In summary
- Google makes AI Pro tools free for students
- Applies in US, Japan, Indonesia, Korea, and Brazil
- Not available in UK – for now
College students in the US and four other countries can now access Google’s top AI Pro plan for free.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai recently issued a blog post detailing an offer whereby students in the US, Japan, Indonesia, Korea, and Brazil can access the company’s most advanced AI tools (including its new new Guided Learning mode) without paying the usual subscription fee.
There are a couple of things to note about this offer. For one thing, you’ll obviously need to be enrolled as a university student in one of those five countries to claim. You’ll also need to be 18 years of age or above.
Another wrinkle is that the offer only gives eligible students 12 months of access to Gemini AI Pro. There’s always a chance that the deal will be extended at the end of the term, of course, but there’s no guarantee.
What about UK students?
Those students reading in the UK will doubtless be wondering why they’re not included too. It seems Google was running a similar offer in this country, but that it expired at the end of June.
However, if you click on through to Gemini’s Student page from here in the UK, you’ll received the message that “Our student offer is on summer break”. If we were to read this literally, it would suggest that the deal is going to reappear closer to the start of term around the end of September or early October.
Alternatively, this could just be a clumsy use of language on Google’s part in service of a pun, and the free AI deal really is dead to UK students. Here’s hoping for the former.
