Discounts, Free Trials, and Hacks
Community-documented ways to lower AI costs: nonprofit discounts, free trials, and referral deals. Verify before relying.
On this page
- Still working (as of May 2026)
- Perplexity Pro: 1 year free via Samsung Galaxy Store
- Gemini: 4 months free
- Google AI Studio: free
- Google Workspace Nonprofit: bundled Gemini
- Gemini Plus: $6/month
- ChatGPT Go: $8/month
- ChatGPT for Teachers: free through 2027
- Codex for Open Source: 6 months free ChatGPT Pro
- Claude for Nonprofits: 75% off (5-seat minimum)
- Anthropic Skilljar: free training
- Amex and ChatGPT Business hack
- Lovable gift cards and occasional free windows
- Manus.im: invitation link
- Cursor: 50% first month
- Turboscribe: 3 free transcriptions/day
- transcribe.ivrit.ai: free Hebrew
- Wispr Flow: free tier
- Google Pinpoint: free transcription
- Sunsama: 50% nonprofit plus free trial
- Monday.com: limited nonprofit free tier
- Fillout: nonprofit discounts
- Zmanim Graphics: 3 months free
- Little Green Light: $100 credit
- Expired
- Hard to qualify
- Tools designed to compound savings
- Caveats
- Related
What the community has documented as ways to lower AI costs. Offers change, so verify before relying on any of them.
Important: every offer here has an expiry date, vendor discretion, or waitlist status. This list was current as of mid-2026. Treat all entries as leads to check, not guarantees; pricing and availability change frequently.
See Paid vs Free for the broader debate.
Still working (as of May 2026)
Perplexity Pro: 1 year free via Samsung Galaxy Store
On a Samsung phone, download Perplexity from the Galaxy Store and create an account; you automatically get a Pro account free for one year. You can then access that account from anywhere.
Gemini: 4 months free
Referral link: g.co/g1referral/ZAPZU83S.
Google AI Studio: free
aistudio.google.com ships $300 in free credit for new API users. It lets you use Gemini Pro or Nano Banana via the API for free within the rate limits, and it has a vibe-coding canvas.
Google Workspace Nonprofit: bundled Gemini
If your Chabad House qualifies as a 501(c)(3), you get Gemini for Workspace plus the storage tier. Caveat: adding Gemini sometimes downgrades the shared-drive tier, so talk to your admin first.
Gemini Plus: $6/month
The cheaper tier released around November 2025. Less generous than Pro.
ChatGPT Go: $8/month
A middle tier between free and Plus, released in February 2026. Sufficient for most shluchim who use AI a couple of times a day.
ChatGPT for Teachers: free through 2027
openai.com/index/chatgpt-for-teachers. Qualifying educators (including yeshiva and day-school staff in some cases) get free access through 2027.
Codex for Open Source: 6 months free ChatGPT Pro
openai.com/form/codex-for-oss, for open-source developers.
Claude for Nonprofits: 75% off (5-seat minimum)
claude.com/solutions/nonprofits. A five-seat plan works out to about $40/month total (five $20 seats, less 75%).
Anthropic Skilljar: free training
anthropic.skilljar.com hosts Anthropic's free Claude certification courses. Useful when onboarding a Chabad-House team.
Amex and ChatGPT Business hack
Via Dan's Deals: get 2 ChatGPT Business seats for the price of 1 for up to 4 years, which pairs well with the $300 annual Amex credit. See the Dan's Deals writeup.
Lovable gift cards and occasional free windows
The community has distributed $25 Lovable gift cards, and Lovable opened a roughly 24-hour free window during the megillah.app sprint.
Manus.im: invitation link
manus.im/invitation/K0TGDPJ7OIFCWG, a referral link that stretches the free-credit budget.
Cursor: 50% first month
Referral link: cursor.com/referral?code=NKUHQBD2D1ZI.
Turboscribe: 3 free transcriptions/day
turboscribe.ai; the bulk plan is $20/month. The best value the chat has found for bulk English transcription.
transcribe.ivrit.ai: free Hebrew
Free transcription for Hebrew audio.
Wispr Flow: free tier
Referral link: wisprflow.ai/r?MEIR42.
Google Pinpoint: free transcription
Use recorder.google.com (mobile) and the desktop equivalent. Officially for journalists and students, with no enforced limit on the number of files (2 hours per file).
Sunsama: 50% nonprofit plus free trial
Project management. A free-month link was shared in the chat.
Monday.com: limited nonprofit free tier
Some AI features are included, with limited free images.
Fillout: nonprofit discounts
try.fillout.com/menachemt, a form platform with nonprofit pricing and Zite integration.
Zmanim Graphics: 3 months free
zmanimgraphics.com with code SHLUCHIMWA. Auto-generates candle-lighting graphics 1 to 2 days before Shabbos or Yom Tov.
Little Green Light: $100 credit
littlegreenlight.com via the community credit link.
Expired
- Perplexity Pro free year via PayPal. It ended on December 31, 2025.
Hard to qualify
- OpenAI for Nonprofits (Goodstack-verified, 20% off). Academic, medical, and governmental institutions are excluded.
Tools designed to compound savings
- OpenAI Codex for OSS plus Claude for Nonprofits stack across model providers.
- Poe AI bundles Claude, GPT, and Gemini under one subscription if you want a single bill. It is API-based and lacks some native-app features.
- LMArena.ai offers side-by-side LLM comparisons, free.
Caveats
- Free tiers may train on your data unless you opt out. The chat carried several warnings on this.
- Workspace admins can see Gemini chats on managed accounts, and users cannot easily delete them.
Related
- Paid vs Free
- ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity all live in the Toolbox.