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Free tools? HAP is excited!

AI-powered development tools have become standard in professional workflows. As a student, you have access to many of these tools for free—either through student programs or generous free tiers.

Knowing what’s available (and what the tradeoffs are) is part of being a resourceful developer.

GitHub Student Developer Pack

If you don’t have this yet, stop reading and go sign up.

The GitHub Student Developer Pack gives you free access to professional tools that would otherwise cost hundreds of dollars per year. Verification requires a school email or enrollment documentation.

The most relevant tool: GitHub Copilot Pro—an AI coding assistant that works inside VS Code. Normally $10/month, free for students.

The pack includes dozens of other tools for cloud hosting, databases, and design. No credit card required for most of it.

Google AI Pro (student trial)

Google offers students a free 1-year trial of Google AI Pro, including:

  • Gemini Advanced
  • NotebookLM Pro
  • Deep Research
  • 2 TB Google Drive storage

The catch: You need to add a payment method. Google will charge you after the free year if you don’t cancel. Set a calendar reminder for 11 months from now.

Free tiers worth knowing

These don’t require student verification:

Claude.ai
Free tier with usage limits
ChatGPT
Free tier available
Gemini
Free at gemini.google.com
NotebookLM
100 notebooks, 50 sources each
Cloudinary
Image/video storage and transformations
Vercel
Free web project deployment
Netlify
Free static site hosting

A note on subscriptions

Some tools want your credit card even for “free” trials. That’s a business model designed to charge you when you forget to cancel.

I don’t require paid subscriptions in my courses. If you choose to use a trial that requires payment info, set a reminder to cancel before it renews.

Your future self will thank you.

The tools change constantly, but the pattern holds: students get access to professional-grade resources. Take advantage of it while you can.