Student Pack approved but Copilot still asks me to upgrade to Pro

[keremdemirios]

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Copilot Feature Area

Copilot in GitHub

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Hi everyone,

I recently applied for GitHub Education and my student status has already been approved.
However, GitHub Copilot still asks me to upgrade to the Pro plan, even though the Student Pack should include Copilot access.

Is there something I need to do manually to activate Copilot for students, or is this a known delay/issue?

Any guidance would be appreciated. Thank you!

[iyawnnn]

Even after your GitHub Student Developer Pack is approved, GitHub Copilot access isn’t always activated automatically. You may need to manually claim it by going to GitHub Education Pack → GitHub Copilot → “Activate for free”. If it’s already activated and Copilot still prompts you to upgrade, it could be a temporary delay in syncing your student status, or your account might not be correctly linked to the Student Pack. In that case, contacting GitHub Education Support is the fastest way to verify your Copilot access and resolve the issue.

Make sure you’re logged into the correct GitHub account associated with your Student Pack when performing these steps.

[yassine-krichen]

This happens pretty often after the Student Pack gets approved. Copilot doesn’t unlock instantly; there’s usually a delay while GitHub syncs your Education status across the account.

A couple things you can try:

Log out and back into GitHub.

Go to Settings → Copilot and check if the “student” option shows up after a refresh.

Make sure your GitHub account has no old trial or cancelled subscription stuck in the billing page, that can block it from switching you to the student plan.

Sometimes it takes a few hours (occasionally up to 24) before Copilot recognizes the new Education status.

If none of that fixes it, open a ticket with GitHub Education Support. They can manually push the entitlement through.

It’s a pretty common delay, not something you did wrong.

[imoliveira404]

Hi! 👋
If your Student Pack was approved but Copilot still shows the “upgrade to Pro” message, this is usually a sync delay on GitHub’s side. You can try the following:

1. Visit the Copilot settings page directly:
   https://github.com/settings/copilot
   If your student benefits are active, it should let you enable Copilot without requiring Pro.
2. Open in an incognito window to bypass cached billing data.
3. Check the Education benefits status:
   https://education.github.com/benefits/status
   If anything shows “needs more information”, update it.
   If everything looks correct and Copilot still doesn’t activate, it’s a known delay and opening a ticket here usually solves it quickly:
   https://support.github.com/contact?tags=education
   Hope it helps!

[davevad93]

Hi @keremdemirios,

The waiting time may vary depending on different factors, such as the volume of requests; it usually takes a few days, but sometimes it can take a little longer, even a couple of weeks.

Once benefits become available, you can claim your Copilot PRO offer on this signup link.

To redeem others benefits, go to the pack offers page, scroll down to the "All offers" section and select any offer that suits you.

In case you encounter a problem claiming any offer, I recommend you raise a ticket here, select "I am a verified student having trouble redeeming my Global Campus offers" and explain your issue.

[ultramynd]

Mine redirects to a Github copilot 30 days trial:
Try Copilot Pro for 30 days free
Everything in Copilot Free and:

Unlimited agent mode and chat with GPT-5[*](https://docs.github.com/copilot/managing-copilot/monitoring-usage-and-entitlements/about-premium-requests)
Unlimited code completions[*](https://docs.github.com/copilot/managing-copilot/monitoring-usage-and-entitlements/about-premium-requests)
Access to Anthropic Claude Sonnet 4, GPT-5, Gemini 2.5 Pro, and more
300 premium requests to use the latest models and code review

[chienlb]

What you should do now
Step 1 — Check if Copilot can now be activated
Go to
https://github.com/settings/copilot
Look for:
“Free for verified students” badge
A button to enable Copilot
Step 2 — Sign out and back into GitHub
Especially important if you're using Copilot in VS Code.
Step 3 — If nothing works, contact GitHub Education support
Use: https://support.github.com/contact
Choose GitHub Education → GitHub Student Developer Pack.
They can manually refresh your entitlement.

[abdullahhafizh]

Why GitHub Copilot Still Asks You to Upgrade (Even After Your Student Status Was Approved)

1. Main question analysis

Your GitHub Education status is approved, but Copilot keeps demanding you upgrade to Pro. This usually means the Copilot benefit hasn’t fully attached to your account yet, or you haven’t gone through the specific activation route GitHub hides like a secret side quest.

2. Hidden assumptions

• You expected the Student Pack to auto-activate Copilot.
• GitHub expected you to magically know there’s a separate activation button.
• Their backend occasionally behaves like old hardware forced to run modern software.

3. Alternatives / counter-arguments

• You might be mixing accounts (Student Pack on one email, Copilot on another).
• The UI may be showing cached data.
• Some users report activation delays from a few hours to several days for no clear reason beyond “the server felt like it.”

4. What you actually need to do

Since GitHub refuses to make this straightforward, here’s the real checklist:

A. Check your Student Pack status

Go to:

https://education.github.com/pack

Make sure it says Active.

B. Open your Copilot settings

Go to:

https://github.com/settings/copilot

If it still asks you to upgrade, continue below.

C. Activate Copilot through the Student Pack page

This is the step people usually miss.

You must activate Copilot from the Student Pack offer page, not from the normal Copilot upgrade button.

Look for something like:

“Get Copilot with your Student Benefit”

If you don’t see it, refresh, log out/in, or try incognito mode.

D. Clear your browser cache or try another browser

GitHub’s UI loves to get stuck.

E. Give it some time

A lot of students reported delays of several hours up to three days before Copilot recognized their student entitlement.

F. If nothing works after about a week

Contact GitHub Education Support:

• Choose: Student Developer Pack
• Issue: Approved but Copilot still asks to upgrade
• Include screenshots of your Pack dashboard + Copilot settings.

5. Logical conclusion

No, Copilot does not activate automatically the moment your student status is approved.
Yes, you need to manually claim it via the Student Pack page.
And yes, GitHub’s systems sometimes sync at the speed of a sleepy tortoise.

6. Extra insight

You’re not alone. This is a common issue because Copilot Pro and the Student Pack run on different internal systems, and their sync process occasionally behaves like two people texting across different timelines.