Google announced today that it will be offering eligible college students within the U.S. one year of its AI Pro for free. The plan costs US$19.99 a month (or RM97.99 a month in Malaysia) and allows for 4x higher usage limits in Gemini, access to Gemini Spark, Gemini integrations in Google apps, 5TB of cloud storage, Google Health Premium, and more, or so the company says.
Meanwhile, eligible college students outside of the U.S. can apply as well, but they will only receive a Google AI Plus plan for a year instead. This is a leaner version of the AI Pro plan, which is priced at RM23.99 a month, grants access to Gemini Omni, 2x higher usage limits in Gemini, 400GB of cloud storage, and more.
Additionally, the tech giant is also offering Google AI Pro and a YouTube Premium subscription in a heavily discounted bundle that is up to 70% off. It’s worth noting that, while those outside of the U.S. seem to be getting the shorter of a stick, there seems to be a catch that applies to both regions.
Engadget says plans like this will automatically renew at full price once the one-year free subscription has passed. So if college consumers do not want to get charged, it’s best to set a reminder ahead of time. Regardless, if you are a student and you wish to apply, you can do so here.
Student Hub
In conjunction with this announcement, Google is also launching the new student hub. This feature is built within the Gemini app and allows students to stay organised, create flashcards, create a “study notebook”, and take practice tests. The search giant also noted that this new feature will receive more tools in the future but did not elaborate on what they will be.
Study Notebooks
The “study notebooks” feature is another teaching tool within the Gemini app that debuted in June of this year. Google says that this tool can help students understand their material with a step-by-step learning process.
Students are first told to upload their own class materials to the feature. Then, Gemini will set up a “gameplan” that will break down the topics into more manageable materials. Users have the option to take a diagnostic quiz to identify their knowledge gaps so that it can create “custom, bite-sized lessons and quizzes” for them.
Google says that it will update the study notebooks to be even more helpful with graphs and images as part of its lesson plan. Furthermore, Gemini will provide a schedule of key dates like exams and due dates in Google Calendar from the uploaded syllabus, but only if the user allows it.
(Source: Google Blog)
