US College Students Can Get 12 Months of Microsoft 365 Premium and Game Pass By Purchasing a New PC

The academic year may not be over yet, but Microsoft just announced the Microsoft College Offer, a limited-time promotion that will provide more than $500 of goodies to eligible US students purchasing a new Windows 11 PC. The new college student offer includes 12 months of Microsoft 365 Premium, 12 months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, and a custom Xbox controller personalized via the Xbox Design Lab.

The company said that its Microsoft College offer is the most complete college student offer it has ever offered, and it will run from today, April 15, through June 30, while supplies of eligible PCs last. US students will need a college .edu email address to take advantage of it with the purchase of a new Windows 11 PC from a wide selection of models from Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, and Microsoft itself.

Unfortunately, Surface devices are probably not the best choice right now as Microsoft just raised the price of all Surface Pro and Surface Laptop devices on its US Store, with no more models under $1,000. In addition to the Microsoft Store, the Microsoft College Offer is also available at other major US retailers, including Amazon, Best Buy, Dell.com, HP.com, and Walmart.

I probably don’t need to detail what Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is, but it’s the highest tier of Microsoft’s gaming subscription service, priced at $29.99/month. However, Microsoft 365 Premium, which launched in October to bundle more Copilot features with Microsoft’s Office apps, probably deserves a refresher.

Microsoft 365 Premium is priced at $19.99/month or $199.99/year, and it includes everything in the Microsoft 365 Family plan plus extensive usage for select Copilot features such as image generation, Deep Research, and Copilot Vision. The subscription also enables Copilot Chat in the Office apps, with enterprise-grade protection, and subscribers also get access to Microsoft’s Researcher, Analyst, and Photos AI agents.

“Microsoft 365 Premium acts as your personal coach and study partner. With Copilot built directly into the apps students already use, it’s easier to research with ease, plan with precision, create with confidence and protect what’s important,” wrote Yusuf Mehdi, Consumer Chief Marketing Officer at Microsoft.

Obviously, Microsoft would like to get students hooked on Microsoft 365 and Copilot before they start their professional careers. Despite the company’s huge investments in AI, Copilot probably isn’t taken as seriously as other AI chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Anthropic’s Claude. As for Microsoft 365, many young adults have probably grown up using Gmail, Docs, and other free cloud-based tools from Google. Microsoft throwing 12 years of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and a free custom Xbox controller to the mix is certainly going to be appealing for many US students, however.

One last thing to note about the Microsoft College Offer: The company says that the 12 months of Microsoft 365 Premium and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate are “for new subscribers only.” You can visit the offer page here for full details.