ChatGPT student discount: 4 free months of Plus

Is there a ChatGPT student discount?

Yes, until October 31, 2026. Eligible US college and graduate students can claim four free months of ChatGPT Plus, worth $80, after which it renews at $20 a month unless you cancel. Students outside the US get no Plus discount.

Separately, verified students at US and Canadian universities can claim $100 in ChatGPT credits for Codex, OpenAI's coding agent. The terms below come from OpenAI's help center and student pages, checked October 11, 2026. Other AI student discounts (Google, Perplexity, GitHub, Claude) are in a table further down.

The 2026 offer: ChatGPT Plus free for students until October 31, 2026

Status on October 11, 2026: open. OpenAI's student page sells it as "4 months of ChatGPT Work on us", an $80 value for eligible U.S. college students, open to full-time and part-time students at eligible U.S. degree-granting institutions. ChatGPT Work is part of Plus, and the $80 is four months at the $20 Plus price. After October 31, 2026 it closes unless OpenAI extends it, and Plus costs students the standard $20 a month.

Source: OpenAI Help Center, "ChatGPT Back to School offer for students", and chatgpt.com/students/2026, October 2026.

There's no code to enter. The offer lands on the account you're signed in to, so claim it on the account you plan to keep, since it can be redeemed once.

How to claim the free months

1. In a web browser on your computer or phone, go to chatgpt.com/students/2026 and sign in to the account you want Plus on. Guides that walked through the flow in September 2026 say the claim has to be made in a browser, outside the ChatGPT app.
2. Choose the claim button and verify your enrollment with SheerID. Depending on your school, that means a check against enrollment records, your school's own sign-in page, or uploading a document that shows you're enrolled.
3. Add a payment method and activate Plus.
4. Open Settings, then Billing, to confirm you're on Plus and to find the date of the first $20 charge.
5. Set a reminder for the first week of your fourth free month (more on why in the next section).

If you verified but Plus didn't appear, OpenAI's help center says to sign in to the account you used for verification and go back to the offer page. Some students reported a SheerID verification loop on OpenAI's community forum in September 2026; the same fix applies, and OpenAI's support chat is the next step if it doesn't.

If you already pay for Plus through the App Store or Google Play, the offer can't attach to that subscription. You'd have to cancel in the store and let the paid month run out before claiming on the web, which only works if that month ends before October 31.

How to avoid the $20 charge when the free months end

Cancel during your fourth free month, at least 24 hours before the renewal date. Plus stays active until the end of that month, so cancelling on its first day costs you nothing.

Timing matters only before that point. If you cancel during months one to three, Plus runs to the end of the current month and the free months you had left are forfeited. Waiting until the last day of month four is the risky choice: OpenAI's cancellation article asks for at least 24 hours before the next billing date, and guides that track OpenAI's billing report that a renewal already being processed can still go through.

On the web the cancel button is in Settings, under Billing. The full steps, including what you keep afterwards, are in how to cancel ChatGPT Plus. Cancelling doesn't delete your account or your chats; you move to the free plan.

What to use when the free months end

Most students will end up on one of these after month four.

Sources: chatgpt.com/pricing, claude.com/pricing and gemini.google/students, October 2026.

My rule for ChatGPT Plus: it's worth $20 if you program, if your work pays for it, or if you use it professionally. Otherwise you don't need to pay for it. For a computer science student, Plus has the strongest case on this list, because Plus includes Codex at Plus limits, where Free and Go get a limited amount.

I'd skip Go. I get it included with my Revolut subscription, and on its default Instant model it has lost things I told it earlier in the same conversation. It runs the same smaller model as Free and can show ads. The full comparison is in is ChatGPT Go worth it.

For everyone else, my ladder by how much you use AI: a little, the $20 Claude plan; a lot, a $5 plan like Plainly; a huge amount, one of the $100 plans from Claude or ChatGPT. I built Plainly, so weigh that middle answer accordingly. It covers writing, explaining, planning and research questions with sources, and it lacks image generation, voice mode and a phone app (it runs in the browser). Plainly runs one capable open-source model and switches when a better one comes out. You never pick. The case for each price point is in free vs $5 vs $20 AI apps.

Is ChatGPT Plus worth it for students?

Four free months of it is worth claiming if you qualify, because it costs nothing if you cancel in time. Whether it's worth $20 after that depends on what those four months show you.

I had a free year of Perplexity Pro through my phone company. I used it heavily for a few weeks, then didn't open it for the next ten months, and I was glad I'd never paid for it. Use the four months as a test: if you're still opening Plus most days in month four, and for work the free plan can't do, paying may make sense. If use tailed off after the first weeks, cancel. The longer version of the $20 decision is in is ChatGPT Plus worth it.

Other AI student discounts in 2026

Checked October 11, 2026. The source column names where each figure comes from.

The biggest offer here is Google's. A US student gets a full year of Google AI Pro, worth about $240, and the claim window runs two months longer than OpenAI's. Outside the US, Google's free year is of the cheaper AI Plus plan. My view of Google AI Plus: it's good, but you're tied to Google's models, and Google's models aren't currently state of the art.

Perplexity's $10 is a standing discount with no deadline. I'm wary of Perplexity Pro for the reason in the section above: my free year mostly went unused. I also don't like its interface, and my impression, which is anecdotal, was that its answers felt weaker than the same models used directly. The comparison is in Plainly vs Perplexity.

GitHub Copilot Student and the Codex credits are for programming. Copilot Student uses automatic model selection only, with an allowance of AI credits, per GitHub's plan documentation.

Before paying for any of these, ask your university whether it already provides ChatGPT Edu, Claude for Education or Google's tools through your school account.

Earlier ChatGPT student offers

OpenAI's student deals have changed every year, and each has had a deadline.

Sources: OpenAI Help Center for 2026; the 2025 terms per contemporary reports.

OpenAI hasn't announced what follows the 2026 offer. If you missed it, the options that don't expire with it are the free plan, the Codex credits for US and Canadian students, Perplexity's $10 Education Pro, GitHub Copilot Student and whatever your university provides.