Apple TV Plus
Free with Apple Music subscription
Amazon Prime Student
6 months free, then $69 a year
Being a college student can be tough. Most days, it feels like a constant struggle — not just emotionally and mentally but most of all financially. I can testify to this, having recently graduated from college, where I ate nothing but croutons and cereal for a week to avoid grocery shopping. Luckily, thanks to Spotify and Hulu’s student discounts, paying outstanding fees for these streaming services was one financial burden I didn’t have to worry about.
Trying to find the best student discounts used to be tough, but times have changed. Recognizing the financial strain on college students, many companies now offer student discounts to help ease this stress and, hopefully, attain a life-long customer in the process. You just have to verify your student status. For example, with a valid .edu school email address or proof of enrollment (via a validation service such as SheerID or Unidays), you can score the best student discounts on Microsoft Office, Spotify and Hulu subscriptions and even Amazon Prime.
In this article, we’ve rounded up all the best student discount opportunities. Be sure to check with your school’s housing department and student bookstore as well, where you might find certain streaming services for free or cheap. You can also find extra discounts on devices and software. For more information, see the best free apps for college students who need to save money and time, plus the best student credit cards.
Read more: Best Laptops for College for 2023
Student discounts on fitness and entertainment
These popular music and video streaming services give you breaks on subscriptions once you verify your student status. And Peloton just got in on the act as well.
Dying to watch the iCarly reboot but can’t afford Paramount Plus?
You don’t need a Peloton bike in order to take Peloton classes, which include not only cycling, but also HIIT, running, strength training, yoga and more. The Peloton app offers all that via phone, tablet and most streaming devices.
Apple’s streaming service is already fairly affordable at $7 a month, but if you’re a full-time student, you can sign up for a student subscription (see below) and you’ll get Apple TV Plus at no extra charge. Students can get these two services bundled together for $6 a month, as described below. Decisions, decisions!
In addition to hardware discounts (see below), Apple offers its Music subscription service for students for up to four years. That subscription nets you access to some 50 million songs, and it’s accessible on all your Apple devices. You also get Apple TV Plus.
Normally $12 a month, YouTube Premium is a two-fer: You get ad-free YouTube videos (including the option to download them for offline viewing) and unlimited access to YouTube Music for just $7 a month.
Not to be confused with the Prime Music benefit, which is included with an Amazon Prime subscription, or Prime Student, which you can read about below. Music Unlimited is Amazon’s full-on, massive-library music service, which rivals the likes of Apple Music and Spotify. Anyone who has a student subscription can get Music Unlimited for just $6 a month after a free 30-day trial — by far the cheapest music-streaming option anywhere.
Arguably the best student deal in the history of student deals, Spotify Premium offers a $5 ad-free plan that includes Hulu (ad-supported). Nonstudents pay a minimum of $10 and $8 a month, for a grand total of $18. That’s an awful lot of entertainment for $5.
If you don’t need or want Spotify or Showtime, Hulu proper now offers a dirt-cheap deal for students: Just $2 monthly for the standard plan (meaning with commercials), $6 off the regular price.
Keeping up with the news as a college student can be particularly challenging as online newspapers begin to up their subscription prices and print newspapers go out of business. If you want to stay in touch with what’s happening in the world but don’t want to pay outrageous subscription prices, The Wall Street Journal has the package for you.
Student discounts on education
Need help studying? Here are some of the best sources to help with learning, writing papers and acing the test.
Chances are, most college students have used Quizlet once or twice to help out with a study guide. Quizlet makes it easy for students to study using flash cards, practice exams and more. Even better, you can look at flash cards made by other users to help with your studying.
Chegg stands out as a college favorite for homework help, writing assistance and exam prep. Additionally, Chegg offers students the opportunity to buy new and used textbooks as well as a platform to sell them.
Student discounts on money management
If there’s one thing most students could use a hand with, it’s managing money.
You Need a Budget offers a wealth of tools and classes to that end. It normally costs $99 a year or $15 per month, but as a student you can get the first year absolutely free. But be warned, unlike a lot of other digital services, the only way you get this discount is by submitting physical proof of enrollment to the company.
Financial institutions may offer student deals as well. Bank of America, for example, will waive monthly fees if you do all your banking through its banking app and ATMs.
Wells Fargo offers a similar deal to Bank of America’s and will waive monthly fees for students 17 to 24 years old.
Student discounts on apps and software
While you may be able to get software at a discount through your school’s bookstore, you won’t do any better than free.
Microsoft sells Office Home & Student for $150. But you can do better than that with the free Office 365 Education, which gives you access to the online versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Microsoft Teams (the latter is potentially useful for organizing and executing group projects) and other Office apps for free. All that’s required is a valid school email address.
Evernote gives students 40% off the professional version for a year. That works out to $6 a month for industrial-strength note-taking. After that first year, however, the price goes back to the regular $11 monthly.
Student discounts on shopping and tech
From Amazon to Groupon, you can save up to 50% on services and devices.
Read more: All the latest coupons from Amazon, Best Buy, Groupon, Lenovo and Microsoft.
With an Amazon Prime Student membership, you can all get the benefits of a Prime subscription for half the price of the regular service. The student program includes free one- and two-day shipping, video streaming via Prime Video, Prime Reading, Prime Music, discounts at Whole Foods, and unlimited online photo storage through Prime Photos.
Best Buy offers student savings on a wide variety of products, from laptops to TVs to mini fridges. To get the discounts (which in some cases can be applied to existing sale prices), you need to create or sign into your My Best Buy account, then sign up for student deals. Thankfully, you don’t need an .edu email address, and in fact you don’t actually have to be a student; parents of college and K-12 students can sign up as well.
Groupon’s program affords college students an extra 25% off food, drink, activity and other local deals. That’s for the first six months. After that, you save 15% for as long as you remain an eligible student.
Students, teachers and administrators can all score an extra 5% off Lenovo’s laptops and that’s on top of any existing sales or bundles (with a few exclusions, of course). You’ll have to provide verification at checkout.
Adorama’s new program promises exclusive discounts on video, audio and photography gear, from brands like Sigma, Sony and Fujifilm. To sign up, just set up an Adorama account and then use Sheer ID to verify your student status.