Google has announced a major initiative to support higher education across Africa by offering its premium AI subscription, Google AI Pro, free to university students for 12 months.
The offer is available to eligible students aged 18 and above in Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Rwanda, South Africa, and Zimbabwe, granting them access to Google’s most advanced AI tools to enhance learning, research, and creativity.
Through Google’s most capable model, Gemini 2.5 Pro, the initiative aims to equip the next generation of African leaders, innovators, and creators with essential AI literacy. By placing generative AI tools directly in the hands of students, Google seeks to prepare them for a workforce increasingly shaped by AI proficiency.
Speaking on the initiative, Alex Okosi, Managing Director for Google in Sub-Saharan Africa, said: “We are seeing a new wave of innovation in Africa, driven by the energy and ingenuity of our young people. By providing students with access to our most advanced AI tools, we want to empower them to not only excel in their studies but also to become critical builders and shapers of the future. This offer is about democratising access to technology and giving African students the skills to compete and lead on a global stage.”
The Google AI Pro plan provides a comprehensive suite of tools designed to meet the demands of academic and creative life across four major areas — Supercharged Learning and Research, Time-Saving Efficiency, Enhanced Organisation and Creativity, and Massive Storage.
Under Supercharged Learning and Research, students can summarise academic papers, debug code, and receive step-by-step guidance on complex academic challenges.
The Time-Saving Efficiency feature leverages Deep Research to generate comprehensive, cited reports from hundreds of web sources within minutes, transforming how students handle long-form assignments and dissertations.
For Enhanced Organisation and Creativity, users can access NotebookLM to organise notes and link ideas, while Veo 3 allows them to instantly transform text prompts or images into short, high-quality videos for projects and presentations.
The Massive Storage component offers 2TB of cloud storage across Google Drive, Gmail, and Google Photos, providing ample space for coursework, research data, and creative portfolios.
To sign up, university students in eligible institutions can verify their status and activate the 12-month free plan by visiting gemini.google/students. The registration process is simple — students only need to verify their student status through approved methods and confirm a payment method without incurring any charges.
The offer will be available for redemption for 60 days, from October 7, 2025, to December 9, 2025.
According to Google, the student offer builds on the company’s long-standing commitment to Africa’s digital transformation. Through initiatives such as the Google for Startups Accelerator Africa and the Digital Skills for Africa programme, millions of individuals and businesses across the continent have benefited from Google’s digital empowerment efforts.
This new AI education support programme represents another significant step in Google’s broader mission to make cutting-edge technology accessible to African youth. By investing in the digital skills and tools of tomorrow, Google hopes to foster a generation of innovators capable of driving technological progress and sustainable growth across the continent.
