Image credit: Suzanne Kantra/Techlicious generated by ChatGPT
Have a child heading off to college? Google is giving eligible college students in the US a full year of Google AI Pro, its $19.99-a-month AI subscription tier, at no cost.
The free year of AI Pro includes access to Gemini Spark, higher usage limits in the Gemini app, and 5TB of Google storage. Students outside the US aren't left out: Google says eligible college students in more than 140 other markets can get a year of the lower Google AI Plus tier free instead, plus bundled discounts on AI Pro and YouTube Premium.
To claim the offer, students verify their enrollment through SheerID and provide a payment method when signing up at one.google.com/ai-student. Students have until December 31, 2026, to redeem it.
Alongside the subscription offer, Google is rolling a new "student hub" into the Gemini app: a study-notebook feature that uses diagnostic quizzes to flag knowledge gaps and build a bite-sized study plan, plus the ability to request Gemini Live's Deep Research reports on the go. Google is also adding practice quizzes and interactive visual tools to Search itself for the same back-to-school push.
Google doesn't specify what happens to a student's account or files at the end of the free year. Anyone signing up should expect to either cancel or start paying $19.99 a month once the free period on their account ends. Google is also offering Google AI Pro, bundled with YouTube Premium, for $8.99 per month for up to 4 years.
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