing or failed method locks the account. After credits run out, active products bill to that method automatically. The $10,000 and 12-month figures came from a summarizing fetch of the page; confirm before quoting.
GitHub Copilot Pro free for verified educators, plus free GitHub Teams for teachers medium confidence
Copilot Pro is 'free for verified educators'. A GitHub Teams account is 'free for teachers', with unlimited private repositories. Access duration not stated.
Eligibility
Currently employed educators at an accredited educational institution. Proof of academic employment (faculty ID or employment verification letter) through an institutional or official academic email. Rejections cite insufficient proof or affiliation with a non-degree-granting institution. Teacher-only offer. .edu domain not stated as a requirement.
How to claim
Apply on github.com/education/teachers with proof of academic employment; reapply if rejected ('You may update your information and reapply as needed'). Step-by-step not captured.
Expiry
Not stated; renewal not addressed.
Gotchas
The plans docs say teachers and maintainers 'may be eligible' for Copilot Pro, which is weaker than the teacher page's 'free for verified educators'. Duration and renewal unknown.
GitHub Campus Program (free GitHub Enterprise for accredited schools) medium confidence
Accredited schools get free GitHub Enterprise Cloud or GitHub Enterprise Server ('free access (yes, free!)'). Copilot is not included in the school tier: the FAQ says Copilot is 'not accessed through our educational institutional benefits'. The school tier also omits Copilot Business. Verified learners and teachers can apply individually for free Copilot. Seat limits and terms not captured.
Eligibility
Accredited institutions that grant degrees, diplomas, or certificates. No .edu domain requirement listed on the page.
How to claim
Institution applies through GitHub Education (github.com/education/schools). Application steps not captured.
Expiry
Not stated.
Gotchas
Not an LLM or model-access offer. Copilot excluded at the school level.
Student Developer Pack AI partner credits (Camber, Deepnote) medium confidence
Camber (tagged Machine Learning & AI): free while enrolled, including 40 CPU hours, 5 GPU hours, 50 GB storage, and 50 agent messages per month. Deepnote (tagged Machine Learning & AI): free while a student; no credit amount listed. Notion ('additional AI responses', count not stated) and Microsoft 365 (mentions Copilot, no AI-specific amount) are listed without quantified allowances. The same page lists Azure among non-AI credits; amount not captured.
Eligibility
Verified students in the GitHub Student Developer Pack; partner-specific rules not verified.
How to claim
Verify through the Student Developer Pack (education.github.com/pack), then claim the partner listing. Partner claim steps not captured.
Expiry
Camber and Deepnote: free while enrolled, per the listing. Others not stated.
Gotchas
Partner terms are set by each partner and were not checked on partner pages. The only quantified LLM-style allowance found is Camber's 50 agent messages per month. The Azure credit may matter because GitHub's retirement notice points to Azure AI Foundry; not verified.
Material 2025-2026 changes (all verified from official docs/pages today): (1) 2024-12: Copilot Free launched — 2,000 completions + 50 chat messages/month. (2) 2025-05-05: premium-request metering introduced; Pro 300 PRU/month, Pro+ 1,500, extra PRUs at $0.04 each; billing enforcement began 2025-06-18. (3) 2025-08: Free plan's chat allowance reduced from 200 to 50 premium requests/month. (4) 2026-03-12/13: existing student benefits were migrated to a dedicated 'Copilot Student plan' with auto model selection only; premium models (GPT-5.4, Claude Opus/Sonnet) removed from student self-selection — announced by GitHub Education in community discussion 189268; further model/limit adjustments were flagged as upcoming. (5) 2026-04-27: GPT-5.3-Codex removed from the Student model picker. (6) 2026-06-01: all plans moved to usage-based 'GitHub AI Credits' billing (1 credit = $0.01): Pro $15/1,500 cr, Pro+ $70/7,000 cr, Max $200/20,000 cr; student allowance is community-reported at ~200 credits/month; legacy per-request billing survives only for Pro/Pro+ annual-plan users who opted to stay. Sunset: the 'unlimited chat with premium models' framing of older student coverage is obsolete — the student plan is now credit-capped and auto-routing-only. No free offer was fully discontinued: Free, Student, and teacher/maintainer Pro all remain active as of 2026-10-22.
Verification method / caveats: (1) WebSearch was UNAVAILABLE this session (the session's shared 200-call budget was exhausted), so 2025-2026 change-detection could NOT be done via dedicated searches; findings were verified by WebFetch of the LIVE official pages today: https://education.github.com/pack (all offers above), https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/free/students/ (Azure student + Azure for Startups), and https://github.com/features/copilot (Copilot free/student tiers and 2026 data-train/pricing changes). Confidence: 'high' = cross-verified on the specific official page today (GitHub Pro/Copilot/Codespaces/Pages/Desktop, Azure 18+, Azure for Startups); 'medium' = stated on the official pack page today but not re-verified on the partner's own page (partner terms may have drifted). Nothing was marked 'low'. (2) Observed 2025-2026 changes that are live: Azure for Students is now presented as a single flat tier ($100 credit within 12 months + free monthly amounts of 20+ services for 12 months + 65+ always-free) rather than the older 'monthly $-credit for 12 months' structure still cited in some third-party sources; Copilot pricing now includes a new 'Max' tier (2026 lineup), and from ~Apr 24 GitHub may use Free/Pro/Pro+ interaction data for model training unless you opt out, and from Jun 1, 2026 code-review workflows begin consuming GitHub Actions minutes. (3) No large-scale pack sunset was observed on the live page today - the full partner list is still present; however, individual partner offers (e.g. Travis CI, Heroku, 1Password 2-yr, BrowserStack/LambdaTest) have historically had unstable availability, so a 'medium' confidence partner entry may no longer be live when claimed - re-check the pack page link before relying on any single partner offer. The startup front is covered by Azure for Startups ($1k / up to $5k); GitHub's own startup programs are separate from the student pack and were not part of this provider scope.
2025-2026 material changes verified via changelog/docs: (1) 2026-03-12/13: the legacy free student entitlement (previously 'free Copilot Pro features for verified students') was replaced by a dedicated, deliberately more limited 'Copilot Student' plan — manual premium-model selection removed, auto-only routing; 200 AI credits/month added 2026-06-01; GPT-5.3-Codex dropped from student model picker 2026-04-27; auto-only model selection enforced 2026-06-24. (2) 2026-04-20: new signups for Student/Pro/Pro+/Max PAUSED and usage limits tightened (Opus removed from Pro, Pro+ >5x Pro limits; refund window closed 2026-05-20); signups gradually reopened from 2026-06-16/17 — as of 2026-10-22 open. (3) 'Premium requests' terminology is gone across pages fetched; plans now use GitHub AI Credits (1 credit = $0.01; overage $0.01/credit) after usage-based billing went live 2026-06-01 — so older docs citing e.g. '50 premium requests' on Free are outdated. (4) GitHub for Startups: the previous startup offer was explicitly 'discontinued and is no longer available'; current offer is the $10k Enterprise-cloud credit. (5) No region restrictions found on any fetched page; student offer is global via GitHub Education verification. One caveat: the session's web-search budget was exhausted, so verification relied on WebFetch of official pages; 'popular OSS project' threshold remains undocumented on official pages (medium confidence).
2025-2026 changes observed while verifying (as of 2026-10-22): (1) GitHub's 'Accelerate' marketing page (github.com/enterprise/accelerate) now 404s and github.com/accelerate is just an org profile — the startup program is now branded 'GitHub for Startups' and is credit-based ($10K/12 months) rather than the older free-Team-plan/accelerate structure; I could not re-read the pre-change Accelerate page, so historical free-Pro-for-founders details are not confirmed (low confidence on the prior shape). (2) Billing docs were restructured: docs.github.com/en/billing/concepts/billing-plans-and-billing-limits-for-individuals and the old /billing/managing-billing-for-github-codespaces/pricing-for-codespaces URLs are 404; plan/usage data now lives under /en/billing/concepts/product-billing/* and /en/billing/reference/product-usage-included. (3) The product-usage-included table no longer lists a separate 'Free for students' row — students receive Pro-plan entitlements (180 core-hours/20 GB) instead, which is why student figures come from the Pro row. (4) Student Copilot benefit wording changed to 'unlimited completions + GitHub AI credits + limited chat/agent usage' (the pre-2025 '2,000 completions' framing is gone), and a new partner (Camber: 40 CPU hours, 5 GPU hours, 50 GB storage) joined the pack. No termination of the Free or student codespaces tiers was announced.
MAJOR 2025-2026 RESTRUCTURE OF GITHUB'S FREE ALLOWANCES (current official docs, fetched 2026-10-22, disagree with the task's 'known so far'):- GitHub Pro now lists 3,000 GitHub Actions minutes/month, NOT the 5,000 the task assumed (docs.github.com product-usage reference).- GitHub Codespaces is now 180 core hours + 20 GB storage/month on Pro, NOT '2,000 premium hours / 50 GB'; the term 'premium hours' was renamed to 'core hours' and the free/Pro allowances were reworked (Free plan now 120 core hours + 15 GB).- GitHub Copilot billing changed from 'premium requests' to 'GitHub AI Credits' (1 credit = $0.01) with a 2025 plan restructure: Free / Pro ($10, 1,500 cr: 1,000 base + 500 flex) / Pro+ ($39, 7,000 cr) / Max ($100, 20,000 cr) / Business ($19/seat, 1,900 cr) / Enterprise ($39/seat, 3,900 cr). Students/teachers get Pro-equivalent free.- DigitalOcean's '$200' pack perk is no longer in the official 2026 pack catalog (~73 partners, no DigitalOcean); DO's own academia page 404s. Treat as sunset/removed from the pack (medium confidence).NOT SUNCET (still active, current): the core Student Developer Pack remains a live 2026 program (pack page footer is (c) 2026) — free GitHub Pro, free Codespaces Pro tier, free Copilot student plan, GitHub Pages/Classroom, ~73 partner offers, 2-year student re-validation, 13+ age floor, no credit card required on the GitHub side. Teachers get a separate free track: free GitHub Team + free Copilot Pro. GitHub's separate STARTUP program (if in scope for another front) was not verified here — this front is education/.edu-only.CAVEAT: I could not run new web searches (session web-search budget was exhausted), so corroboration rests on official GitHub pages fetched today (education.github.com/pack, docs.github.com product-usage/Copilot/education pages, github.com/pricing, github.com/features/copilot). Re-verify the exact current Actions (3,000) and Codespaces (180 core hours / 20 GB) figures and the DigitalOcean removal directly on those pages if exact currency matters.
SUNSET (material, high confidence): GitHub Models is retired. docs.github.com/en/github-models (read 2026-10-22) says: 'As of July 30, 2026, GitHub Models has been fully retired.' The playground, model catalog, inference API and bring-your-own-key (BYOK) are no longer available to any customer. The page says GitHub Models was a separate service from GitHub Copilot. It states no grace period, refund, credit or migration guide, and points to Azure AI Foundry (https://ai.azure.com/) and GitHub Copilot as replacements. The task premise (free GitHub Models API and VS Code access with no paid key) is obsolete as of 2026-10-22, so no GitHub Models free-tier entry appears in findings. GitHub Models rate limits could not be retrieved: the rate-limit and marketplace URLs tried returned 404. github.com/features/models now describes Copilot plans, not GitHub Models.GAPS: WebSearch was unavailable (session search budget exhausted), so no 2025-2026 changelog or news search was done; changes were checked only on the official pages read. Not found: region limits; Copilot Student duration, cost terms and renewal; Campus Program application steps and seat limits; teacher access duration. Azure AI Foundry's own student and startup credits were not researched (outside GitHub scope); the Azure credit in the Student Developer Pack is the first lead to verify.EXCLUDED AS NOT FREE: Copilot Pro $10/month ($15 AI credits including $5 flex), Pro+ $39/month ($70), Max $100/month ($200), Business $19/user/month, Enterprise $39/user/month (summaries of github.com/features/models and github.com/features/copilot/plans).OPEN CONFLICTS: Copilot Free model access (see first finding); 'No credit card required' appears only in the github.com/features/models summary, not on the plans docs.
Critic corrections
GitHub Models (free LLM access): Retired. As of July 30, 2026 GitHub Models is fully retired: the playground, model catalog, inference API and BYOK are unavailable to every customer, including existing users. It closed to new customers on June 16, 2026. GitHub points to Microsoft Foundry (Azure AI Foundry) and GitHub Copilot instead. Remove this entry.
Free GitHub Pro, 5,000 Actions minutes/mo, 50 GB Codespaces storage: GitHub's student page lists 3,000 Actions minutes per month and 20 GB Codespaces storage with GitHub Pro (also 180 Codespaces hours). The 5,000-minute and 50 GB figures are not supported. The list's own Codespaces entry already gives 20 GB for students.