WhichAIPlan / Compare / Best AI coding plan for students
checked 2026-10-14
Best AI coding plan for students
If you are on a student budget, start with the free tiers and the cheapest paid plans. We have not verified student discounts, so check each vendor before you pay.
Free tiers
| Tool | Plan | Price | Usage / limits | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cursor | Free | $0 | Limited agent and chat requests | source 2026-10-14 |
| Claude Code | Free | $0 | No Claude Code | source 2026-10-14 |
| OpenAI Codex | Free | $0 | Limited Codex | source 2026-10-14 |
| GitHub Copilot | Free | $0 | FAQ: 2,000 completions + 50 chat requests/month | source 2026-10-14 |
| Windsurf (now Devin Desktop) | Free | $0 | Light agent quota, limited models, unlimited Tab | source 2026-10-14 |
Paid plans at $20 or less
| Tool | Plan | Price | Usage / limits | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cursor | Plus | $8/mo | Basic shared pool; Grok models only | source 2026-10-14 |
| OpenAI Codex | Go | $8/mo | Limited Codex; may include ads | source 2026-10-14 |
| GitHub Copilot | Pro | $10/mo | $15/mo of AI credits ($10 base + $5 flex); unlimited completions | source 2026-10-14 |
| Claude Code | Pro | $20/mo $17/mo annual | At least 5x Free per 5-hour session; exact tokens unknown 5× Free | source 2026-10-14 |
| OpenAI Codex | Plus | $20/mo | Expanded Codex; 5-hour message estimates by model | source 2026-10-14 |
| Windsurf (now Devin Desktop) | Pro | $20/mo | Increased quotas, all frontier models; exact quota unknown | source 2026-10-14 |
FAQ
Which AI coding tools have a free plan?
Cursor (Limited agent and chat requests), Claude Code (No Claude Code), OpenAI Codex (Limited Codex), GitHub Copilot (FAQ: 2,000 completions + 50 chat requests/month), Windsurf (now Devin Desktop) (Light agent quota, limited models, unlimited Tab).
What is the cheapest paid AI coding plan?
Cursor Plus and ChatGPT Go are $8 a month; Copilot Pro is $10.
Do these tools offer student discounts?
Our dataset does not track student pricing. Check each vendor's own pages for education offers.
Related
- Best AI coding plan under $10
- Best AI coding plan under $20
- GitHub Copilot pricing
- Codex pricing
- Full comparison of all tools
- Price changelog
Head-to-head comparisons
Cursor vs Claude Codepaid from $8 / $20Claude Code vs Codexpaid from $20 / $8Cursor vs Copilotpaid from $8 / $10Cursor vs Claude Code vs Codexpaid from $8 / $20 / $8Copilot vs Codexpaid from $10 / $8Devin Desktop vs Cursorpaid from $20 / $8
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