Zed Pro free for 12 months — $120 of AI credits via a $0 university email

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AI-generated summary

:bullseye: What you get: Get 12 months of Zed Pro for free, including $10 monthly AI credits, using an eligible university email domain.

:white_check_mark: Start here:

  • UNED Portal — grab a free @alumno.uned.es university address without proof of enrollment.
  • Zed Education — log in with a 30-day-old GitHub account, enter your student email, and verify the inbox link.

:warning: Watch out: Heavy coding sessions can drain the $10 credit cap quickly, and high-end models like Claude Opus are excluded.

1

Zed Pro free for 12 months — $120 of AI credits on a $0 university email

it all rests on one fact: Zed checks your university domain, not your enrolment papers

What you walk away with — Zed Pro is $10 a month (zed.dev/pricing); the student plan makes it free for a year:

  • :white_check_mark: all Pro features for 12 months
  • :white_check_mark: $10 a month in AI token credits — $120 across the year
  • :white_check_mark: no card, no payment details — GitHub sign-in plus the school inbox
  • :white_check_mark: unlimited edit predictions
  • :white_check_mark: real-time multiplayer collab
  • :cross_mark: not included: Claude Fable, Claude Opus, GPT Pro models

Step 1 — a university email, $0

UNED (Spain’s distance university) issues a real @alumno.uned.es inbox from a self-serve form — no enrolment, no fee: app.uned.es/soid.

The address arrives the same sitting.

Already have a school email? Skip to Step 2.

Step 2 — claim the plan

zed.dev/education → apply → sign in with GitHub (account 30+ days old — never the university email) → enter your @alumno.uned.es address → confirm in its inbox.

Why it actually works — and the fine print

The gate is the domain, not a document. Zed’s own FAQ: “We verify student status using JetBrains’ open source database of university domains.” uned.es is in that list, so a real @alumno.uned.es inbox clears — no ID, no class schedule. Look the list up yourself at github.com/JetBrains/swot.

The fine print

  • eligibility wording says “currently enrolled, 18+” — the actual check is the domain list, which is why the UNED mailbox passes
  • the student plan out-credits the paid Pro — $10 a month vs Pro’s $5
  • the 12 months auto-downgrade to Free at the end; upgrade to Pro any time
  • stuck? [email protected] answers within 72 hours

If it ever stops working — Zed’s own 14-day Pro trial (zed.dev/pricing) ships $5 of hosted AI + unlimited edit predictions, no card required.

The door was always the domain.

2

Good find for students with a university email. Before relying on it for a full year, I would check two things first: whether the student status is rechecked partway through, and what the plan drops to when the 12 months end. The monthly credit amount also matters more than the headline total, since a heavy week of AI-assisted coding can eat through it fast. Worth testing on one real project first and keeping a free editor setup as a fallback, so there is no forced switch mid-project if the credits run out.