Free AI Coding Tools for Students in 2026: Copilot, JetBrains, Cursor and More

Two AI coding tools have a real student plan: GitHub Copilot, which is free through the GitHub Student Developer Pack, and JetBrains, whose Student Pack gives you every professional IDE plus a short trial of its AI. Zed and Kiro add a free year for university students. Cursor, Windsurf and Google Antigravity have no student plan at all; what students get there is the same free plan as everyone else.

Every row below was read on the vendor's page on 2026-10-26. Rows that link an offer page are in our verified catalog; the free plans of Copilot, JetBrains AI and Antigravity are not yet, so those rows link the vendor's page. For every other student deal (Gemini, ChatGPT, cloud credit), see student AI deals.

The tools at a glance

Source: the vendor page or our offer page linked in each row, checked 2026-10-26.

GitHub Student Developer Pack and Copilot Student

Copilot Student is the strongest free deal for students. GitHub describes it as "unlimited code completions and an allowance of GitHub AI Credits, plus limited chat and agent usage with models available through auto model selection only". It works in VS Code, JetBrains IDEs and on github.com, and it comes with the rest of the Student Developer Pack (GitHub Pro, cloud credit and dozens of partner offers).

Who qualifies: you are enrolled in a degree- or diploma-granting program (high school, college, university or homeschool), you are at least 13, you have a personal GitHub account, and you can prove your current status. Proof is a school ID with a current date, a class schedule, a transcript or an enrollment letter; if students from your school have recently verified with an academic email, GitHub asks you for one too.

Steps:

1. Add and verify your school email on your GitHub account, if you have one.
2. Open Education benefits, click Start an application and submit the form.
3. Once approved, activate Copilot Student from the same page under "Free GitHub developer resources for students and teachers".

Approval and Copilot activation are separate steps, and GitHub says the benefit can take several days to apply. If you only see Copilot Free, a trial or a checkout page in the meantime, do not pay: wait a few days and try again. GitHub re-checks your eligibility every month, so the plan ends soon after you stop being a student.

Not verified yet? Copilot Free needs only a GitHub account: 2,000 completions a month and limited chat and agent use, also with auto model selection only. It is not available if you already get Copilot through an organization. Copilot Pro costs $10 a month.

Source: GitHub Student Developer Pack, Apply to GitHub Education as a student, Access Copilot for free as a student, Plans for GitHub Copilot, Copilot plans, checked 2026-10-26.

JetBrains Student Pack and JetBrains AI

The JetBrains Student Pack gives full-time students in a program of a year or more all ten JetBrains IDEs, including IntelliJ IDEA, PyCharm, GoLand and PhpStorm, plus JetBrains Academy courses. You verify with a university email, an ISIC/ITIC card or your GitHub Student Developer Pack, and renew every year from your JetBrains Account. After you graduate you get 40% off for two years.

The AI part is smaller than it looks. JetBrains says the pack "includes a limited trial of JetBrains AI tools": code completion, AI chat and a coding agent, and the page does not state how long the trial lasts. After it ends you keep the IDEs, and you can switch on JetBrains AI Free, which anyone gets: unlimited AI code completion and 3 AI credits a month for chat and agents. You can also bring your own API key from Anthropic, OpenAI or Google, or sign in to agents such as Codex or GitHub Copilot, so Copilot Student works inside a JetBrains IDE too. AI Pro costs $100 a year for 10 credits a month.

The licenses are for non-commercial educational use only: a part-time job or freelance work needs a paid license.

Source: JetBrains Student Pack and FAQ, JetBrains AI plans, checked 2026-10-26.

Cursor and Windsurf: free plans, no student deal

Cursor has a students page but no student plan. Its FAQ answers "Does Cursor offer discounts to students?" with "Anyone can get started with Cursor for free" and points to promotions at campus events. The Free plan has limited agent and chat requests; Plus costs $8 a month and covers Grok models only, and third-party models start at Premium ($30 a month).

Windsurf is now Devin Desktop: windsurf.com and its pricing page redirect to devin.ai. The Free plan keeps what Windsurf's had: unlimited Tab completions and inline edits, and "a light quota to code with agents" with limited model availability. Devin publishes no number for that quota and has no student plan; Pro costs $20 a month.

Source: Cursor for students, Cursor pricing, Devin pricing, checked 2026-10-26.

Google Antigravity

Antigravity is Google's agent-first coding app. Its individual plan costs $0 a month and includes a variety of agent models, unlimited Tab completions and unlimited Command requests, under "basic weekly rate limits" that Google does not publish as numbers. On June 18, 2026 it replaced the unpaid Gemini Code Assist for individuals and the Gemini CLI.

There is no Antigravity student plan, but Google AI Pro raises its limits, and eligible U.S. college students can get Google AI Pro free for a year (a card is required and it renews at $19.99 a month): see how to get Gemini AI Pro free as a student.

Source: Antigravity pricing, Gemini Code Assist, checked 2026-10-26.

Zed and Kiro: a free year for university students

• Zed Pro for Students: 12 months of Zed Pro with $10 a month of AI credits and unlimited edit predictions, for students 18+ at an accredited university with a GitHub account older than 30 days. The most expensive models (Claude Fable, Claude Opus and GPT Pro) are excluded.
• Kiro for Students: 1,000 credits a month for a year in Amazon's Kiro editor, only at the universities Kiro lists (133 on 2026-10-20), verified through SheerID. Credits do not roll over, and after the year you drop to the standard free tier.

Source: our offer pages linked above, verified against the vendors' pages.

Which one to start with

• Any student who can verify: Copilot Student first. It has no end date while you stay enrolled and works in VS Code and JetBrains IDEs.
• Java, Python or C# coursework in a JetBrains IDE: the Student Pack for the IDE, with Copilot Student or JetBrains AI Free for the AI.
• Not verified, or between terms: Copilot Free, Cursor Free, Devin Desktop or Antigravity. None needs a card or proof of enrollment.
• University student wanting agent credit: add Zed or Kiro for a year.

Limits and the catch

• Free student plans pick the model for you. Copilot Student, like Copilot Free, uses auto model selection only, and Zed's student plan excludes the priciest models.
• Student status is checked again. GitHub monthly, JetBrains every year, Zed and Kiro after twelve months. Graduating ends the plan.
• Check what an agent says it did. Coding agents sometimes report tests they never ran: why it says it ran code when it did not. Read the diff and run the tests yourself, and check your school's rules on AI help for graded work.
• Plans change. Windsurf became Devin Desktop and Gemini Code Assist's free tier became Antigravity in 2026. We re-check vendor pages monthly; the date at the top of this page is our latest check.