The beginning of the year always brings a new wave of students entering college, and there’s no better time to talk about the countless benefits available to students — especially those in technology.
I had written a Twitter thread about this last year, but I decided to organize everything here to make it easier to find and share.
What are these benefits?
They are initiatives that offer free access, credits, or discounts on professional tools, cloud services, and learning platforms. The main goal is to reduce the barrier to entry for students, allowing them to use real-world technologies without having to bear high costs.
For the companies that provide them, the long-term strategy is to develop future professionals who are already familiar with their solutions, encourage continued adoption in the job market, influence technical decisions in the organizations where these students will work, and strengthen their ecosystem with skilled developers — creating a mutually beneficial relationship.
How to get access?
To access most of these benefits, you need to prove enrollment in an educational institution. Platforms usually require a valid academic email address, typically provided by the university, with an institutional domain (such as @institution.edu or similar).
During registration, the company sends a verification request to that email address, and the student must confirm it to validate access. In some cases, proof of enrollment may also be required.
To verify your information and obtain access to your student email, you need to contact your university, as each institution has its own process for creating, activating, and recovering this type of account.
Here’s a tip
You can build an entire portfolio at virtually no cost using these benefits. Some project ideas that can leverage everything you’ll find here include:
Metrics and analytics dashboard – A web application with dynamic charts, filters, authentication, and API consumption simulating a real market product.
REST API structured with Clean Architecture – A complete backend with authentication, versioning, unit tests, Swagger documentation, and cloud deployment.
Mini microservices architecture – Separation of services (users, orders, fake payments) with communication between them and independent deployment.
Public data dashboard with simple ETL – Collecting data from a public API, processing it with Python, and displaying it in an interactive web dashboard.
Documented redesign of a legacy system – A case study including research, persona definition, wireframes, and a navigable prototype in Figma.
And of course, deploying your own personal portfolio on a custom domain!
Now let’s get to what really matters. Here is the list. The GitHub Student Developer Pack appears first because it’s the main gateway to several other benefits and partnerships. The others are organized alphabetically for easier reference.
GitHub Student Developer Pack
Link: GitHub Student Developer Pack – GitHub Education
The largest hub of benefits for student developers. With it, you can earn your first certification for free.
- GH-900: GitHub Foundations Certification
- GitHub Copilot
- Visual Studio
- Cloud service credits
- Free domain
- Database and hosting tools
- Course and learning platforms
AWS Educate
Link: AWS Educate
Entry-level AWS cloud program focused on education.
- US$75–100 in promotional credits
- Courses, hands-on labs, and cloud learning materials
- Cloud Career Pathways (guided learning tracks)
- Access to the AWS Educate Job Board with cloud-related career opportunities
Azure for Students
Link: Azure for Students | Microsoft Azure
One of the most powerful benefits available. You get access to all Azure resources and can use some for free or spend the $100 in credits you receive upon signing up.
- $100 in credits valid for up to 1 year
- Free monthly amounts of 20+ popular services for 12 months
- All Azure resources, including Azure AI Foundry with the latest AI models
Canva
Link: Canva Education Solutions
Complete visual creation suite.
- Premium resources unlocked (templates, images, videos, audio, graphic elements)
- Creation of presentations, videos, documents, websites, whiteboards, and visual materials
- LMS integrations (Google Classroom, Microsoft Teams, Moodle, Blackboard, Canvas, Schoology, D2L)
- Ready-made Teacher Work Kits
- Exclusive educator community
- Program for educational content creators
Cursor
Link: Cursor · Students
- 1 free year of the Pro plan for the AI-powered code editor
DataCamp
Link: DataCamp Premium Student Plan
Platform focused on data, Python, and AI.
- 3 months free
- Discount after the free period
DataDog
Link: Free Datadog accounts for students | Datadog
Monitoring and observability tool.
- Data storage for 15 months
- Team collaboration
- Technical support from the DataDog team
.tech Domain
Link: .TECH domains | GitHub Student Developer Pack
- Free .tech domain for 1 year
Figma for Education
Link: Figma for Education | Free Tools for the Classroom
Professional design and prototyping tool available to students.
- Full Figma for design and prototyping
- FigJam included for brainstorming and collaboration
- Dev Mode for layout inspection and code generation
- Access to the Community with ready-made templates and resources
GitKraken Student Plan
Link: GitKraken’s Git Tools Free For Students | GitKraken
Visual tools for Git and version control.
- 6 months free
- Discount while maintaining a valid student email
Google Cloud for Students
Link: Google Cloud for Students
- 200 credits on Google Skills Boost
- Free hands-on labs
Heroku for Students
Link: Heroku for Students
- Monthly credit for application deployment and hosting
- US$13/month for 24 months
JetBrains Student Pack
Link: JetBrains Student Pack
One of my favorites. Having access to the most widely used IDEs helps a lot with learning.
- Free access to all JetBrains professional IDEs while you are a student, including IntelliJ IDEA, PyCharm, WebStorm, CLion, Rider, DataGrip, and others
- 40% discount for up to 2 years after graduation
MongoDB
Link: MongoDB Student Pack
- Free MongoDB certification
- $50 in MongoDB Atlas credits
- Learning paths
Notion for Education
Link: Notion for Students
Complete workspace for personal and academic organization.
- Free Plus plan for students (individual workspace)
- Unlimited pages and blocks
- File uploads
- More customization and website publishing options
- 30-day version history
Postman Student Expert
Link: Student Expert | Postman Student Program
- Access to exclusive API certifications
- Participation in the student API developer community
- Student-focused events and workshops
- Opportunity to become a Postman Student Leader
Spotify Student
Link: Spotify Student Premium
Okay, this one isn’t exactly tech-related, but we can say it’s for listening to podcasts while working.
- Premium plan for R$ 12.90 per month
Conclusion
You can finish the year with at least two certifications, a complete portfolio, and a lot of practical, real-world technology knowledge. These benefits can definitely help you stay one step ahead in an increasingly competitive market.
If you enjoyed it and clicked on at least one link, don’t forget to share it in your university group, with your professors and coordinators. Let’s make tech a more inclusive environment for everyone.
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