Cursor discontinued new sign-ups for its legacy student discount on 25 June 2026, saying the programme had become a target for fraud. Students who already redeemed it keep their rate until the plan expires, then continue at $20 a month unless they cancel. Two routes remain: credits and discounts at on-campus and online events for undergraduates, and a credit request form for graduate students, PhD candidates, researchers, and educators. Anyone can still use the free Hobby tier.
- The free year closed to new sign-ups on 25 June 2026.
- Cursor's stated reason: it had become a target for fraud.
- Already redeemed? You keep your rate until the plan expires, then it is $20/mo.
- Still open: event credits for undergraduates, a request form for grads and educators.
- Best free alternative: GitHub Copilot, free for verified students.
The current state, in one table
The single fact that matters: you can no longer sign up for the free student year. Cursor discontinued new sign-ups for the legacy student discount on 25 June 2026. Its stated reason is that the programme had become a target for fraud and was holding it back from reaching students globally.
From Cursor's own help documentation, checked August 2026.
| Your situation | What applies now |
|---|---|
| Never redeemed it | The offer is closed. Use Hobby free, event credits, or an alternative below |
| Already redeemed it | You keep your current rate until the plan expires, then it continues at $20/mo unless you cancel |
| Undergraduate | Credits and discounts are offered at on-campus and online events |
| Graduate student, PhD, researcher, or educator | There is a form to request credits to support your work |
| Any student, any country | The free Hobby tier is unchanged and needs no verification |
What the offer was, and why it ended
Worth knowing, because it explains both the volume of stale advice and the shape of what replaced it.
| Stage | What happened |
|---|---|
| While it ran | Verified students received a free year of Cursor Pro, nominally worth $240 |
| 25 June 2026 | New sign-ups discontinued. Cursor cites fraud and global reach |
| Existing holders | Keep the discounted rate until the plan expires, then convert to Pro at $20/mo |
| Replacement | Event-based credits for undergraduates, and a targeted request form for advanced students and educators |
The economics are not mysterious. A single global offer worth $240, gated only by a verification step, is an obvious target. Every vendor running one eventually discovers how many people can produce a plausible student email. Cursor's replacement trades scale for control: credits handed out at events it runs, and a form it reads.
If you already have the free year
You are fine, and you have one thing to do.
Find your actual renewal date
Open Cursor, go to Settings then Subscription, or sign in to the Cursor dashboard on the web. The date the discounted plan expires is the date the price changes, and it usually runs twelve months from activation rather than from enrolment.
Put a reminder two weeks before it
The plan continues at standard Pro pricing, $20 a month, unless you cancel. A fortnight of notice is the difference between a decision and a surprise line on a card statement.
Decide on evidence, not on habit
Before the reminder fires, look at your usage page for the last two months. If you never came close to the included allowance, Hobby may cover you. If you exhausted it monthly, $20 is cheap for what it does.
If you are still enrolled, ask
Graduate students, PhD candidates, researchers, and educators can request credits through Cursor's form. Being an existing user does not disqualify you, and asking costs one form.
The routes that are still open
From Cursor's help documentation and students page, checked August 2026.
| Who you are | Route | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Undergraduate | Event credits | Cursor offers credits and discounts at on-campus and online events. Find out whether it is running one at your institution |
| Graduate student, PhD, researcher, educator | Credit request form | Cursor publishes a form to request credits to support your work |
| Anyone at an institution | Campus newsletter | Cursor runs a newsletter for early access to events and discounts |
| Anyone | Hobby tier | Free, no verification, no expiry. Enough to learn the editor properly |
| Teaching a course | Ask directly | Educator requests go through the same form. Ask for the cohort, not just yourself |
Both surviving routes are discretionary rather than automatic, which is the point of the redesign. There is no page you visit to receive an entitlement. The realistic move for an undergraduate is to find out whether Cursor is running anything at your university this term, and the realistic move for a postgraduate is to spend ten minutes on the form.
What to use instead
Student offers across the AI coding tools, checked August 2026.
| Tool | Student offer | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub Copilot | Free for verified students | GitHub documents a Copilot Student plan with unlimited code completions, an allowance of GitHub AI Credits, and limited chat and agent usage on auto model selection |
| Gemini CLI | Generous free tier for everyone | 60 requests a minute and 1,000 a day on a personal Google account. A real terminal agent, no verification |
| Cursor Hobby | Free, limited agent requests, no expiry | Enough to evaluate the editor properly |
| Claude Code | No standing consumer student tier | Entry is $20 either way, via Claude Pro |
| Codex | No standing consumer student tier | Included with ChatGPT plans from $20 |
| Aider | Free software | You pay model tokens only, which can be pennies a session |
Avoiding the scam layer
A closed offer with high search volume attracts a predictable industry. Treat all of the following as a no.
- Sites selling "student accounts" or shared logins. These are account-sharing schemes, they violate the terms you agreed to, and the account disappears when the seller resells it.
- Anything asking you to buy a verification document. Fraud is the stated reason the programme closed. Participating in it is not a workaround, it is the cause.
- Coupon sites promising the free year now. The programme does not accept new sign-ups, so nothing they hand you can work.
- Extensions or scripts claiming to unlock Pro. Installing an unknown extension into the editor that holds your source code is a poor trade for $20 a month.
Questions people ask
No. Cursor discontinued new sign-ups for the legacy student discount on 25 June 2026, citing fraud. The free Hobby tier is still available to everyone, and undergraduates can get credits at on-campus and online events.
25 June 2026 for new sign-ups. Students who had already redeemed it keep their rate until their plan expires.
Cursor states that the programme had become a target for fraud and was holding it back from reaching students globally. It replaced the blanket offer with event credits and a targeted request form.
The subscription continues at the regular $20 a month rate unless you cancel. Check your renewal date under Settings then Subscription, and set a reminder two weeks before it.
Undergraduates can claim credits and discounts at Cursor's on-campus and online events. Graduate students, PhD candidates, researchers, and educators can fill in Cursor's form to request credits for their work. Everyone else pays $20 a month.
Not for the legacy free year. That flow is closed to new applicants. An institutional address may still help when you request credits through the form, but it no longer triggers an automatic entitlement.
GitHub Copilot, which is free for verified students and includes unlimited code completions. Gemini CLI has the most generous free terminal agent tier, 60 requests a minute and 1,000 a day, and needs no verification at all.
Neither runs a standing consumer student tier as of August 2026. Both start at $20 a month: Claude Pro for Claude Code, and ChatGPT Plus for Codex.
Sources
Every figure above was read from these pages on August 2026. Vendors reprice without notice; if you find a stale number, tell us.