Today we're launching the Zed Student plan: currently enrolled university students get access to Zed's Pro features, free, for one year.
Why Zed for Education
Coding is rarely a solo exercise. The best moments happen when you're working through a hard problem with a classmate or untangling a gnarly issue in a group project. The tools most students reach for were never built for collaborative work: screen shares, pasted snippets, with context dissolving on every copy paste.
Zed is built for the way you wish you could collaborate. Your teammates and your agent are in the same place you're writing code — not in a separate window or spanning random tools, but in the editor itself. Real-time collaboration is part of Zed's foundation and our product vision. Zed is also fast, intentional, and open source. If you see a bug or missing feature while you build, file a ticket and we'll check it out. You can also pick up an existing ticket and practice your Rust skills!
Built by students
Several Zed staff are currently students or recently graduated: we hired Bennet Fenner (TU Darmstadt '26) and Finn Evers (University is CAU Kiel, '27) because of their open-source contributions, and John Tur (University of Pennsylvania '25) joined Zed last fall while completing a bachelor's degree in computer science. When we began planning "Zed for Ed", many developers on the team commented that they wished something like this had existed when they were students.
We want to meet students where they are and we're excited to meet a lot more of you through this plan.
What's included?
The Student plan includes everything in Zed Pro: $10/month in AI token credits, unlimited edit predictions, and real-time collaboration built into the editor.
When your Zed credits run out, you can bring your own API key or add an external agent and keep going. A few providers offer substantial free access for students right now:
- Gemini: Eligible university students can get free Gemini credits.
- OpenRouter: A selection of free models with no credit card required.
- GitHub Copilot: Verified students can get free access to GitHub Copilot Pro.
The landscape changes, so check what's current when you're getting started.
Ready to be the face of Zed?
What's a student plan without the hype needed to make it big? Today we're also launching a new Zed Campus Ambassadors program. We designed this program to attract the hungriest, most talented group of leaders to bring Zed to your university campus.
Lots of perks and more details are on the Zed Campus Ambassadors page. But know this: if you choose to apply and get accepted, you will be building alongside the most passionate, editor-obsessed team out there. You will sweat the details and push the limits of the future of coding. (The Ambassador program also comes with the usual perks, merch, and hypefest that others offer. But that stuff is table stakes.)
Apply here if that sounds like you.
Apply today
The Student plan is available to any currently enrolled university student worldwide. Apply at zed.dev/education. If you're currently on a free trial, applying will convert it with no credits wasted and no need to wait for it to run out. If you're already paying for Pro, you can switch to the Student Plan instantly.
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