Google is courting college students in India by offering free access to its premium artificial intelligence (AI) tools as part of its efforts to boost adoption amid growing competition from global tech rivals.
On July 15, Google said it will offer eligible students, aged 18 and above, a free one-year subscription to its AI Pro plan, which costs Rs 1,950 a month.
Students will get access to the company's flagship AI model, Gemini 2.5 Pro, which can assist with homework, exam preparation, writing tasks and job interview guidance.
They will also be able to use Gemini’s Deep Research feature for personalised research assistance, the real-time assistant Gemini Live for brainstorming ideas and simplifying complex topics and Gemini integrations across several Google apps, including Gmail, Docs, and Sheets
Students will also receive five times higher usage limits in NotebookLM, Google’s AI-powered note-taking and research assistant. They will also be able to generate videos from text or photos with Veo 3 in Gemini and Flow. Google rolled out its AI video generator Veo 3 and AI filmmaking tool Flow in India earlier this month.
The plan also includes 2 terabytes (TB) of cloud storage across Google Drive, Gmail, and Google Photos. Google said to access the free subscription, students must sign up on Google One before September 15, and include a form of payment during registration.
The company is using SheerID, a global identity verification platform, to confirm eligibility for the plan.
India is Google's largest market in terms of users and a critical region for its future growth, including its AI efforts.
Google rolled out similar offers to college students in the United States, United Kingdom, Brazil, Japan, and Indonesia.
Rival OpenAI also extended free access to ChatGPT Plus for college students in the United States and Canada for a limited period between March and May 2025.
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