GitHub Student Developer Pack: What's Included, Who's Eligible and How to Apply
The GitHub Student Developer Pack is a free bundle of developer tools for verified students, part of the wider GitHub Education program. If you are 13 or older, enrolled in a degree- or diploma-granting school (including high school and homeschool) and have a personal GitHub account, you can apply at github.com/settings/education/benefits with proof of enrollment. Once approved you get GitHub Pro, Copilot Student, GitHub Codespaces hours, and dozens of partner offers (83 listings on the pack page as of November 2026) such as a free domain, $100 of Azure credit, a JetBrains student license and 1Password free for 2 years.
What is the GitHub Student Developer Pack?
GitHub Education is GitHub's program for students, teachers and schools (searchers often call it GitHub for students). The Student Developer Pack, sometimes called the GitHub Education pack, is the student side of it: a set of offers from GitHub and partner companies that you unlock once GitHub verifies that you are a current student. GitHub describes the idea on the pack page itself: real-world tools are often too expensive for students, so partners give them away for learning and side projects.
The pack has three layers:
- GitHub's own student benefits: GitHub Pro, Copilot Student, Codespaces, GitHub Pages and the Campus Experts program.
- Partner offers: credits, licenses and free plans from companies like Microsoft, JetBrains, Heroku, MongoDB, Namecheap, 1Password and Datadog. Each partner runs its own redemption flow.
- Experiences: curated bundles on the pack page ("Intro to Copilot", "Intro to Web Dev", "Data Science & Machine Learning", "Mobile App Development", "GitHub Foundations Certification" and others) that group offers with tutorials.
You don't buy anything and there is no paid tier of the pack. "GitHub student account" is not a separate account type either: it's your normal personal GitHub account with the education discount attached.
Who is eligible for GitHub Education
According to GitHub's application docs, you need to:
- be enrolled in a degree- or diploma-granting program, such as a high school, college, university or homeschool;
- be able to prove your current student status with documents;
- have a personal GitHub account (organization accounts don't qualify);
- be at least 13 years old.
Bootcamps and informal courses that aren't degree- or diploma-granting generally don't qualify unless they are part of GitHub's Campus Program. GitHub's troubleshooting page adds one more case people miss: you are also ineligible if your degree ends this academic session, so apply early in your final year, not in your last weeks.
Accepted proof: a photo of your school ID showing a current enrollment date, your class schedule, your transcript, or an affiliation or enrollment verification letter. The document must clearly show at least one date and your current academic status.
Academic email: if the form asks for one, add and verify your school email on your GitHub account first (email settings). If your school doesn't issue email addresses, upload official documentation such as a letter on school letterhead or a school web page explaining that. You can still apply without a .edu address, as long as your documents prove enrollment.
Eligibility at a glance
| Situation | Eligible? | What to upload |
|---|---|---|
| University or college student, any country | Yes | Dated student ID, transcript, class schedule or enrollment letter |
| High school student aged 13+ | Yes | Dated student ID or a school letter |
| Homeschooled student aged 13+ | Yes | Official homeschool enrollment documentation |
| Student under 13 | No | (GitHub's terms require 13+) |
| Bootcamp or online course that isn't degree- or diploma-granting | Usually no, unless the school is in the GitHub Campus Program | n/a |
| Final-semester student whose degree ends this session | No, per GitHub's troubleshooting docs | n/a |
| Teacher or instructor | Not as a student; teachers apply separately for classroom use | Teacher documentation |
| Organization account | No, benefits go to personal accounts only | n/a |
How to apply for the GitHub Student Developer Pack
The GitHub Education application takes about five minutes if your documents are ready.
- Sign in to the personal GitHub account you want the benefits on.
- Add and verify your school email under Settings > Emails, if you have one. Use it in all lowercase, without "+" aliases.
- Put your real name in your GitHub profile so it matches the name on your documents.
- Go to Education benefits settings.
- Under GitHub Education, click Start an application.
- Complete the form: say you are a student, select your school, and upload your proof of enrollment when asked. Take the photo clearly, in good light, with the dates visible.
- Click Submit application.
- Wait for the decision email. When approved, open the GitHub Education portal and the pack page to claim offers.
Some benefits take a few days to show up after approval, Copilot in particular.
Set up your GitHub student account before you apply
Most rejections come from the account, not the student. Before you click Start an application, check these:
- One account only. GitHub's docs say holding more than one individual account violates its Terms of Service, and an academic email already attached to another account is a common reason for rejection. If you have two accounts, merge them first and keep the one you want the discount on.
- Email clean-up. The school address must be verified, lowercase and without plus-addressing. If it was added in a different case, delete and re-add it under Settings > Emails.
- Name match. Use the name that appears on your ID or letter.
- Document quality. One clear photo of a document that shows your name, the school name and a current date beats three blurry ones. A screenshot of a student portal page that shows a current term date also works for many schools.
Why applications get rejected
GitHub's troubleshooting page lists the usual reasons:
- The uploaded image is blurry or doesn't clearly show your current academic status.
- Your school's email domain isn't verified with GitHub. Contact GitHub Education Support with the school's full name, website and email domain.
- Your school issues email addresses before paid enrollment, so an email alone isn't enough proof.
- Your academic email is already used for another GitHub account. Merge the accounts and keep the one with the discount.
- Your school requires an academic email (because recent applicants from it used one) and you didn't provide one.
- You aren't in an eligible program, your degree ends this academic session, or you are under 13.
If you are rejected, fix the cause and reapply from the same settings page. If you have already tried the fixes, use the GitHub Education Support form and say which steps you tried and where it failed; GitHub asks for exactly that.
| Rejection reason | Fix |
|---|---|
| Blurry or undated document | Retake the photo in good light with the date visible, or upload a transcript or enrollment letter |
| School domain not recognized | Reapply with documents, or contact GitHub Education Support with the school name, URL and domain |
| Email issued before paid enrollment | Reapply with a dated document as proof |
| Email used on another account | Merge accounts, keep the one with the discount |
| Academic email required | Get one from your school's IT office, or upload proof that the school doesn't issue them |
| Program not eligible | Only degree- or diploma-granting programs (or Campus Program schools) qualify |
GitHub student benefits from GitHub itself
These are the core GitHub Education benefits, separate from partner offers:
- GitHub Pro, free while you are a student. Per GitHub's plans docs, Pro adds email support, 2 GB of Packages storage, 180 Codespaces core hours and 20 GB of Codespaces storage a month, an included monthly compute allowance for GitHub Actions, and advanced tools in private repositories (required and multiple reviewers, protected branches, code owners, wikis and insights graphs).
- GitHub Copilot Student (details below).
- GitHub Codespaces: up to 180 core hours per month on your personal account, with Pro-level storage. A cloud dev machine you open in the browser; see GitHub Codespaces. Codespaces you open from a GitHub Classroom assignment are billed to the classroom's organization, not your allowance.
- GitHub Pages for a personal site (one user site per account plus unlimited project sites), plus Campus Experts, events and learning resources in the Education portal.
A quick way to read "180 core hours": a 2-core codespace uses 2 core hours per hour, so 180 core hours is about 90 hours of a 2-core machine each month, or 45 hours of a 4-core one.
GitHub Copilot for students
Verified GitHub students get Copilot Student for free. Per the plans docs and the pack page, it includes unlimited code completions, an allowance of GitHub AI Credits, agent mode, the Copilot cloud agent, code review and MCP support. Two limits: models are auto model selection only (you can't pick a specific model), and third-party agents are excluded. Chat and agent use is limited by the credit allowance. This is the "Copilot student pack" benefit people search for, and it's the main reason many students apply.
To activate it:
- Get verified through GitHub Education (steps above).
- Go back to Education benefits settings.
- Under the free developer resources for students and teachers, click Learn more and follow the prompts to activate Copilot Student.
- Install GitHub Copilot in your editor (VS Code, JetBrains, Visual Studio, Xcode and others) and sign in.
If your account still shows Copilot Free, a trial or a checkout page after approval, don't pay. GitHub says approval and Copilot activation are separate steps and the benefit can take several days to apply. Meanwhile you can try activating it from your Copilot settings or the free sign-up page; if only paid options appear, wait a few days, then contact GitHub Support.
GitHub paused new Student plan sign-ups on April 20, 2026 along with Pro and Pro+, then started reopening Student, Pro, Pro+ and Max sign-ups gradually on June 17, 2026. As of November 2026 the setup docs show no pause notice.
GitHub re-evaluates Copilot eligibility every month, so the free plan follows your verified student status.
Copilot Student vs Copilot Free vs Copilot Pro
| Copilot Free | Copilot Student | Copilot Pro | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free for verified students | $10/month |
| Inline code completions | Up to 2,000 per month | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| GitHub AI Credits | An allowance | An allowance | 1,500 per month (1,000 base + 500 flex) |
| Model choice | Auto model selection only | Auto model selection only | A selection of models |
| Agent mode, cloud agent, MCP | Limited | Yes (no third-party agents) | Yes |
| Copilot code review | Only "Review selection" in VS Code | Yes | Yes |
| Copilot CLI and the Copilot app | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Source: GitHub Copilot plans docs, as of November 2026. GitHub doesn't publish the exact credit allowance for Free and Student. Since June 1, 2026 all Copilot plans bill by AI Credits used, and you can set an extra spending budget once the included credits run out (only if you want to pay).
- Jan 2020GitHub says the pack now delivers over $200k worth of tools per student after adding 22 partners.
- Apr 20, 2026GitHub pauses new sign-ups for Copilot Student, Pro and Pro+. Copilot Free stays open.
- Jun 1, 2026All Copilot plans move to billing by GitHub AI Credits; Student sign-ups still paused.
- Jun 17, 2026GitHub starts reopening Student, Pro, Pro+ and Max sign-ups gradually.
- Nov 2026The pack lists 83 offers; new ones include Microsoft 365, Camber and a Codedex Club month (from Nov 1).
The most valuable partner offers (October 2026 list, rechecked November 4, 2026)
The pack page currently lists 83 offers (counting GitHub's own). These are the ones most students get real value from:
| Partner | What you get | Term | Stated value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Azure | $100 Azure credit plus 25+ free services (ages 18+), no credit card; a separate free-services offer for ages 13-17 | Until credit is used | $100 |
| JetBrains | Free subscription to JetBrains IDEs (IntelliJ IDEA, PyCharm and more) | Renewed annually while a student | Not stated |
| Namecheap | A .me domain for 1 year, plus an SSL certificate for 1 year | 1 year | Not stated |
| Name.com / .TECH | A free domain from 25+ extensions (.live, .studio, .software, .app, .dev) / a free .tech domain for 1 year | 1 year | Not stated |
| Heroku | $13/month platform credit for 24 months | 24 months | $312 total ($13 x 24) |
| MongoDB | $50 Atlas credits and a free MongoDB University certification (valued at $150) | One-time | $200 |
| 1Password | Free for 2 years, including developer tools | 2 years | Not stated |
| New Relic | Free New Relic while you are a student | While a student | $300/month |
| Requestly | Professional plan free for one year | 1 year | $270 |
| Appwrite | Education plan (2 projects at Pro limits) for six months | 6 months | $40/month ($240 over 6 months) |
| Microsoft Visual Studio Dev Essentials | Visual Studio Community, Pluralsight access, Azure services with $200 credit for the first month | 1st month for the credit | $200 Azure credit |
| Stripe | $25 in fee credits | Until used | $25 |
| Frontend Masters | All courses and workshops | 6 months | Not stated |
| DataCamp | Free access | 3 months | Not stated |
| Educative | 70+ courses free, then 30% off a subscription | 6 months | Not stated |
| Boot.dev | Full interactive membership | 3 months | Not stated |
| Datadog | Pro account (10 servers) | 2 years | Not stated |
| Sentry | 50K errors, 100K transactions, 1 GB attachments, 500 replays, Team features | 1 year (renewable) | Not stated |
| Clerk | Pro plan | While a student | Not stated |
| Notion | Education plan with extra AI responses | While a student | Not stated |
| BrowserStack | Automate Mobile plan (1 parallel, 1 user) | 1 year | Not stated |
| Termius | Pro and Team features | While a student | Not stated |
| Microsoft 365 | Free or discounted apps with Copilot, 1 TB storage | Per Microsoft's terms | Not stated |
"Stated value" means a dollar figure GitHub or the partner prints on the pack page. Where nothing is stated, we don't guess.
New Relic is stated as $300/month while you are a student; the bar shows 12 months. Heroku = $13 x 24 months, Appwrite = $40 x 6 months, MongoDB = $50 credit + $150 certification. Offers with no stated value (JetBrains, 1Password, domains) are left out. Source: GitHub Student Developer Pack, November 4, 2026
Offers change often. Some well-known ones searchers still look for, such as an AWS offer ("GitHub Education AWS", "GitHub student developer pack AWS") and Canva Pro, are not in the current list, and there is no Claude or ChatGPT offer either. On AWS, the closest thing in the pack today is LocalStack, a free license to its AWS emulator so you can build and test against S3, Lambda and other AWS services on your laptop; for real cloud credit you have Azure's $100, Heroku and MongoDB Atlas. For more free tools and startup credits outside the pack, see DevHunt's developer perks.
Each offer has its own sign-up flow. Usually you click Get access on the pack page, which takes you to the partner, where you sign in with GitHub. Claim only what you will use, since many offers start their timer on activation.
Full list of GitHub Student Developer Pack benefits and offers by category
This is every partner listing on the pack page as of November 4, 2026, grouped by what you'd use it for. Terms are quoted from the pack page.
| Category | Offers |
|---|---|
| Cloud, hosting and backend | Microsoft Azure ($100 credit, 18+), Microsoft Azure for ages 13-17 (App Services, Functions, MySQL in-app, DevOps), Heroku ($13/month for 24 months), MongoDB ($50 Atlas + certification), Appwrite (6 months), LocalStack (AWS emulator license), Camber (Student plan with 40 CPU hours and 5 GPU hours a month), Visual Studio Dev Essentials, Pageclip (basic plan), Zyte (1 free Scrapy Cloud unit), Blockchair (100,000 API requests), CARTO (2 years of upgrades) |
| Domains | Namecheap (.me domain + SSL, 1 year), Name.com (free domain), .TECH (1 year) |
| Auth, payments and APIs | Clerk (Pro while a student), Stripe ($25 credits), Doppler (Team plan while a student), Requestly (Professional, 1 year), Testmail (Essential while a student), Vaadin (Pro license), ConfigCat (1,000 feature flags), DevCycle (Starter, 1 year), POEditor (Plus, 1 year) |
| IDEs, editors and Git clients | JetBrains (renewed annually), Visual Studio Code coding packs, GitKraken and GitLens (Student plan free for 6 months, then up to 80% off Pro), Tower (Pro while a student), Working Copy (Pro while a student), GitHub Desktop, Bootstrap Studio (license while a student), Xojo (Pro while a student), SQLGate (1 year), PopSQL (Premium while a student), Polypane (1 year), Termius (Pro and Team) |
| Monitoring, testing and code quality | New Relic ($300/month value), Datadog (Pro, 2 years), Sentry (1 year, renewable), Honeybadger (1 year), Blackfire, Codecov, CodeScene, DeepScan (6 months), Travis CI (private builds), BrowserStack (1 year), LambdaTest (Live plan, 1 year), Imgbot, Astra Security (6 months), SimpleAnalytics (1 year, 100k page views a month), Appfigures (1 year) |
| AI and data | GitHub Copilot Student, Deepnote (Team plan while a student), Camber |
| Learning | Frontend Masters (6 months), DataCamp (3 months), Educative (6 months + 30% off), Boot.dev (3 months), Scrimba (1 month), Codedex (1 month of Codédex Club from Nov 1), GoRails (12 months), SymfonyCasts (3 months), AlgoExpert (20 questions + 10% off), Interview Cake (1 week), Microsoft 365 |
| Productivity and security | 1Password (2 years), Dashlane (Premium, 6 months), Notion (Education plan + AI), Notion template collection, PomoDone (Lite, 2 years), HazeOver (license), ToDiagram (Pro) |
| Design | Icons8 (3 months), IconScout (60 premium icons a month for 1 year), Visme (Starter, 3 months), Themeisle (Neve Agency theme, 1 year), Octicons |
| Hardware and IoT | Arduino (Cloud for 6 months + hardware discounts), Adafruit (IO+ for 1 year + discounts) |
| GitHub | GitHub Pro, GitHub Codespaces, GitHub Pages, GitHub Campus Experts |
If you came here for the Educative GitHub Student Developer Pack offer: it's 6 months of free access to more than 70 courses, then 30% off any subscription. Claim it from the Educative card on the pack page while signed in to your verified account.
How to claim offers from the pack
The GitHub Student Developer Pack (developer tools, official website: education.github.com/pack) is the only place to claim offers. Third-party sites that list "GitHub student pack codes" are not official.
- Open the pack page while signed in to your verified account.
- Use the filter (Cloud, Domains, Developer tools, Learn, Security & analytics and so on) or the "Most popular last week" sort.
- Click Get access on an offer. GitHub sends you to the partner, often with a one-time code or an "Authorize with GitHub" screen.
- Create the partner account with your school email where possible; some partners check it.
- Note the date. Timed offers start when you set them up, not when you were approved.
Common claim problems:
- "Offer not available" or a code page that never loads: usually you are signed in to a different GitHub account than the verified one. Sign out of the partner site, then click Get access again.
- Name.com says your request is a duplicate: the pack page notes your Name.com account needs a unique address, otherwise the system may treat it as a duplicate.
- Azure asks your age: the $100 credit is for students 18+; students aged 13-17 get the separate free-services offer.
- Partner wants a card: if a partner asks for one, set a reminder to cancel before a free term converts to paid.
Best ways to use the pack (starter stacks)
The pack is most useful when you combine offers into one project you can show. A few combinations that work together:
| Goal | Offers to combine | What you end up with |
|---|---|---|
| Portfolio site | Namecheap .me domain or .TECH domain + GitHub Pages + Polypane | A personal site on your own domain, free for the first year |
| Full-stack web app | Heroku or Azure + MongoDB Atlas + Clerk + Stripe + Sentry | A deployed app with sign-in, payments and error tracking |
| Learn the AWS way without a bill | LocalStack + Codespaces + Copilot Student | AWS-style infrastructure you can break safely on your laptop or in the browser |
| Data science | Deepnote + DataCamp + Codespaces + Camber | Notebooks, courses and CPU/GPU hours for coursework |
| Interview prep | AlgoExpert + Interview Cake + Educative + Boot.dev | Structured practice for the job search |
| Mobile app | JetBrains IDEs + BrowserStack + Frontend Masters | Pro IDEs plus real-device testing |
For picking an editor, see DevHunt's IDE comparison, and for where to deploy after Heroku's credit, the guide to cloud hosting for developers. If you are new to Git itself, start with version control for beginners. More options live in DevHunt's IDE and AI coding tools directories.
Is GitHub Education worth it?
For almost every eligible student, yes. It costs nothing, the application takes minutes, and the GitHub benefits alone (Pro, Copilot Student, 180 Codespaces core hours a month) cover what most students use daily. Beyond that, the question "is GitHub Student Developer Pack worth it" comes down to whether you'll use the partner offers before they expire.
If you're asking how much is GitHub Student Developer Pack worth in dollars: GitHub hasn't published a total recently (it said "over $200k" in 2020, a sum across partners that no single student would use). Adding only the dollar values printed on today's pack page gives about $1,350 in fixed credits and plans (Heroku, Requestly, Appwrite, MongoDB, Dev Essentials, Azure, Stripe), plus New Relic's stated $300 a month while you are a student. JetBrains, 1Password, domains, GitHub Pro and Copilot come on top, but GitHub doesn't state a price for them on the page.
GitHub student pack vs GitLab and other student programs
People also search for a "GitLab student developer pack". There isn't one. GitLab for Education is aimed at institutions: schools get seats for faculty, students and researchers through a campus program, and individual students are pointed to open source contribution and community programs instead. If your school has GitLab for Education, you'll get access through the school, not by applying yourself.
| Program | Who applies | What a student gets |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub Student Developer Pack | The student | GitHub Pro, Copilot Student, Codespaces, 80+ partner offers |
| GitLab for Education | The school | Seats on the school's GitLab, managed by the institution |
| Partner student programs (JetBrains, Azure for Students, etc.) | The student, directly with the vendor | Usually the same product as in the pack; the pack just verifies you once |
What happens after you graduate
There is no single end date for everything:
- "While you are a student" benefits (GitHub Pro, Copilot Student, Clerk, Termius, New Relic and others) end when GitHub can no longer verify your student status. Copilot eligibility is checked monthly.
- Fixed-term offers (for example 1Password's 2 years, Heroku's 24 months) run for their stated term from when you redeemed them, under each partner's terms.
- Re-verifying: GitHub Education access expires periodically. If you are still a student, you can reapply from the same Education benefits page. Some partner offers can't be renewed.
After graduation, your GitHub account and repositories stay on GitHub Free, which includes unlimited public and private repositories. You can move to Copilot Free (up to 2,000 completions a month) or a paid Copilot plan, and buy any partner tools you still need. Many have free tiers; DevHunt's free alternatives lists options.
FAQ
Is the GitHub Student Developer Pack free?
Yes. There is no price for the pack. You only need to qualify as a student and get verified. Some partner offers turn into paid plans after their free period if you add a payment method, so check each one before entering a card.
Can I get the GitHub student pack without a .edu email?
Yes. A school email speeds things up, but you can apply with documents such as a dated student ID, transcript or enrollment letter. If your school doesn't issue emails, include official documentation saying so.
How long does GitHub student verification take?
GitHub doesn't publish a fixed time. Many applications are decided quickly, but some take days, and benefits like Copilot can take several more days to appear after approval.
How do I check if I have the GitHub Student Developer Pack?
Open Education benefits settings. If you are verified, it shows your approved status and the student benefits. You can also open education.github.com/pack while signed in and see whether offers are available to claim.
Does the GitHub student pack include Copilot?
Yes, as the Copilot Student plan: unlimited completions, an AI credits allowance, agent mode and code review, with automatic model selection only. Activate it from Education benefits settings after you are verified.
What does the GitHub Student Developer Pack include?
GitHub Pro, Copilot Student, Codespaces (180 core hours a month), GitHub Pages and 80+ partner offers: cloud credit (Azure $100, Heroku $13/month for 24 months, MongoDB $50), domains (Namecheap, Name.com, .TECH), IDEs (JetBrains), learning (Frontend Masters, DataCamp, Educative, Boot.dev), monitoring (New Relic, Datadog, Sentry) and tools like 1Password, Clerk and Notion.
Is there a GitHub student developer pack AWS offer?
Not as of November 2026: no AWS offer appears on the pack page. The pack includes LocalStack, which emulates AWS services locally, and Azure credit for real cloud use.
How long does GitHub Student Developer Pack last?
GitHub's own benefits last while you are a verified student (Copilot is re-checked monthly). Partner offers run for their own terms, from one week (Interview Cake) to two years (1Password, Datadog, Heroku credit) or "while you are a student". When your GitHub Education access expires and you are still studying, reapply.
Is the GitHub Student Developer Pack worth it?
Yes, if you are eligible. It's free, and GitHub Pro, Copilot Student, Codespaces and JetBrains IDEs alone are worth the five-minute application. Save timed partner offers for when you'll use them.
What are the best GitHub student pack benefits?
For most students: Copilot Student, JetBrains IDEs, a free domain (Namecheap .me or .TECH), Azure's $100 credit, Heroku's 24 months of credit, 1Password for 2 years and Frontend Masters for 6 months. The highest dollar value stated on the pack page is New Relic at $300 a month.
Is there a GitLab student developer pack?
No. GitLab for Education is a program for schools, which give their students access. Individual students apply only to GitHub's pack.
Can teachers get the GitHub Education benefits?
Teachers don't get the student pack. GitHub Education has a separate teacher program (GitHub Classroom and teacher benefits), and GitHub's docs say instructors can apply for classroom use. The application starts from the same Education benefits settings page.