Student Plans That Renew at Full Price (and How to Avoid the Surprise)

The best student offers ask for a card up front, and the charge that follows is the part nobody reads. We went through the official terms on September 25, 2026 to see which student plans auto-renew at full price, which ones just downgrade you, and how to cancel each one before the first bill. Everything below is how the vendors themselves describe it.

What you need

• The date you claimed each offer (check your email receipts).
• A calendar or reminder app.
• Access to the account and the store you paid through (web, Apple App Store or Google Play).

The two kinds of student plan

Student plans end in one of two ways, and it's worth knowing which one you're on.

**They charge you.** You added a card at sign-up and the plan rolls into the normal price on its own.

• **ChatGPT Plus (US Back to School offer):** 4 monthly billing periods at $0, then **$20/month** unless you cancel. A payment method is required to activate it. [Deal](/deals/chatgpt-plus-students)
• **Gemini, US:** Google AI Pro student plan at $0 for a year, then **$19.99/month** automatically unless you cancel earlier. [Deal](/deals/google-ai-pro-us-students)
• **Gemini, UK:** Google AI Plus at $0 for a year, then **£4.49/month**. [Deal](/deals/google-ai-plus-students)
• **Gemini, India:** Google AI Plus at $0 for a year, then **₹399/month**.
• **Gemini, Germany:** the fine print says the plan renews as Google AI Pro at **€21.99/month** once your student or apprentice status ends, or after four years at most.
• **ElevenReader Ultra (ElevenLabs):** a year at $0 for students with a school email, then it "will automatically renew at the regular annual price" unless you cancel. ElevenReader values that year at $99. We couldn't confirm from the page whether a card is needed at sign-up. See the [ElevenReader Ultra deal](/deals/elevenreader-ultra-students).

**They downgrade you.** Nothing is charged; you just lose the extras.

• **Notion Education Plus** ([deal](/deals/notion-plus-students))**:** if you can't verify with a school email anymore, your workspace moves to the Free plan with your content in it. You re-verify every year.
• **GitHub Copilot Student:** GitHub re-checks eligibility every month. GitHub's docs also say students on this benefit can't cancel the plan themselves.
• **Canva for Campus / Canva Education:** Canva warns you may lose access when you graduate and suggests copying designs to a personal account.

Steps: set it up the day you claim

1. **Write down the first charge date.** For ChatGPT, count four monthly billing periods from your claim date. For Gemini, it's one year from sign-up.
2. **Set two reminders**: one a week before the charge and one two days before. Two is better than one; we've all snoozed a reminder.
3. **Note where you paid.** ChatGPT's help centre is clear that a web subscription is cancelled in ChatGPT, an App Store one through Apple, and a Google Play one through Google Play. Deleting the app cancels nothing.
4. **Add a reminder for graduation.** Notion and Canva don't charge you, but losing your school email means losing the plan. Export or copy anything you need before that happens.

Steps: cancelling each one

**ChatGPT (bought on the web):** sign in, open your account menu, go to Settings, then Billing, and under Cancel plan select Cancel. On iPhone it's Settings, your name, Subscriptions, ChatGPT, Cancel Subscription.

**Gemini / Google AI plan (computer):** go to gemini.google.com, click Settings & help, then Manage subscription. That opens Google One, where you click Cancel membership. When the plan ends you lose the paid extras, including the expanded storage across Drive, Gmail and Photos.

**Perplexity:** if you subscribed on desktop, cancel from your settings page. For app subscriptions, use your phone's subscription settings. Perplexity also says to cancel before deleting your account if you added payment details.

When cancelling early costs you

Read this bit before you cancel "just to be safe" on day one.

• **ChatGPT:** if you cancel during the offer, Plus keeps working to the end of the current billing month, and then the rest of your promo months are gone. The offer can only be redeemed once, so cancelling in month one throws away three months.
• **Gemini:** Google's cancellation page lists what you lose when the plan ends. We couldn't find a clear statement of whether cancelling during the student year keeps the rest of the year, so we'd hold off until close to the renewal date and set that reminder.

If you already got charged

• **ChatGPT:** OpenAI's help centre says cancelling stops future renewals but doesn't refund past charges automatically. If you can't sign in, OpenAI Support can cancel it; they ask for the account email, the last four digits of the card and the date of the last payment (never the full card number).
• **Everything else:** cancel first to stop the next one, then contact the vendor's support. We couldn't confirm refund rules for the others from the pages we read, so we're not going to guess.

The catch

Store billing is its own trap. ChatGPT's offer can't even be applied to a subscription billed through the App Store or Google Play, and those have to be cancelled in the store, not the app. Checked September 25, 2026. Our [list of AI student discounts](/blog/ai-student-discounts) shows the renewal price for every offer.

Checklist

• [ ] Note the claim date and the first charge date for every offer with a card.
• [ ] Set two reminders before each charge.
• [ ] Note where you paid (web, Apple, Google Play).
• [ ] Don't cancel ChatGPT in month one unless you're done with it.
• [ ] Before graduation, export from Notion and copy Canva designs to a personal account.

FAQ

Will ChatGPT charge me after the student offer?

Yes. It renews at $20/month after the four promo months unless you cancel.

Does Gemini's student plan auto-renew?

Yes. Every version we read needs a card at sign-up and charges automatically after the year: $19.99/month in the US, £4.49/month in the UK and ₹399/month in India.

What happens to Notion after I graduate?

If you can't verify with a school email, your workspace moves to the Free plan. Your content stays; you just lose the Plus features.

Can I cancel GitHub Copilot Student?

GitHub's docs say students on the benefit can't cancel it themselves. It isn't charged, and GitHub re-checks eligibility monthly.