Cursor has a generous student discount program for university students who are actively enrolled on a full-time basis, have 1) a .edu email address, and 2) are able to verify their identity through SheerID.
Cursor Team members are unable to manually override the two firm requirements that are required to receive this student. Students who have email addresses that are not .edu email addresses exactly are unable to participate in this program. For example, .edu.au is not eligible.
Program Benefits: Verified students that complete the SheerID verification step and have a .edu email address can receive 12 months of Cursor Pro for free. After the 12 months, you’ll be billed at normal prices for the Cursor Pro subscription.
How to apply
Sign in to Cursor at cursor.com using your school email address.
Go to cursor.com/students (or the Student Verification section in your Dashboard settings).
Click Verify Status — you’ll be redirected to SheerID to confirm your enrollment. You may be asked to verify via your school email, SSO, a student ID, or recent enrollment documents (e.g., class schedule or transcript dated within the last 3 months).
After SheerID approves you, return to Cursor and click Apply Discount.
New users: You’ll be sent to Stripe to finish signup. Add a payment method — you won’t be charged during your 12 free months for the regular subscription price. You can optionally enable on-demand usage (and will be charged for) additional usage beyond what’s included in the Cursor Pro subscription.
Existing Pro users: Your current subscription is automatically cancelled, your unused time is refunded, and a new discounted subscription begins immediately.
FAQs:
I completed the verification step successfully, and I don’t see the Cursor Pro subscription reflected in my account after clicking “Apply Discount”
There is a lag time between approval and activation of your Cursor Pro subscription, please be patient and return later to see your subscription updated.
Can I renew the discount after 1 year?
No, the student discount is once per lifetime
I am a high school student, can I receive the discount?
Only college and university students at accredited schools can receive the discount.
SheerID says my ID is blurry, can you manually approve me?
Cursor Team members are unable to manually override the SheerID requirement. You will need to reach out to Contact SheerID | Talk to Our Team
I don’t have a credit card to use, can I get the discount without a credit card?
No, the student discount program requires a valid card be on file.
I was charged after the 12 months, why?
Your subscription renews automatically at the normal price unless cancelled. You can manage your account here: https://cursor.com/dashboard/billing including cancelling or renewing.
Does my Cursor email need to match my university email?
Yes — sign in with the same .edu address you verify. Non .edu emails will not work.
Is my country supported?
The student discount is currently only available to students with .edu email addresses in the USA. If your institution is outside the USA or doesn’t use a .edu domain, you’re not eligible at this time. However, you can join the discussion and register your interest here: Student Verifications outside USA and organizations without .edu email
Getting Support:
For student verification issues, please contact Sheer ID Support: Contact SheerID | Talk to Our Team . The Cursor Team is unable to manually override this SheerID requirement.
For billing questions: Please email [email protected] from your .edu email address. Billing questions are questions like “How do I enable on-demand usage?”
Hi,
My core problem is a name mismatch: my name in the Karlsruhe institute of technology university database is the short version of my legal name, but my government-issued documents (Turkish national ID and passport) show my full legal name. SheerID’s automated system cannot match these two names, so every document I submitted was rejected.
I tried verifying with:
Turkish national ID
Turkish passport
German residence visa
None of them passed. After multiple failed attempts, my account is now locked with “Verification Limit Exceeded”, so I cannot even submit a new request.
SheerID support told me to resubmit with better photos, but this is not a photo quality issue. It is a structural name mismatch between my university records and my legal documents that cannot be fixed on my end.
I have been approved for the student discount through SheerID. I need help with applying the student discount to my Cursor account.
After clicking the “Apply Discount” link in the email, it takes me to Cursor’s Stripe page. However, the discount has not been applied. I’ve been facing the same issue for several months with the Sam AI consistently telling me to contact SheerID and SheerID telling me to contact that email, where I cannot even get through to a human. What do I need to do to fix this issue?
Hi, I’m a UT Austin student and I think I’m running into the email mismatch issue that Dan described in the FAQ thread.
My SheerID verification was approved back in March 2026, but my Cursor dashboard still shows “Verify your student status” and the button on Cursor · Students doesn’t open a checkout. I believe the issue is that UT Austin has two email aliases pointing to the same inbox – I completed the SheerID verification with one alias and my Cursor account is registered under the other. Based on Dan’s note that the emails need to match exactly, I think that’s why the approval never linked to my account. I’m logged in here with my .edu student email.
Apolgies in advance if this has already been solved before, the Cursor Support bot (Sam) has been of no help. I’ve been reouted from Cursor to SheerID over and over again and this has been ongoing for 2 months. Would really appreciate a DM or an email if someone can help sort this out.
Hi,
I am trying to claim the 1 Free Year of Cursor student offer, but I keep encountering an error during the SheerID verification process. It says: “We are unable to verify you at this time.”
I have .edu email, but your AI system won’t let my try using it or even help! … I crested this account with student email. Please help. I used SheerID a lot of times with YouTube, gemini,so they accept this email
I am experiencing a unique account issue where my student verification was fully approved by SheerID Senior Support, but my Cursor dashboard is stuck showing the “Verify Student Status” button instead of “Apply Discount.”
Right around the time of approval, I had to delete and recreate my Cursor account under my university .edu email. Because of this, the successful verification token appears to be disconnected from my current active account. Clicking the verification button now just throws a “Verification Limit Exceeded” error on SheerID because I am already approved in their system.
SheerID support confirmed they cannot alter Cursor’s database and instructed me to provide Cursor team members with my official verification logs and Request ID so it can be manually synced to my current profile.
I am logged into both Cursor and this Forum with the same .edu email. Could a staff member please send me a DM so I can safely share my SheerID Request ID and approval details to get this resolved? Thank you!
Hi @kevinn
I am facing the token sync issue. SheerID Senior Support has manually approved my verification (Request ID: 6a0480b2c65569375c97e09b), but clicking ‘Apply Discount’ not redirected me to Stripe with student price visible, it brings me back to the Dashboard which required verification of Student Status again, and lead to the ‘Verification Limit Exceeded’ error as a loop. I am logged in with my approved school email. Could a staff member please help sync this or take a look? Thank you!
I am a second-year CS - Software Engineering student at Colorado State University - Fort Collins. I was able to verify my student status through SheerID, and received the discount application email. However, our school uses our student ID (NetID) as our formal email address for the school, then allows us to create a forwarding alias with our name. I created the account with the alias address, but they were unable to verify my status with that address. I went through the verification process again using the formal NetID email address and was able to verify my status. When I clicked the redemption link in the email it led me to the dashboard but didn’t apply the student discount. Please advise me on how to proceed from here.
I am a Master’s student in Germany trying to use Cursor for a university project. I tried to verify my student status using my official university email (which has a .de domain), but the system automatically blocked me with a ‘Not eligible’ message. How can I manually verify my student status as an international student?
I’m in a unique situation that isn’t covered by the FAQs and I’m hoping you can help directly.
I got SheerID approved on May 19, 2026 (Verification ID: 6a0b370131816a654cb83f47) but during the flow I was accidentally logged into a friend’s Cursor account instead of my own. The verification got tied to his account.
Here’s why this is different from a standard wrong-account case: my friend CANNOT activate the discount either, because his account email doesn’t match my .edu email. Cursor’s own policy requires an email match. So the discount is permanently stuck — unused and unactivatable by anyone.
SheerID confirmed in writing: “the offer has not been redeemed” and that “Cursor’s team has the ability to potentially make an exception.”
@kevinn Since March, my student account has been successfully verified by SheerID. However, it’s been more than two months now, and I still can’t apply the student discount to my Cursor account.
I’ve emailed [email protected] multiple times, but all I get are automated responses, and there seems to be no real effort to resolve the issue. I’ve also replied in this forum several times, but the only response I keep getting is: “Please email [email protected] from your .edu email.”
Are the replies on this forum coming from bots as well, not actual humans?
