GitHub Student Pack in 2026 — what's still free, what changed, and how to get verified with an India

Most guides you'll find on this are out of date. Here's the current state.

WHAT YOU GET

— GitHub Pro free while enrolled

— JetBrains full suite (~$289/yr value)

— $200 DigitalOcean credit

— $100 Azure credit

— Free domain for a year

— MongoDB, Codespaces, and 70+ other partner offers

WHAT CHANGED

GitHub paused new sign-ups for the free Copilot Student plan in April 2026 because of compute demand. If you verified before that, you keep it. If you're signing up now, you get Copilot Free instead until they reopen. Everything else in the pack works normally.

So if a blog tells you "free Copilot for students" — that's a 2025 article.

GETTING VERIFIED FROM AN INDIAN COLLEGE

This is where most people here will get stuck. If your college domain isn't on GitHub's recognised list, you go to document review instead of instant approval.

What gets rejected:

— Student ID with no expiry or issue date

— Blurry photos

— Undated documents

What works: a dated enrolment letter or current-term transcript. Recognised domains approve almost instantly; document review takes a few days.

The pack lasts about 2 years, then you re-verify. If you miss it, Pro switches off until you do.

Apply: https://education.github.com/pack

Two questions for anyone who's done this:

1. Did your college email get instant approval, or did you go to document review? Drop your college name — it'll save the next person a week.

2. Which perk did you actually end up using? I suspect most people claim ten and use two.