Google today announced a major initiative to support higher education across Africa by offering its premium AI subscription, Google AI Pro for free to university students for 12 months.
The offer is available to eligible students aged 18+ in Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, and Zimbabwe, providing them with access to Google's most advanced AI tools to enhance their learning, research, and creative work.
Through Google's most capable model, Gemini 2.5 Pro, this initiative will equip the next generation of African leaders, innovators, and creators with fundamental AI literacy. By placing powerful generative AI tools directly in the hands of students, Google is helping to prepare them for a workforce where AI proficiency is increasingly essential.
"We are seeing a new wave of innovation in Africa, driven by the energy and ingenuity of our young people," said Alex Okosi, Managing Director for Google in Sub-Saharan Africa. "By providing students with access to our most advanced AI tools, we want to empower them to not only excel in their studies but also to become critical builders and shapers of the future. This offer is about democratizing access to technology and giving African students the skills to compete and lead on a global stage."
The Google AI Pro plan includes advanced features designed to enhance academic performance and creativity. Students can use Guided Learning to summarize academic papers, debug code, and gain step-by-step explanations for complex topics. With Deep Research, they can generate comprehensive, well-cited reports from hundreds of web sources within minutes, transforming how they approach long-form assignments and dissertations. NotebookLM helps students organize notes and connect ideas seamlessly, while Veo 3 allows them to transform text prompts or images into short, high-quality videos for projects and presentations. Additionally, the plan comes with 2 TB of storage across Google Drive, Gmail, and Photos, providing ample space for coursework, research data, and creative files.
How to Sign Up
University students in eligible higher education institutions and countries can verify their status and activate the 12-month free plan by visiting gemini.google/students. The process is designed to be simple, requiring students to verify their status through various methods and to add or confirm a form of payment (without incurring any charges). The offer will be available for redemption for 60 days, from October 7, 2025, to December 9, 2025.
This student offer builds on Google's long-standing commitment to Africa's digital transformation through programs like the Google for Startups Accelerator Africa and the Digital Skills for Africa initiative, which have helped millions of people and businesses grow.
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