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8 Free AI Tools for Students in 2025 (Worth $500+/year)

8 min
AIStudentsProductivityFree Tools2025

As a Master's student in Data & AI at Epitech Marseille and a full-stack developer intern at ATC Immobilier, I use artificial intelligence tools daily. What many students don't realize: most of these premium tools are completely free with a simple university email address.

I've compiled here the 8 offers I personally use for my courses, projects, and internship. The combined value exceeds $500 per year — might as well take advantage.

The 8 Free Premium Offers for Students

1. Google AI Pro for Students — The Most Complete

This is the most generous offer right now. Google provides free access for 1 year to their AI Pro plan (normally ~$20/month).

What you get:

  • Gemini 2.5 Pro — Google's most advanced AI model
  • Deep Research — Automatic generation of sourced research reports
  • NotebookLM — AI-powered note organization (turns your PDFs into podcasts)
  • Veo 3 — AI video generator
  • Jules — Coding agent with extended limits
  • 2 TB storage on Google Drive

How to activate:

  1. Go to gemini.google/students
  2. Sign in with your university email
  3. Verify your student status

Deadline: December 9, 2025 — Don't wait.

I use Deep Research for my Data Science research work. In 10 minutes, I get a structured report with verifiable academic sources. NotebookLM has become essential for studying: I upload my course PDFs and the AI generates audio summaries I listen to while commuting.

2. GitHub Student Developer Pack — Essential for Coding

If you code, this is the must-have offer. The GitHub Student Developer Pack includes over 100 free tools worth more than $200,000 combined.

AI tools included:

  • GitHub Copilot — AI code assistant (normally $10/month)
  • GitHub Copilot Chat — AI chat integrated into VS Code
  • JetBrains All Products — All IDEs with AI Assistant included

Other notable benefits:

  • Free domains (.me, .tech)
  • Cloud credits (DigitalOcean, Azure, Heroku)
  • Design and prototyping tools

How to activate:

  1. Create an account at education.github.com/pack
  2. Verify your status with your .edu email or proof of enrollment
  3. Activation typically takes 24-48 hours

GitHub Copilot is part of my daily workflow. I use it alongside Claude Code for quick autocompletion, especially on the ATC Immobilier CRM I'm developing during my internship. For a complete overview of how I integrate these AI tools into my development, I discuss it in detail in my article on how I use Claude Code.

3. Microsoft Copilot for Students — The Office Ecosystem

Microsoft offers 12 free months of Copilot Pro to students, integrated into the entire Office 365 suite.

What you get:

  • Copilot in Word — Assisted writing and rephrasing
  • Copilot in Excel — Data analysis and automatic formulas
  • Copilot in PowerPoint — Presentation generation
  • Copilot in Outlook — Email summaries and suggested replies
  • Designer (DALL-E) — Image generation

How to activate:

  1. Go to microsoft.com/copilot/ai-for-students
  2. Sign in with your university Microsoft account
  3. Activate the 12-month free offer

Copilot in Excel is particularly useful for my Data Science courses. Analyzing a dataset with complex formulas becomes trivial: I describe what I want in natural language and Copilot generates the formulas.

4. JetBrains All Products Pack — Professional IDEs

JetBrains offers free access to all their professional IDEs to students, including their new AI Assistant.

Available IDEs:

  • IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate — Java, Kotlin
  • PyCharm Professional — Python
  • WebStorm — JavaScript, TypeScript
  • PhpStorm — PHP
  • CLion — C/C++
  • DataGrip — Databases
  • And all other JetBrains products

AI features included:

  • Intelligent code completion
  • Refactoring suggestions
  • Documentation generation
  • Integrated AI chat

How to activate:

  1. Create an account at jetbrains.com/community/education
  2. Verify with your university email or ISIC card
  3. Renewable every year while you're a student

I use WebStorm for my TypeScript/React projects when I'm not on VS Code. JetBrains' AI Assistant is less powerful than Copilot, but the native integration with the IDE's refactoring features is excellent.

5. Perplexity Pro — AI-Augmented Research

Perplexity offers their Pro plan free to students through the Comet program.

What you get:

  • Unlimited searches with cited sources
  • Access to GPT-4 and Claude models
  • File upload for analysis
  • Comet Browser — Browser with integrated AI

How to activate:

  1. Go to perplexity.ai/grow/comet/students
  2. Sign up with your university email
  3. Download Comet if you want the browser

Perplexity is my main tool for academic research. Unlike ChatGPT, it systematically cites its sources — essential when you need to reference in a thesis or report. I also use it to stay up to date on the latest advances in machine learning.

6. Figma Education — Professional Design

Figma offers their Professional plan free to students and educators.

What you get:

  • Figma Design — Complete UI/UX design tool
  • FigJam — Collaborative whiteboard
  • Figma Slides — Presentations
  • Dev Mode — Export for developers
  • Unlimited projects and files

How to activate:

  1. Go to figma.com/education
  2. Verify your status with your university email
  3. Immediate access after verification

I used Figma to design the mockups for the ATC Immobilier CRM before moving to code. Dev Mode is particularly useful: it directly generates CSS properties and design tokens, which speeds up integration.

Note: Figma AI is not included in the Education plan, but the basic features are more than sufficient.

7. Canva for Education — Visual Creation with AI

Canva offers their Pro plan free to students and educators, including AI features.

What you get:

  • Magic Write — AI-assisted writing
  • Magic Design — Design generation
  • Magic Eraser — Element removal in images
  • Text to Image — Image generation
  • Unlimited premium templates
  • 1 TB cloud storage

How to activate:

  1. Go to canva.com/education
  2. Sign up with your university email
  3. Automatic or manual verification depending on institution

Canva is my default tool for project presentations. Magic Design generates a consistent template from a simple brief, and I just need to adjust the content. Considerable time savings on defenses.

8. Notion Education — Augmented Productivity

Notion offers their Plus plan free to students, including Notion AI.

What you get:

  • Notion AI — Integrated AI assistant (normally $10/month extra)
  • Unlimited blocks and pages
  • 30-day version history
  • Unlimited guests
  • File uploads up to 5 MB

Notion AI features:

  • Note summarization
  • Content generation
  • Translation
  • Text correction and improvement
  • Action extraction from notes

How to activate:

  1. Go to notion.so/product/notion-for-education
  2. Create an account with your university email
  3. Plus plan is automatically activated

Notion centralizes all my organization: courses, projects, meeting notes for my internship. The integrated AI allows me to quickly summarize long documents or generate structured study plans.

My Workflow with These Tools

After several months of use, here's how I've integrated these tools into my daily routine:

For a development project (internship or personal):

  1. Research — Perplexity to explore technical solutions with sources
  2. Architecture — Claude Code in Plan mode to structure the approach
  3. Design — Figma for UI/UX mockups
  4. Code — VS Code with GitHub Copilot + Claude Code
  5. Documentation — Notion to centralize specs and decisions

For academic work:

  1. Research — Perplexity Pro + Google Deep Research
  2. Organization — NotebookLM to synthesize sources
  3. Writing — Word with Copilot for structure
  4. Presentation — Canva for slides

This workflow saves me several hours per week. The important thing is not to scatter your attention: each tool has its specific role.

Activation Checklist

Here's the order I recommend for activating these offers:

  • [ ] Google AI Pro — Do this first (deadline: December 9, 2025)
  • [ ] GitHub Student Developer Pack — Essential if you code
  • [ ] Notion Education — For daily organization
  • [ ] Perplexity Pro — For research
  • [ ] Canva for Education — For presentations
  • [ ] Figma Education — If you do design or front-end development
  • [ ] Microsoft Copilot — If you use Office 365
  • [ ] JetBrains — If you prefer their IDEs to VS Code

Practical Tips

1. Don't activate everything at once

Start with 2-3 tools maximum and master them before adding others. I made the mistake of activating all accounts at once and ended up only using half of them.

2. Check your university's policies

Some universities have specific rules about using AI in academic work. Do your research and always cite your tools.

3. Renew before expiration

Most offers automatically renew as long as you're a student, but some require annual re-verification. Set a reminder in your calendar.

4. Combine intelligently

These tools are complementary. Perplexity for research, Claude/Copilot for code, Notion for organization. Avoid redundancy.

Conclusion

These 8 offers represent a combined value of over $500 per year, completely free for students. The only requirement: a valid university email address.

Immediate action: If you can only activate one today, choose Google AI Pro for Students. It's the most complete offer and expires on December 9, 2025.

AI is no longer a luxury, it's an essential productivity tool. These student offers are an opportunity to train on professional tools without spending a dime.

To see how I use these tools in practice on my projects, check out my projects page or my detailed article on my workflow with Claude Code.