Education
Free access for students and educators as a long-term funnel.
Counts as evidence: A named education program described by the company.
Who ran it
Zoom · The pandemic surge · 2020 to 2021
Education Tried, then droppedZoom lifted the 40-minute limit for K-12 schools country by country from March 2020, stopped taking new requests in November 2021, and ended the lift on June 30, 2022. The company does not say whether this was a funnel or crisis relief.
Cursor · Word of mouth compounding · 2024 to 2025
Education SupportingFrom May 2025 verified students in eligible countries and schools could claim a year of Pro free. The current student page no longer states that offer.
Figma · Paid plans, first sales rep, Community and education · 2017 to 2020
Education SupportingThe Professional plan has been free for students and educators from the beginning, and K-12 schools get a higher tier free. The S-1 gives no launch date for the program beyond "from the beginning".
Figma · FigJam, Dev Mode, Enterprise and the Adobe deal · 2021 to 2023
Education SupportingWhile the Adobe deal was pending, Figma committed publicly that all of Figma would stay free for education. The deal was terminated in December 2023.
Anthropic · Claude Code and the enterprise build-out · 2025 to 2025
Education SupportingClaude for Education launched with campus-wide access at Northeastern, LSE, and Champlain College, a Claude Campus Ambassadors program, and API credits for student projects.
Replit · Learn to code in the browser · 2016 to 2020
Education PrimaryReplit built teacher tooling from 2016, then in 2020 sold Teams for Education at $35 per team per month with unlimited students. The CEO says learning to code was the predominant use case and grew the platform.
Replit · Community platform and paid power · 2021 to 2023
Education Tried, then droppedTeams for Education, a paid product, was deprecated in November 2023 with new team creation disabled, and removed with data deleted on August 1, 2024. Replit gave no reason.
Notion · Community, templates and a free personal plan · 2019 to 2021
Education SupportingStudents and educators with a school email get paid-plan features free. No fetched source dates the launch; the 2022 pricing post shows the plan already existed.
Canva · Free editor, search pages and word of mouth · 2013 to 2015
Education SupportingDesign School launched in November 2014 with a teacher resources portal and lesson plans for classroom use. This was free design education, not free product seats, and Canva said it was already taught in hundreds of schools and universities.
Canva · Teams, classrooms and the workplace · 2020 to 2023
Education PrimaryCanva for Education is free for K-12 teachers, students, schools, districts and ministries. Los Angeles Unified provisioned every teacher, student and staff member, NSW made it available to all public schools, and by December 2023 more than 60 million students and teachers used it.
Canva · Enterprise rebuilt, pro tools and AI distribution · 2024 to now
Education PrimaryBy July 2025, 100 million teachers, students and education leaders used Canva every month, and education ministries in countries including the Philippines, Indonesia and Poland opened it to every public school teacher and student.
Lovable · Credits, giveaways, and a community at scale · 2025 to 2026
Education SupportingFrom August 2025 verified students worldwide get 50% off Pro. The offer now covers students and teachers for up to 12 months.
OpenAI · Self-serve teams, ecosystem, and campus · 2024 to 2025
Education SupportingChatGPT Edu for universities launched in May 2024. In November 2025 ChatGPT for Teachers was made free for verified U.S. K-12 educators through June 2028.