GitHub Student Developer Pack 2026: What You Get, Who Qualifies, and What Comes After

GitHub Education bundles more than 70 partner offers into one free pack for verified students. Here is what is actually in it, how verification works, and the startup program to move to when your student status ends.

Cost $0 For verified students

Partners 70+ GitHub Pro, Copilot, JetBrains, more

Azure $100 Cloud credit for students 18+

After graduation $10K GitHub for Startups credits

What the GitHub Student Developer Pack actually is

GitHub Education is GitHub's program for students, teachers and schools. The Student Developer Pack is the student half of it: a single verified account that unlocks GitHub's own paid features for free and a bundle of partner offers negotiated by GitHub. You do not pay GitHub anything and you do not enter a card for the GitHub side of the pack. Some partner offers ask for a card on their own site to activate.

The pack is not a scholarship and it is not a one-time credit. It is a status attached to your GitHub account for as long as you can prove you are a student.

That matters for planning: the JetBrains license renews annually while you are verified, the Azure credit resets on a yearly cycle, and Copilot stays free until your verification expires.

The offers worth claiming first

The pack lists more than 70 partners. These are the ones with the highest real value for someone building software, in the order most students should claim them.

GitHub Pro Free while a student

Unlimited private repos with collaborators, GitHub Pages on private repos, protected branches, code owners, and the Pro badge. Normally a paid plan.

GitHub Copilot Student Free, with AI credits

Copilot code completion and chat in VS Code, JetBrains and the terminal. The fetched pack page lists it as free with AI credits included; check the current credit allowance on activation.

GitHub Codespaces Pro access free

Cloud dev environments with the Pro allowance. Useful if your laptop struggles with a large project or you switch machines often.

Microsoft Azure $100 credit (18+)

The Azure for Students credit, valid 12 months and renewable while enrolled. Students aged 13 to 17 get limited access instead. Full details in our Azure for Students guide.

JetBrains IDEs Free, renews yearly

IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate, PyCharm Professional, WebStorm, and the rest of the JetBrains suite. Renews annually as long as you stay verified.

MongoDB Atlas $50 credits + certification

Atlas credits for a hosted database plus access to MongoDB University certifications at no cost.

Heroku $13/month for 24 months

A monthly platform credit that covers a small Eco dyno and a database for two years. Enough to host a class project or an early prototype.

Stripe Fees waived on first $1,000

Stripe waives its processing fees on your first $1,000 in revenue. If your student project charges money, this is the one to activate before launch.

Clerk Free Pro plan

Authentication and user management on the Pro tier. Saves you writing login, sessions and MFA yourself.

Domains: Namecheap, Name.com, .TECH One free domain each

A free .me domain with SSL from Namecheap, a free domain across 25+ extensions from Name.com, and a free .TECH domain for a year. Three portfolio or project domains for nothing.

Learning: DataCamp, Educative, Frontend Masters 3 to 6 months free

DataCamp for three months, Educative for six months plus a 30% discount after, Frontend Masters for six months. Claim these when you have a block of time to use them; the clocks start on activation.

Notion, 1Password, Datadog, GitKraken, LambdaTest Free tiers and upgrades

Among the 70+ additional partners. Notion and 1Password are the ones most students end up using daily.

$100M for Startups

Fuel your runway with our $100M commitment. Claim up to 2 years free with Zendesk for Startups

Featured Opportunity

How to apply for the GitHub Student Developer Pack

Verification happens inside your GitHub account settings, not on a separate site. Have your school email or a dated enrollment document ready before you start.

1

Create or sign in to a GitHub account

Use an account you will keep after graduation. The pack attaches to this account, and so does your commit history, which is worth more to a future employer or co-founder than the pack itself.
2

Add your school email to the account

Go to Settings, then Emails, and add your .edu or institution address. Keep your personal email as primary so you do not lose the account when the school shuts your mailbox off.
3

Open the Student Developer Pack application

From education.github.com/pack, click Sign up for Student Developer Pack. It sends you to the education benefits page in your GitHub settings.
4

Choose your school and prove enrollment

If your school email domain is recognized, that is often enough. If not, upload a dated proof: a student ID with an expiry date, a current enrollment letter, or a transcript from this term. Blurry photos and undated documents are the most common reason for rejection.
5

Wait for approval, then activate offers one by one

Approval can be near-instant for recognized domains and a few days for document review. Once approved, each partner offer has its own activation link on the pack page. Activate the time-limited ones (DataCamp, Frontend Masters, Heroku) only when you are ready to use them.
6

Re-verify when GitHub asks

Student status expires. GitHub periodically asks you to re-verify. If you miss it, Pro features and Copilot switch off until you do.

Who qualifies for GitHub Education

GitHub Education is for students currently enrolled in a degree or diploma granting course of study at a school, college or university, and for students in coding schools and bootcamps that GitHub recognizes. You need to be at least 13 years old. The published rules beyond that are thin, so the checklist below is what GitHub's reviewers look for in practice.

Teachers get a separate benefit, GitHub Teacher, with classroom tooling and a Copilot allowance. Schools can apply for GitHub Campus Program status, which gives the whole institution GitHub Enterprise at no cost. If you are a student founder, none of these replace what you get by incorporating, which is covered further down.

The mistakes that get applications rejected

Most rejections and slow reviews come down to one of these.

Unrecognized school

If your institution is not in GitHub's list you can still apply, but expect a document review rather than instant approval.

Undated proof

A student ID without an expiry or issue date is routinely rejected. Add a transcript or enrollment letter from the current term.

Mismatched names

The name on your GitHub profile should match the name on your document. Mismatches trigger manual review.

Multiple accounts

Applying from more than one account, or from an account that looks like an organization, gets flagged.

Sharing one pack across a team

The pack is per person, not per team, so each member of a student project needs their own verification.

Reusing a paid partner account

Most offers are for new accounts on the partner's platform. If you already pay DigitalOcean or MongoDB on the email you use for GitHub, the credit may not apply. Sign up fresh with your school email where you can.

For founders

What happens when you graduate: move to GitHub for Startups

Every offer in the pack is tied to your student status. When GitHub can no longer verify you as a student, GitHub Pro reverts to Free, Copilot switches off, and partner offers stop renewing. If your student project became a company, that cliff arrives at the worst possible time.

See eligibility & how to apply Apply

The fine print

The fix is GitHub for Startups. It is GitHub's program for incorporated early-stage companies, and it does not care whether you are a student. Our GitHub listing shows the program bundle: free GitHub Enterprise seats for the whole team, plus Actions and Codespaces credits, with a total value around $10,000 on the startup tier and more through the GitHub Accelerator. Unlike the pack, it covers your co-founders and early hires under one organization.

The practical sequence: incorporate, register a company domain, create a GitHub organization on that domain, then apply. Keep your personal account with its commit history; the organization is what the startup program attaches to. If you have not incorporated yet, Stripe Atlas is the usual route and unlocks its own set of partner credits.

GitHub Enterprise

Up to $50,000

50 enterprise seats for 12 months
Advanced security features
GitHub Actions minutes

Student pack vs GitHub for Startups

Both are free. They solve different problems.

	Student Developer Pack	GitHub for Startups
Who it is for	Individual verified students, 13+	Incorporated startups, typically pre-seed to Series A
GitHub plan	GitHub Pro on a personal account	GitHub Enterprise seats on an organization
Covers your team	No, each person verifies separately	Yes, seats for the whole org
Copilot	Free with AI credits, per student	Depends on tier; check the listing
Ends when	You stop being a student	Program term ends, typically after a year, with a path to paid Enterprise
Partner offers	70+ partners (Azure, JetBrains, MongoDB, Heroku, Stripe and more)	Startup-focused: see our GitHub program page
Stacks with	Azure for Students, student cloud credits	AWS Activate, Microsoft for Startups, Claude for Startups

You can hold both at once. A student founder keeps the pack on their personal account and runs the company on an organization that has the startup program. The two do not conflict.

Questions founders ask

Is the GitHub Student Developer Pack free?

Yes. The pack itself costs nothing and GitHub does not ask for a card. Some partner offers require a card on the partner's own site to activate, and charge normal rates once the offer period ends, so set a reminder for anything time-limited.

Who is eligible for GitHub Education?

Students aged 13 or over who are currently enrolled in a degree or diploma granting course at a school, college or university, or at a coding school GitHub recognizes. You prove it with a school email or a dated document such as a current student ID, enrollment letter or transcript.

How long does GitHub Student Pack approval take?

Often minutes if your school email domain is recognized. If you upload documents for manual review, allow a few days. Rejections usually cite an undated or unreadable document; fix that and reapply.

Does the GitHub Student Pack include Copilot?

Yes. GitHub Copilot Student is listed in the pack as free with AI credits included for verified students. It works in VS Code, JetBrains IDEs and the GitHub CLI.

What happens to the pack when I graduate?

GitHub re-verifies student status periodically. When you can no longer prove enrollment, GitHub Pro reverts to the Free plan, Copilot stops, and partner offers stop renewing. If you are building a company, incorporate and apply to GitHub for Startups, which is not tied to student status.

Can I get the GitHub Student Pack if my school is not listed?

You can still apply. Choose the closest match or enter your school manually and upload dated proof of enrollment. Expect a manual review rather than instant approval.

Is GitHub for Startups better than the student pack?

For an incorporated company, yes. It gives the whole team GitHub Enterprise seats and credits under one organization and does not expire when someone graduates. For an individual student who has not incorporated, the pack is the better fit, and you can hold both at once.