Short answer: OpenAI is giving eligible US college students four free months of ChatGPT Plus, and the claim deadline is 31 October 2026, two weeks from today. You need a payment method to start a new Plus subscription, nothing is charged during the four months, and it renews at $20 per month unless you cancel. There is a second, separate offer for students in the US or Canada: $100 in Codex credits. This post covers both, and the traps in each.
Offer one: four free months of ChatGPT Plus
Here are the terms as OpenAI publishes them, cross-checked against our catalog entry last verified on 11 September. One honest note: OpenAI's help-centre pages blocked our automated fetcher today, so for this offer we are relying on the help-centre text as quoted in search results plus the catalog verification, not a fresh page read. Check the claim page before you act.
| Rule | Detail |
|---|---|
| Who | Current full-time and part-time college and graduate students at eligible US degree-granting institutions |
| Free period | Four monthly billing periods of ChatGPT Plus |
| Deadline | Claim by 31 October 2026 |
| Verification | SheerID, using trusted enrollment records, school single sign-on, or supporting documents |
| Payment | A valid payment method is required to activate, no charge during the free months |
| After | Renews at $20 per month unless you cancel |
| Existing Plus subscribers | Can claim if billed directly through ChatGPT |
| Not eligible | Subscriptions billed through the Apple App Store or Google Play |
The detail most posts miss: existing Plus subscribers can claim too, as long as they pay OpenAI directly. If you already pay $20 a month through the website, you can get four free months applied. If you subscribed through the iPhone app, you are excluded while it is store-billed, so you would need to cancel there and resubscribe on the web.
Another detail: the school email you use for SheerID does not have to match the email on your ChatGPT account, but you must do the verification while signed in to the ChatGPT account you want the benefit on. People who claim on the wrong account are the most common support thread.
Steps
- Go to chatgpt.com/students/2026 and click Claim free offer.
- Sign in to the ChatGPT account you want the four months on.
- Complete SheerID verification with your school email, school single sign-on, or enrollment documents. Most checks are fast, but document review can take longer, which matters with a deadline.
- Add a payment method if you are starting a new Plus subscription.
- Set a reminder for the end of month three.
The cancellation trap
If you cancel before the four months are up, Plus access continues through the end of the current billing period, and any remaining free months are forfeited. So do not cancel in month one to "be safe". Cancel in month four, after the last free period starts, or use a reminder to cancel a day or two before the charge date.
Do the verification early. Four weeks sounded like plenty in September. At two weeks, a document review that takes several days is a real risk.
Offer two: $100 in Codex credits
Codex is OpenAI's coding agent inside ChatGPT. The student program is a one-time credit grant, and these terms I read directly on OpenAI's developer page today:
- Amount: $100 in ChatGPT credits for use in Codex, which the page states is 2,500 credits.
- Who: Current students at degree-granting universities in the United States or Canada, who are also residing in the US or Canada when they claim.
- Limit: One credit offer per student, subject to successful verification.
- Plan needed: A ChatGPT Free, Go, Plus, or Pro plan. A personal account works, and no school association is needed.
- Verification: Start from the claim page with your ChatGPT account and your university email. Credits are added automatically once verification succeeds.
- Expiry: Credits expire 12 months after the grant date.
- Type: ChatGPT credits, not API credits.
- Deadline: The page states none.
You can check the balance on the Codex usage settings page inside ChatGPT. Claiming also means agreeing to OpenAI's Service Credit Terms.
The point worth underlining is the credit type. These credits power Codex inside ChatGPT. You cannot spend them calling the OpenAI API from your own app. If you want API credits for a project, that is a different question, answered in Free OpenAI API credits: what's real and what isn't.
Do you need to pick one?
No. They are separate programs with separate terms. A free Plus plan plus Codex credits is a perfectly coherent stack for a student who codes. The Codex credit is a free plan feature too, so it works even if you skip the Plus offer. The Codex student listing in our catalog has the application steps.
What to claim first, given the deadlines
| Priority | Offer | Why |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | ChatGPT Plus, 4 free months | Hard deadline 31 Oct 2026 |
| 2 | Google AI Pro, free year | Deadline 31 Dec 2026, card required |
| 3 | Codex, $100 credits | No deadline stated, but credits start their 12 month clock at claim |
| 4 | GitHub Student Developer Pack | Unlocks dozens of other perks |
One tip on that last row: the Codex credit expires 12 months after the grant, so there is a mild argument to claim it close to when you will actually use it rather than hoarding it.
Realistic expectations
Four months of Plus is a $80 value, so this is a nice benefit rather than a life-changing one. It helps most if you are writing code, doing research, or working with documents all semester, and it helps least if you use ChatGPT twice a week and the free tier already covers you. The smart play is to claim it, use it hard through finals, and cancel in month four.
If you are a student who also wants to build something, the offers worth the real effort are the ones with serious value attached: the GitHub Student Developer Pack and the startup programs you can apply to once you have a company. See student developer tools for the full list.
Every student AI offer in this post is listed in the Perkstack catalog with the date we last checked it. Browse the catalog or create an account for the step-by-step guides.
rest of this guide
The rest of this guide picks up at "Offer two: $100 in Codex credits".
- Offer two: $100 in Codex credits
- What to claim first, given the deadlines
- Realistic expectations
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