Students: Claim a Free Year of Google AI Plus, Including 400GB of Storage
Google is giving eligible college students a free year of Google AI Plus — 400GB of cloud storage, Gemini Omni, and 2x usage limits, free for the first year. Here's what you get, who qualifies, how to claim it, and which plan applies if you study abroad. Open until December 31, 2026.
Good news for students! Google is offering eligible college students a free year of Google AI Plus — including 400GB of cloud storage and 2x the Gemini usage limits, completely free for the first year. The offer runs until December 31, 2026, so if you qualify it's well worth claiming.
What you get
- Access to the Gemini Omni model
- 2x the usage limits of a free account
- 400GB of Google Drive storage (the most practical part — essentially a free Google One storage tier)
- Free for a full year
Who's eligible?
- Students currently enrolled at a college or university (18+; the official page handles final verification)
- Apply with a personal Google account (not a school-issued one)
- Verify your enrollment using your school email address
- If you've claimed a student plan before, or have another Google subscription running, you'll need to wait until those end
Studying abroad? You may get a different plan
The rule here is that it depends on which country your school is in, not your nationality (verification runs on your school email, so the system recognizes your institution rather than your passport):
- Enrolled at a US school → you go through the US offer and get the higher AI Pro tier, with 5TB of storage, 4x usage limits, and Gemini integrated into Gmail and Google Docs
- Enrolled at a Taiwanese school → the AI Plus plan described above (400GB, 2x limits)
One thing to note: schools in Canada, Hong Kong, and Macau aren't currently covered, so if you're studying in one of those, this one isn't available.
How to claim it
- Sign in with your personal Google account
- Go to one.google.com/ai-student
- Verify your student status with your school email
- Enter a payment method (nothing is charged during the free year)
- Done — your free year starts
After the free year, the plan auto-renews (NT$165/month in Taiwan). If you don't plan to keep it, just cancel before it expires — for the exact renewal and cancellation terms, check Google's official page before you sign up.
The new study features launching alongside it
Beyond the plan itself, Google shipped several student-focused features that seem genuinely useful if you're prepping for exams or writing papers. The videos below are from Google's official blog:
Student Hub
There's now a "Students" entry in the Gemini sidebar that gathers the study-related tools in one place, so you're not rethinking which tool to use every time.
Study notebooks: breaking material into bite-sized lessons
Drop your course material in and it breaks it down into small chunks, then generates flashcards and practice quizzes automatically. For midterms and finals, this is much faster than organizing everything from scratch.
Interactive 3D visualizations
Abstract concepts (biological structures, physics principles) can be rendered as interactive 3D models — far more intuitive than a text explanation.
Deep Research × Gemini Live: research by talking it through
This is the one I find most interesting: Deep Research hooked up to Gemini Live, so you can keep asking follow-up questions conversationally instead of firing off one question and waiting for an answer. It keeps your train of thought intact while researching.
There's also calendar integration to sync exam dates and assignment deadlines.
Is it worth claiming?
If you're eligible, I'd say definitely. 400GB of cloud storage free for a year is meaningful on its own if your Drive is permanently full, and the doubled Gemini limits are a nice bonus on top.
The offer runs until December 31, 2026 — if you qualify, go grab it!
Sources
- Google official blog: student offer announcement (all images and videos in this post come from this official page)
- Google student plan signup page
- Google One official help: student offer eligibility and excluded regions (the authoritative source for which plan applies when studying abroad)
- INSIDE: Taiwanese college students get a free year of Google AI Plus
※ Eligibility and plan contents follow whatever Google's official page states — worth clicking through to re-check before applying, since offer terms like these can change at any time.
