Google is handing college students a free year of a paid AI subscription. The offer went live on 19 August and runs until 31 December 2026.
Before you sign up, there’s one detail that most reports on Bangladesh have omitted: the plan you receive will depend entirely on where you live, and it almost certainly won’t be the one advertised in the headlines.
Two different offers, not one
Google split the promotion into two tiers.
Students in the United States get Google AI Pro, normally priced at $19.99 a month — roughly $240 over a year. Students in more than 140 other markets get Google AI Plus, which normally costs $4.99 a month.
These are not the same product with different labels. The gap is substantial.
| Google AI Pro (US) | Google AI Plus (140+ markets) | |
|---|---|---|
| Normal price | $19.99/month | $4.99/month |
| Gemini usage limits | 4x free tier | 2x free tier |
| Cloud storage | 5 TB | 400 GB |
| Gemini Spark | Included | Not listed |
| Gemini in Gmail and Docs | Included | Not listed |
| Google Health Premium | Included | Not listed |
| Gemini Omni | — | Included |
Where Bangladesh sits
Google has published a list of markets excluded from the AI Plus offer: Canada, Hong Kong, Macau, Albania, Bolivia and Tunisia. The United States is also outside it, because US students receive AI Pro instead.
Bangladesh does not appear on that exclusion list. On that basis, Bangladeshi students are most likely covered by the AI Plus offer.
We haven’t found any source where Google explicitly mentions Bangladesh, so we can’t confirm it. Check the offer page while logged into your Google account; this page reads your account’s country settings and will show you what benefits you’re entitled to.
Who is eligible
The requirements are the same across both tiers:
- You must be a college or university student
- You must be at least 18 years old
- You need a personal Google account, not a school-managed one
- You must verify student status with a valid school email address, through SheerID when requested
- A valid payment method must be on the account at sign-up
That third point catches people out. If your university issues you a Google Workspace account, the offer will not work on it. Sign in with a personal Gmail address instead and try again.
The part that is not free
This is a free year, not a free trial that quietly lapses.
Google’s own terms are direct about it: unless cancelled first, the subscription automatically charges full price when the twelve months end. For AI Pro that is $19.99 a month. For AI Plus it is $4.99 a month, or the local currency equivalent.
You are handing over card details today for a charge that will not appear until August 2027 — by which point most people will have forgotten they ever signed up.
If you do not intend to keep paying, set a calendar reminder for eleven months from your sign-up date. That single step is worth more than anything else in this article.
What else launched alongside it
The subscription was announced as part of a wider back-to-school push.
Google has opened a dedicated student hub inside the Gemini app, built around study notebooks, flashcards and practice quizzes rather than open-ended chat. Study notebooks can add exam dates to Google Calendar if you grant permission.
Separately, interactive 3D visuals and Deep Research inside Gemini Live are rolling out to the broader Gemini app — those are not restricted to this promotion.
Google is also offering an AI Pro and YouTube Premium bundle at $8.99 a month, down from a combined $35.98.
Why Google is doing this
Free years of a $240 product do not appear by accident.
Gemini surpassed one billion monthly active users three months ago, closely following OpenAI’s strategy of offering free student access to ChatGPT. The back-to-school season is when AI companies compete most fiercely for users most likely to stick with a single virtual assistant for years.
An auto-renewing subscription for a student who isn’t yet paying anything represents a cost-effective customer acquisition strategy. This doesn’t mean the offer is bad: a year of free access to an effective AI tool is very valuable. It simply explains why the terms are structured this way.
In short
Bangladeshi students can very likely claim a free year of Google AI Plus, not AI Pro. Verify on the offer page with a personal Gmail account, use your university email for student verification, and put a reminder in your calendar before the year runs out.
The deadline to claim is 31 December 2026.
Sources: Google’s Gemini blog announcement of 19 August 2026, MacRumors, Engadget via The Next Web, AndroidPure, Technology.org, TechBriefly.
