Google AI Plus Free for Students: Claim Before 31 December

Google is giving college students outside the US a year of Google AI Plus at no cost, an offer it announced in August 2026. In India that plan normally costs ₹399 a month, so the free year is worth ₹4,788. The deadline is close: Google's student page says "Redeem until 31 December 2026."

The offer has more conditions than the headlines suggest, and two groups should be careful: students under 18, who don't qualify at all, and anyone already using Jio's free Google AI Pro, who could lose a better plan by claiming. Here is who qualifies, what you get, how to claim, and how to avoid being charged when the year ends.

Who qualifies for Google AI Plus free for students?

Google's offer terms, last updated 19 August 2026, list five requirements. You must:

1. be 18 years of age or older;
2. be enrolled at a higher education institution in a supported country, India included;
3. verify your student status through SheerID, a verification service;
4. use a personal Google account;
5. have "a Google Payments account with a qualifying form of payment at sign-up".

The terms also exclude members of a Google family group, people with Google One through a third party or partner, supervised accounts, and college-issued Workspace accounts.

That rules out school students and most JEE and NEET aspirants. Some coverage at launch said JEE and NEET aspirants would benefit, but the terms require you to be 18 or over and enrolled at a college or university. If you are preparing for an entrance exam, our guide to the best AI for JEE preparation lists free tools you can use instead.

What do you get with Google AI Plus?

AI Plus is Google's entry plan, a step below AI Pro. Google's plans page for India and its usage-limits help page set out the difference:

	Free	Google AI Plus	Google AI Pro
Price in India	₹0	₹399/month (free for students for a year)	₹1,950/month
Main model	Flash	Flash	Pro, plus Gemini 4 Argon
Usage limits	Standard	2x free	4x free
Context window	32K tokens	128K tokens	1 million tokens
Cloud storage	15 GB	400 GB	5 TB
Video generation	No	Yes	Yes
Google Flow credits	None	200	1,000

AI Plus also adds more Audio Overviews and notebooks in Gemini Notebook (formerly NotebookLM), and Gemini inside Gmail and Vids. Our NotebookLM study guide shows how students use that.

One honest comparison: this is less than last year's offer. In 2025, students in India got a year of the higher AI Pro plan, with 2 TB of storage, if they signed up by 15 September 2025, Google said at the time. This year's free plan uses the Flash model rather than Pro.

How do you claim the free Google AI Plus student offer?

Google's help page gives the steps:

1. Sign in to the personal Google account you want the plan on, and go to one.google.com/ai-student.
2. Choose the student offer.
3. Verify through SheerID "using a valid school email address", meaning your college email. If that doesn't work, SheerID says it can accept documents such as a college ID card with an expiry date or a fee receipt showing current enrolment.
4. Finish the sign-up, including adding a payment method.

Use the same Google account all the way through. Google warns you must claim "with the Google Account that you were using when you first selected a student offer and got sent to SheerID".

What happens after the free year?

Google will start charging you. The student page says that "unless cancelled earlier, Google AI Plus will automatically charge ₹399/month after the trial ends". The free period runs 12 months from the day you redeem, so a claim on 31 December 2026 would be billed from around 31 December 2027.

To avoid the charge, cancel before the year ends: on one.google.com, go to Settings, then Manage membership, then Cancel membership. If you subscribed through the Android app, cancel in Google Play subscriptions instead. The terms say that if you cancel during the free period, your membership "may remain active" until it ends, so set a reminder for a few days before the renewal date rather than cancelling straight away.

Also plan for storage. A free Google account gets 15 GB. If you fill more than that during the year, Google says Gmail can't send or receive messages and Photos stops backing up once the plan ends.

Should Jio users claim the student offer?

Not while Jio's free Google AI Pro is active. Google doesn't name Jio, but its rules are clear on two points: memberships through third-party partners are excluded, and "signing up for a student offer while on another Google One extended trial revokes your current offer and switches you to the new one". A Google executive has described the Jio benefit as an "18 free months trial period", Livemint reported in May 2026.

So a Jio user would at best swap AI Pro for the weaker AI Plus. Jio's 18-month plans, claimed from late 2025, run until mid-2027, after the 31 December deadline, so the two can't be lined up one after the other. Jio has also closed its offer to new claims; our Jio Gemini Pro offer explainer covers what Jio users keep.

Is the free Google AI Plus worth claiming?

For most college students, yes. It costs nothing for a year, and the 400 GB of storage alone is useful for notes, recordings and project files. The catch is the payment method and the automatic ₹399 charge afterwards, which is easy to forget.

If you would rather not hand over payment details, the free Gemini plan still includes Deep Research, and ChatGPT's free plan covers everyday study help; our ChatGPT Go vs Plus comparison and AI subscription price in India report compare the paid options in rupees. More study tools are in our guide to AI tools for students.

FAQ

What is the last date for the Google AI Plus student offer in India?

Google's student page says the offer must be redeemed by 31 December 2026. The 12 free months start from the day you redeem it.

Is Gemini Pro free for students in India?

Not this year. Google's free student offer gives AI Pro to US college students and AI Plus to students in other countries, including India. AI Plus uses the Flash model; AI Pro costs ₹1,950 a month.

Can school students get Google AI Plus for free?

No. Google's terms require you to be 18 or older and enrolled at a higher education institution, verified through SheerID. School students and coaching-only aspirants don't qualify.

Do I need a credit card for the Google AI Plus student offer?

You need a valid form of payment at sign-up, and Google will charge ₹399 a month after the free year unless you cancel. On Google Play in India, recurring payments can use UPI AutoPay or a card.

Can I claim it if I have Jio's free Google AI Pro?

It isn't a good idea. Google says signing up for a student offer during another extended trial replaces it, so you would move from AI Pro to the weaker AI Plus, and partner memberships are excluded from the offer.

Cover image: students with a phone at a robotics championship in Kolkata. Biswarup Ganguly, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.