Microsoft 365 will be free for a year if you’re a college student

Say what you will about America’s tech titans cozying up to the current administration, but at least the kids are benefiting.

As part of a Thursday meeting with the White House’s AI Education Task Force — chaired by Melania Trump — Microsoft said it would provide a free Microsoft 365 Personal subscription to college students for a year’s time. Microsoft normally charges $99.99 annually for that Microsoft 365 Personal subscription, so that’s a fairly substantial savings for a college student.

Students will need to sign up for the (free) subscription using a college ID email address. The subscription includes everything that the Personal subscription already does, including access to Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and more, plus Copilot and 1 TB of online storage.

There is a catch, of course: the first year’s free. After that, students will either be asked to pay another year’s subscription — though that will be discounted by half, to about $50 per year or $4.99 per month, Microsoft said.

Microsoft is also offering students and teachers free AI courses via LinkedIn Learning, the company said.

Microsoft isn’t the only company trying to convince U.S. students to join their programs. In addition to the typical student discounts offered to college students. Google said in April that the company will offer Google Gemini Advanced, plus perks like NotebookLM Plus and 2TB of cloud storage for free.

Not a student? Check out our guide on other ways to get Microsoft 365 for cheap.