GitHub offers to all academic people a free GitHub Pro account which allows you to use GitHub Copilot Pro, which includes access to the latest and most powerful models from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google.
The easiest way of using these tools is through the GitHub Copilot extension for VS Code. However, the most efficient method is to use a terminal-based coding assistant like Codex CLI or Gemini.
OpenCode Assistant is an open source tool that allows you to leverage these models.
Activate academic discount for GitHub
The first step is to activate the academic discount. For this, you need to first create a free account on GitHub.com and then click on the education link below:
https://github.com/settings/education/benefits?locale=en-US
You will need to have a .edu email address and also upload a copy of your badge.
Install opencode in the terminal
First we need to install node and the easiest way is to use nvm (see instructions).
Currently the command is:
curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.40.3/install.sh | bashThen run:
nvm install --ltsto install the last stable version of nodejs.
Then install opencode-ai:
npm i -g opencode-aiLaunch with opencode in your terminal.
Authenticate opencode with Github Copilot
In OpenCode, run /connect and select GitHub Copilot. Complete the GitHub device login flow.
Start coding
You can use /models to choose a model. GitHub Copilot has free and premium models, you can check your usage under https://github.com/settings/copilot/features.
For simpler tasks, the best unlimited model is Grok Code Fast 1, alternatively if you need a larger context you can use GPT 4.1.
For more complicated tasks, the 2 best premium models are GPT-5.2-codex and Gemini 3 pro. You have 300 requests per month to these models.