AI Perks curates and provides access to exclusive discounts, credits, and deals on AI tools, cloud services, and APIs to help startups and developers save money.
What free AI stack should computer science students use?
Pair a free coding assistant with free notebooks and a notes tool, then claim up to $120 in GitHub credits from the catalogue. Most of the stack costs nothing, but a few offers bill you after a free period.
The GitHub card shows who qualifies and how to claim, so you do not have to guess. AI Perks tracks more student offers across the full catalogue, and the student and education cards are the place to start.
This guide goes task by task: writing code, validating it, training models, taking notes, reading papers and staying inside your course rules. It also flags which offers have closed, so you do not waste an afternoon on a dead link.
Top AI Credits for Startups
Apply directly through these verified programs.
ChatGPT $80
Eligible for early-stage startups
Google Gemini $240
Eligible for early-stage startups
GitHub Up to $120
Eligible for early-stage startups
Notion $120
Eligible for early-stage startups
Figma $1,080
Eligible for early-stage startups
Perplexity $84
Eligible for early-stage startups
Which AI tool fits which CS study task?
Computer science work splits into a handful of repeat tasks. Each one has a free option, and each option has a catch worth knowing.
| Task | Free option | Catch |
|---|---|---|
| Writing code | GitHub Copilot free plan, no credit card | 2,000 completions a month |
| Heavy coding | Copilot Student plan | Unlimited completions, 200 AI credits a month |
| ML projects | Google Colab free GPU, Kaggle | Kaggle adds 50,000+ datasets and free compute |
| Notes | Notion Plus, free for students and educators | AI is trial-level only, one member |
| Lecture summaries | Mindgrasp | 4-day trial |
| Meetings | Zoom AI Companion | Free with a Zoom account, on by default |
| Tutoring | LoWisa | 20 one-time tutor credits at installation |
For a wider view beyond CS, see Free AI for Students 2026: Best Tools by Study Task. Some universities also hand out their own tools. Yale, for example, gives students free access to university-provided AI that can help with everything from study guides to validating code, so check your own IT pages before paying for anything.
Which student credits can you claim from the catalogue?
Free tiers cover the basics, but credits are where the real money is. The $199 in JetBrains credits is the largest student amount in the catalogue, and it suits anyone who lives in an IDE. Each card shows who qualifies and how to claim.
| Company | Free credits | How to get |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub (students) | Up to $120 | Get this perk |
| JetBrains (students) | $199 | Get this perk |
| OpenAI Codex (students) | $100 | Get this perk |
| Replit (students) | $120 | Get this perk |
| Anthropic API | $20,000 | Get this perk |
Total across these five cards: $120 + $199 + $100 + $120 + $20,000 = $20,539 in free credits.
The Anthropic API amount is a general catalogue perk rather than a student-only one, and it is useful once your project calls a model through code. For the full list of student-specific offers, see AI Student Discount 2026: Every Verified Offer Listed.
Top AI Credits for Startups
Apply directly through these verified programs.
ChatGPT $80
Eligible for early-stage startups
Google Gemini $240
Eligible for early-stage startups
GitHub Up to $120
Eligible for early-stage startups
Notion $120
Eligible for early-stage startups
Figma $1,080
Eligible for early-stage startups
Perplexity $84
Eligible for early-stage startups
How do you code with AI for free?
Start with the free GitHub Copilot plan. It needs no credit card, but it caps completions at 2,000 a month, which a busy week of assignments can burn through. Non-students stay on that cap.
Verified students can instead get a dedicated Copilot Student plan. Since March 2026 it has included unlimited completions and 200 AI credits a month, plus limited chat and agent usage. GitHub paused new Pro and Student sign-ups on 20 April 2026 because agentic workloads strained its compute, then reopened the Student plan on 17 June. A single GitHub student verification also unlocks 100+ tools worth hundreds of dollars a year, which is why the GitHub student card is the first one to open. GitHub's docs list no end date for the student offer, but it re-checks eligibility every month.
If you would rather not depend on any vendor, Cline is free software under the Apache 2.0 license. With a local model through Ollama it has no usage cap, so the only cost is your hardware. That works well on a decent laptop and badly on an old one.
What free tools help you study, take notes and research?
Coding is only half of a CS degree. The rest is lectures, theory, papers and group projects.
Notes and lectures
Notion's Plus plan is free for students and educators, but only for one member and with trial-level AI. If you want an AI-first summarizer, Mindgrasp's 4-day trial is enough to test it on a real lecture before deciding. LoWisa gives you 20 one-time tutor credits at installation, which suits a stuck problem set rather than a whole semester.
ML work and research
Google Colab offers free GPU access for machine learning projects, and Kaggle adds 50,000+ datasets with free compute. For literature, Yale's trial of the Consensus search tool ran to be available through 12/31/2026, which shows what a university licence can add. Ask your library whether yours has something similar.
Chat assistants
Gemini for Education is free with Google Workspace for Education, but your school's administrator has to turn it on for your account. Anthropic's pricing page lists no individual student discount, so the student route to Claude is through a university that has bought it.
Top AI Credits for Startups
Apply directly through these verified programs.
ChatGPT $80
Eligible for early-stage startups
Google Gemini $240
Eligible for early-stage startups
GitHub Up to $120
Eligible for early-stage startups
Notion $120
Eligible for early-stage startups
Figma $1,080
Eligible for early-stage startups
Perplexity $84
Eligible for early-stage startups
Which student offers have closed or carry a catch?
Several offers that older guides still recommend are gone. Skip these and save the time.
| Offer | Status |
|---|---|
| Perplexity free year for students | Enrolment closed in January 2026 |
| Perplexity referral scheme | Ended on 31 May 2026 |
| Microsoft 365 Premium student promotion | Ran through February 2026 |
| Google's first AI Pro student year | Closed in April 2026 |
| Google's new AI Pro student year | Opened on 19 August 2026 |
| Figma education plan | AI features disabled, expires after 2 years |
Google's new offer is redeemable until 31 December 2026, needs a payment method at sign-up and bills $19.99 a month afterward unless you cancel. In the US, a bundle of AI Pro with YouTube Premium costs $8.99 a month instead. The same warning applies to any subscription-style student offer: it asks for a payment method up front and bills automatically when the free period ends.
For a side-by-side view of what is live right now, see Free AI Credits for Students 2026: Every Program Compared.
How do you set up your free AI stack, step by step?
Step 1: Get credits via AI Perks. Open the student and education cards at getaiperks.com, starting with GitHub, JetBrains, OpenAI Codex and Replit. Each card shows who qualifies and how to claim.
Step 2: Install your coding assistant. Add the GitHub Copilot extension to VS Code or a JetBrains IDE and sign in with your GitHub account. If you want no cap, try Cline with a local model through Ollama.
Step 3: Open Colab or Kaggle for ML work. Both give free compute, so you can train small models without a paid GPU.
Step 4: Pick one notes tool and one study tool. Notion for notes, plus a Mindgrasp trial or LoWisa credits for tough topics. Do not install five overlapping apps.
Step 5: Check your course policy. In programming courses where writing the code is the graded skill, AI completion may be off limits. Read the syllabus before you enable anything.
Step 6: Set a reminder for any offer that bills later. If an offer asked for a payment method, note the end of the free period and cancel before it bills.
Top AI Credits for Startups
Apply directly through these verified programs.
ChatGPT $80
Eligible for early-stage startups
Google Gemini $240
Eligible for early-stage startups
GitHub Up to $120
Eligible for early-stage startups
Notion $120
Eligible for early-stage startups
Figma $1,080
Eligible for early-stage startups
Perplexity $84
Eligible for early-stage startups
FAQ
Is there a free AI coding assistant for computer science students?
Yes. The GitHub Copilot free plan needs no credit card and allows 2,000 completions a month. Verified students can get a Copilot Student plan with unlimited completions. See the GitHub student card for who qualifies and how to claim.
Can I use an AI coding tool with no usage cap?
Cline is free software under the Apache 2.0 license. When you pair it with a local model through Ollama, it has no usage cap, and the only cost is your hardware. A modern laptop with enough memory handles small models, while older machines will feel slow.
Are student AI offers really free?
Some are, and some are trials. Subscription-style offers ask for a payment method at sign-up and bill automatically after the free period unless you cancel. Google's AI Pro, for example, moves to $19.99 a month. Browse the verified list at getaiperks.com before you enter card details.
Does Claude offer a student discount?
Anthropic's pricing page lists no individual student discount. The student route is Claude for Education, and only if your university has bought it. If you are building something that calls a model through code, the catalogue lists $20,000 in Anthropic API credits.
Is AI allowed in programming courses?
It depends on the course. Where writing the code is the skill being graded, AI completion may be off limits, and using it could count as a violation. Read your syllabus, ask the instructor when it is unclear, and use AI for explanations and debugging help where it is permitted.
Where can I find more student AI offers?
AI Perks tracks the full catalogue of companies and perks, including student and education cards. Visit getaiperks.com to filter by student offers and see the amount, who qualifies and how to claim for each one before you commit.
Ready to build your free CS stack?
Free tiers handle the daily work, and the student cards add credits on top of them. Open the catalogue, claim the cards that fit your workload and skip the offers that have closed.
Get free AI credits at getaiperks.com →
Every student perk, amount and claim route is listed at getaiperks.com.
