ChatGPT Student Discount: How to Get 4 Free Months of Plus (2026)

No, not any more. OpenAI's ChatGPT student discount, four free monthly billing periods of ChatGPT Plus for verified US college and graduate students, an $80 value, closed on October 31, 2026. OpenAI has not announced a replacement, and its student page now only points to the free plan. Plus costs students $20 a month, the same as everyone else. There is no discount code and no permanent student price.

This guide covers what students can still get from OpenAI for free, and what to do if a claim failed before the deadline. If you claimed in time, your free months still run, and it covers the cancellation rule that quietly costs students the months they have left. It also covers the options for students outside the US, who never had a Plus discount.

The Key Takeaways

• The offer has ended: OpenAI's 2026 Back to School offer gave four free months of ChatGPT Plus to verified US college and graduate students. Claims closed on October 31, 2026, and no new offer has been announced.
• Claimed in time? Your four free billing periods still run from your claim date. Plus then renews at $20/month unless you cancel.
• The catch: cancelling early forfeits the free months you have left, so cancel in your fourth free period, not now.
• What is left: free ChatGPT with study mode, a university Edu workspace, and $100 in Codex credits for US and Canadian students are the official options, in the US and outside it.
• Missed it? The free ChatGPT plan stays free, Google's free student year runs until December 31, 2026, and a multi-model app costs about half of Plus.

Does ChatGPT Have a Student Discount?

No, ChatGPT has no student discount right now. The last one, OpenAI's 2026 Back to School offer, closed on October 31, 2026, and it only ever covered students in the United States. It was not a lower monthly price. It was four free monthly billing periods of ChatGPT Plus, after which the normal $20 Plus price applies.

OpenAI's offer page sold it as "4 months of ChatGPT Work on us" and called it "An $80 value for eligible U.S. college students." The help center put it in plainer terms: four free monthly billing periods of ChatGPT Plus, "including access to ChatGPT Work and other Plus features." That page still lists "Claim the offer by October 31, 2026" as the deadline, and OpenAI's college student page no longer mentions the offer at all.

That means the honest answer to whether ChatGPT Plus is free for students is no, unless you claimed before the deadline. Since November 1, 2026, in the US and everywhere else, ChatGPT Plus costs students exactly what it costs everyone else.

The 2025 Student Offer Ended

OpenAI's first student offer ended on May 31, 2025. In spring 2025, OpenAI gave college students in the US and Canada two free months of ChatGPT Plus, claimable from March 31 to May 31, 2025. OpenAI's help center called it "an experimental consumer program" at the time. The 2026 offer was longer but dropped Canada, and it ended the same way, on its stated deadline. OpenAI has now run a student promotion in two school years, but it has not announced a third.

Who Qualified for the ChatGPT Student Discount

The ChatGPT student discount was open to current full-time and part-time college and graduate students enrolled at eligible US degree-granting institutions. High school students did not qualify, and neither did students at schools outside the United States, even with a US ChatGPT account.

OpenAI did not check eligibility itself. A verification company called SheerID decided whether a school and an enrollment counted, through trusted enrollment records, the school's single sign-on or an uploaded document.

Three account rules still matter if you claimed. First, the offer sits on whichever ChatGPT account was signed in during the claim, whatever email you gave SheerID, and OpenAI cannot move it to another account.

Second, existing Plus subscribers could claim it if they paid monthly and were billed directly by ChatGPT. Third, App Store and Google Play subscriptions were not supported, so a Plus subscription paid through an iPhone or Android app store could not take the offer.

Taking part in the 2025 student promotion did not block the 2026 one. If OpenAI runs another, its help center's rule was that an earlier student promotion does not by itself disqualify you.

Can You Still Claim the ChatGPT Student Discount?

No. Claims closed on October 31, 2026, and the offer could only be redeemed once per student. The claim link still opens a sign-in page, but OpenAI's help article on the Back to School offer still gives October 31 as the last day to claim. There is no late code and no way to claim on a second account.

There is one exception worth knowing. If you tried to claim by October 31 and the "Claim free offer" button kept showing an error before checkout, OpenAI asks you to contact Support with when you tried and the exact error message. If SheerID verified you but Plus never appeared, sign in to the same account that started the flow and open the offer link again. It either takes you to checkout or shows which account the offer already sits on.

What Four Free Months of ChatGPT Plus Add

Four free months of ChatGPT Plus add the GPT-6 reasoning models, much higher limits on uploads, images and deep research, and full ChatGPT Work on the web and phone. The free plan already gives unlimited everyday text chats with GPT-6 Luna, so the upgrade matters most for heavy file work, research papers and projects, not for quick questions.

OpenAI's student page leans on the study features. You can connect your email, files and calendar so ChatGPT finds your course materials. ChatGPT Work turns notes and readings into presentations, and ChatGPT Sites builds a club or portfolio website. Voice mode lets you rehearse a presentation out loud, and interactive quizzes test you on any topic.

Some of the most useful study tools are not paid at all. ChatGPT's study mode, which walks you through a problem with questions instead of handing over the answer, has been on the free plan since OpenAI launched it. If most of your use is explaining a lecture or quizzing yourself on a chapter, the free plan covers it. Our guide on whether ChatGPT is free lists exactly what the free tier still limits.

The Cancellation Rule That Costs Students Free Months

Cancelling the ChatGPT student offer early forfeits every free month you have not used yet. OpenAI's terms say Plus stays active until the end of the current monthly billing period. After that, "any remaining promotional months are forfeited when the cancellation takes effect."

The usual trick with free trials, cancelling straight away so you cannot forget, is therefore the wrong move here. Cancel on day one and you keep Plus for one month, not four. The right moment is during your fourth free billing period, when there are no free months left to lose.

The free billing periods started on the day you claimed, so the timing is easy to work out. Say you claimed on October 20. Your four free periods start on October 20, November 20, December 20 and January 20, and the first $20 charge comes on February 20. Cancel any time between January 20 and February 19 to keep all four months and pay nothing.

Set a calendar reminder for the start of your fourth period now. Cancel from ChatGPT's own settings, because the subscription is billed directly by ChatGPT. Our guide on how to cancel an AI subscription on Mac and iPhone walks through where each app hides that button.

How Much Is ChatGPT Plus for Students After the Offer?

ChatGPT Plus costs students $20 a month after the free months, the same price everyone pays. OpenAI has no permanent student tier, so the four free months are the whole discount. Once they end, a student picks from the same plans as anyone else.

ChatGPT Edu is the one plan a student cannot buy. Universities buy it for their whole campus, and if yours has it, you sign in with your school account. Ask your IT department or check the student software portal before you pay for anything. The full plan breakdown, including Pro and Business, is in our ChatGPT pricing guide.

Is ChatGPT Free for Students Outside the US?

ChatGPT is free for students everywhere it is available, but there was never a Plus discount outside the US. Students in Canada, the UK, India and every other country get the same free plan as everyone else, with no student price on Plus. Three official routes still help, and since November 1 they are the same routes US students have.

The Free Plan and Study Mode

The ChatGPT free plan gives unlimited everyday text chats with GPT-6 Luna and includes study mode. For explaining concepts, drafting outlines and practice questions, that is enough for most coursework.

Codex Credits for US and Canadian Students

OpenAI gives verified university students in the US and Canada $100 in Codex credits, shown as 2,500 credits in your account. You verify through SheerID with your university email, the credits work on a Free, Go, Plus or Pro plan, and they expire 12 months after they are granted. They are ChatGPT credits for Codex, OpenAI's coding agent, not API credits. Since the Plus offer closed, this is the only current OpenAI student offer, and it is useful mainly for computer science students.

Your University's Edu Workspace

ChatGPT Edu is not limited to the US, and some universities elsewhere buy it for their students. If yours does, that beats any personal discount, because the school pays and the limits are higher than Free.

Outside OpenAI, rivals are more generous. Google gives US college students a free year of Google AI Pro. Students in many other countries, including the UK, get a free year of Google AI Plus instead. Both offers close on December 31, 2026. Our guide to Google's free student plan covers who qualifies where.

Missed the ChatGPT Student Discount? Fello AI Has You Covered

Missed the October 31 deadline, or in a country the offer never reached? Fello AI is the easy way to keep studying with top models without paying $20 a month for just one. One app gives you GPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Grok, DeepSeek and more in the same chat. Ask GPT for an outline, check the reasoning with Claude and find sources with Perplexity, all without three subscriptions.

Fello AI is built for the jobs students actually do. Chat with a PDF of your reading list or search the web for sources. Turn your notes into a Word document, an Excel sheet or a PowerPoint deck. Generate images for a poster, or turn a chapter into a podcast you can listen to on the bus. No student verification, no deadline and no promotional months to track.

There is a free tier to start. The paid plan is $11.99/month or $89.99/year in the US (prices vary by country), $8 less than ChatGPT Plus each month. It runs on Mac, iPhone and iPad and holds a 4.7-star rating from more than 27,000 reviews.

What Should Students Do Now the Offer Has Ended?

If you claimed before October 31, use the months and cancel in the fourth period, not before. They cover the heaviest stretch of the semester, from midterms through finals, and they tell you whether you need Plus at all once deep research and higher file limits are gone. If you missed the deadline, skip the hunt for free Plus codes. They do not exist, and OpenAI has announced no new student offer. Pick between the free plan with study mode, your university's Edu workspace, Google's free student year while it lasts, and a cheaper multi-model app.

FAQ

The featured image for this article was created with the help of AI.