Eligible US college students get 12 months of Google AI Pro free. Read the terms: it is consumer Gemini app access rather than API credits, a payment method is required at sign-up, and it auto-charges $19.99/month afterwards.
No credit balance and no token or request allowance — the benefit is 12 months of a consumer subscription Google lists at $19.99/month
Credit card required
Card: conditional
A valid form of payment is required to redeem the subscription; the terms do not require a card specifically for every supported payment route.
Availability
Open
Available subject to the provider eligibility and usage conditions.
Application deadline
31 Dec 2026
Credit validity
12 months after activation — The period begins when the offer is redeemed.
Eligibility
"The free Google AI Pro student offer is available to eligible U.S. college students ages 18+." Both new users and students whose 2025 AI Pro trial has expired can qualify. You verify student status through SheerID, use a personal Google Account, and "Eligibility must be verified each year to maintain access." The offer must be redeemed by 31 December 2026.
Current conditions
This is a consumer subscription; do not treat it as a Gemini API allowance.
A payment method is required; the US plan automatically charges $19.99/month after 12 months unless cancelled.
This record describes the US student offer; other regions can have different included plans.
Twelve months of the Google AI Pro consumer plan: "4x higher usage limits in Gemini, more storage (5 TB), Gemini Spark, and Gemini Omni for 1 year"; Google's offer terms add that students "may experience different usage limits than Google One members on a paid plan". READ THIS BEFORE CLAIMING: it is a consumer subscription, not an API plan. Google's own AI-plans documentation says plan benefits apply only within the Google AI Studio web interface and that direct use of the Gemini API is billed and managed separately. (Paid Google AI Pro also lists a "$10 GenAI and Cloud monthly credit" through the Google Developer Program; Google does not say whether the free student plan includes it, so do not count on it.) Google requires a payment method up front — "Valid form of payment required at sign-up" — and states that "Unless cancelled earlier, Google AI Pro will automatically charge $19.99/month after the trial ends." Set a reminder for month 12. On storage: the plan includes the 5 TB standard Google AI Pro lists, but Google's Help Center says "upgraded storage (2 TB for Google AI Plus, 10 TB for Google AI Pro) are unavailable with a Google One student offer", so the 10 TB upgrade is not available.
How to claim it
Confirm you are a US college student aged 18 or over with a personal Google Account
Before 31 December 2026, claim the student plan at gemini.google/us/students and verify your student status through SheerID
Provide a valid form of payment — Google requires one at sign-up even though the year is free
Cancel before month 12 unless you want the $19.99/month charge
Verification history and earlier terms
This dated editorial record includes superseded conditions. Use the current facts
above for eligibility and access.
Verified 2026-09-19 against gemini.google/us/students and Google One's offer terms; every figure below independently re-fetched today. Eligibility verbatim: "The free Google AI Pro student offer is available to eligible U.S. college students ages 18+." Duration and deadline verbatim: "Claim your free 1-year Google AI Pro student plan today." and "Redeem until December 31, 2026." CARD REQUIREMENT IS VERBATIM: "Valid form of payment required at sign-up." Auto-charge verbatim: "Unless cancelled earlier, Google AI Pro will automatically charge $19.99/month after the trial ends." Contents verbatim: "The free Google AI Pro student plan includes 4x higher usage limits in Gemini, more storage (5 TB), Gemini Spark, access to Gemini Omni for 1 year". The `expiry` field carries the REDEMPTION deadline (2026-12-31), not the end of any individual student's 12 months, which Google defines per redemption: "subscription benefits at no charge for the duration of the promoted 12 month period from the day you redeem the Offer". SCOPE, STATED DELIBERATELY IN USER-FACING COPY: this is a consumer-app subscription, not LLM API access. No API key, token allowance or Gemini API quota appears in any student-offer source. It is listed because our readers ask about it and because the honest answer — "this is not the API, it needs a card, and it auto-charges" — is exactly the kind of thing this site exists to say; google-ai-studio-free-tier remains the record for actual Gemini API access. `creditAmount` is null because no credit balance is granted; $19.99/month is a list price, not an allowance, so it is not put in the amount field. NOT SOURCED: any non-US equivalent of this offer; any annual total value; any API entitlement. ADVERSARIALLY RE-VERIFIED 2026-09-19: all 23 figures re-found verbatim by an independent raw-HTTP pass, including the card requirement, which is corroborated on three separate official properties — the students page, the Google One offer terms ("Have a Google Payments account with a qualifying form of payment at sign-up;") and the Help Center. ADDED as a result: the Help Center's statement that recurring add-ons and upgraded storage are "unavailable with a Google One student offer", which qualifies the "more storage (5 TB)" line on the marketing page. Both are now shown in user-facing copy rather than one being picked (ADR-0023). NOT PUBLISHED for the same reason: "Google Health Premium" as an inclusion — the blog lists it, the Help Center says student offers do not get it, and the two conflict, so no claim is made either way. Re-verified 2026-10-10: offer live and every headline figure re-found verbatim. gemini.google/us/students: "The free Google AI Pro student offer is available to eligible U.S. college students ages 18+. Both new users and students whose 2025 AI Pro trial has expired can qualify. Eligibility must be verified each year to maintain access."; "Redeem until December 31, 2026. Valid form of payment required at sign-up. Unless cancelled earlier, Google AI Pro will automatically charge $19.99/month after the trial ends." Offer terms (one.google.com/offer/studentoffer8, last updated August 19, 2026): "Have successfully verified your student status using a third-party verification service, SheerID", "Have a Google Payments account with a qualifying form of payment at sign-up", "Offer expires and must be redeemed by December 31, 2026", and "you may experience different usage limits than Google One members on a paid plan". The storage caveat is at support.google.com/googleone/answer/17422238: "Recurring add-ons such as Google Home Premium, Google Health Premium, and upgraded storage (2 TB for Google AI Plus, 10 TB for Google AI Pro) are unavailable with a Google One student offer." Standard Google AI Pro lists "5 TB of cloud storage" (gemini.google/us/subscriptions), so the student plan lacks only the 10 TB upgrade. SCOPE NUANCE: paid Google AI Pro now lists a "$10 GenAI and Cloud monthly credit" usable "in AI Studio, Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform or any Google product" (developers.google.com/program/plans-and-pricing; support.google.com/googleone/answer/14534406). No source says whether the free student plan includes it, so the copy no longer claims flatly that there is no API value (ADR-0023). ADVERSARIALLY RE-VERIFIED 2026-10-10: storage caveat and eligibility/deadline/payment/price claims UPHELD on Google's server-rendered pages. Extra support for the not-API framing found by the refuter on Google's 'Google AI Plans' docs page: plan benefits 'apply only within the Google AI Studio web interface. Direct use of the Gemini API ... is billed and managed separately.' The earlier copy's 'do not expect the full Pro storage tier' was wrong (standard AI Pro is also 5 TB; only the 10 TB upgrade is excluded) and was corrected; 'unlimited uploads…' removed because the student page presents it as a general Gemini feature, not a plan benefit. Re-verified 2026-10-21 in the audit-remediation source sweep: current primary offer page and the material eligibility, validity, unit and payment evidence recorded in SOURCE-VERIFICATION.csv. Historical notes above are retained as history, not current terms. No account was created and no claim was submitted.
Build with the Gemini API free tier on selected models, subject to model-specific and account limits. Check the Free Tier column before choosing a model; access to Google AI Studio does not make every model free.
Free value
No fixed amount
Card required
Card: not stated
Application deadline
No deadline stated
Allowance resets
See provider terms · reset time not stated · timezone not stated — Model-specific free tiers and account rate limits; no universal quota or reset timezone is stated here.
Who
Anyone aged 18 or over with a Google account in a supported country or territory — Google's Gemini API terms state "You must be 18 years of age or older to use the APIs".
Available subject to the provider eligibility and usage conditions.