Verify education status
Who can use this feature
Anyone with verified education status can create free Education teams.
You need an existing Figma account before applying for education status.
Want to cultivate design thinking, break down barriers, and collaborate with others in the classroom? If you are a student or educator, then you may qualify for Figma's Education plan.
The Education plan gives you access to all the features of the Professional plan for free, including both Figma design and FigJam.
Members of Education teams can also join Figma's Education Community groups and access classroom-specific resources. Follow Figma for Education on Community →
Qualification criteria
To qualify for the Education plan you must be:
- At least 13 years of age
- A student or educator in a classroom applying with their school email
What qualifies as a classroom?
Students and educators in online or in-person classes and educational programs are eligible for the Education plan. Some examples are:
- High schools, universities, post-graduate institutions, trade schools, polytechnics, or colleges
- Online courses, bootcamps, or workshops
- Design and coding academies
What doesn't qualify as a classroom?
- Self-directed education
- Early stage startups
- "Not-for-profit" or "non-profit" organizations whose primary purpose is not educational
- Educational programs affiliated with organizations whose primary purpose is not educational
Apply for education status
Students and educators at K-12 and higher education institutions have valid education status for two years. If you are still a student or educator at the end of the two years, you must reapply for education status. For bootcamps attendees, your education status is valid for 6 months. Your education status may be declined or revoked under certain circumstances.
1. Create a Figma account
You must have an existing Figma account before applying for education status. If you have a school-issued email address, we recommend signing up for Figma using that address. Create a Figma account →
As part of the sign up process, you are prompted for the following:
- Name: This will be your display name in Figma
- What kind of work you do: Your role within the design process
- How will you primarily be using Figma: Select For teaching or taking a class
2. Verify your education status
You must verify your education status to create a new team or upgrade an existing team to the Education plan.
The Education plan is team-specific, not account-wide. Not all teams in your account may be covered under the Education plan. After your education status is approved, you must create an Education team or upgrade an existing team to the Education plan to receive the benefits of the plan.
If you join a team on the Education plan before verifying your education status, you will have seven days to verify your education status. After those seven days, you must verify your education status to continue accessing files and projects in that team.
To verify your education status:
- Log in to Figma using the account you want to verify. If you have a school-issued email address, we recommend using this address.
- Visit the Education status application page: https://www.figma.com/education/apply
- Select Student, Educator, or Administrator.
- Select the type of institution you attend or work for.
- Enter the reason you’re applying for education status.
- Search for your school in the What's your school's name menu. If your school isn't listed, select School not listed to enter details of your school:
- The full name of the school. For example:
Rhode Island School of Design (RISD)
- The school's website (URL). For example:
https://www.risd.edu/
- The full name of the school. For example:
- Select your primary field of study or instruction.
- [Higher education or bootcamp only] Upload a copy of your course schedule, confirmation, or syllabus.
- [Higher education or bootcamp only] If you’re a student, enter your expected graduation date.
- Agree to the terms and click Submit.
What should I do if my education application is denied or my status is revoked?
Your application is reviewed to confirm eligibility for a free Education account. We may decline or revoke your education status if:
- You signed up with an email address associated with a company or professional organization
- We could not find a public record of your school or classroom via the information you provided
- Your documents are not associated with a school or classroom
- Your documentation does not match other documentation we have seen from this institution
- You abuse the free education status
- You intentionally misrepresent yourself or an organization
If your application is declined or your Education status is revoked, you can reach out to the Figma team at education@figma.com. You may be asked to provide additional information about your course, including:
- An updated URL of the institution you’re enrolled with
- A copy of your school-issued identification card
- A transcript, receipt, or other proof of enrolment
3. Create, upgrade, or join a team
Teams under the Education plan have all the same features and benefits as teams with the Professional plan. After your Education status is approved, Figma will prompt you to choose a team to upgrade to the Education plan. You can create a new team or select an existing team.
Create a new team
-
- Open the Figma file browser and click Create free team in the sidebar or visit https://www.figma.com/files/create-team.
- Give your team a name and click Create team. You can always change this after the team is created.
- Start inviting students, educators and other collaborators to your team. Anyone you invite with can edit access to the team must verify their Education status within seven days.
- Click Continue and then Complete upgrade.
Upgrade an existing team
The Education plan is a free Professional plan. When you upgrade an existing team, you must upgrade to the Professional plan then let Figma know you qualify for the Education plan.
Note: Everyone you invite with can edit access to the team must verify their Education status within seven days before they can contribute. It is not possible to have a mix of paid members on the Professional plan and free members on the Education plan.
- From the file browser, switch to the team you’d like to upgrade and click All projects.
- Click the dropdown menu next to the team name and select View settings.
- Click the prompt to Upgrade your plan.
- Select Upgrade to Professional.
- In the summary on the right, select Yes for the Is this an Education team? option.
- Click Next: Review.
- Click Complete upgrade.
- Figma will upgrade the team to an Education team.
4. Invite others to your team
You can invite students, educators, and other collaborators to your team at any time.
New team members have seven days to verify their email address and education status. After seven days, Figma will restrict their access to the team and they will need to manually verify their education status.
Invite via email
If you know a person's email address, you can send them an email invite to join your team. If the person doesn't have a Figma account yet, they can sign up when they accept the invite.
- Open the team page in the file browser.
- Click Invite in the top-right corner.
- Enter email addresses in the invite someone field, separated by a comma.
- Click to adjust their permissions.
- Select Can view to give them view-only access to the team. They'll only be able to view and comment on files and prototypes.
- Select Can edit to give them edit access to the team. This will allow them to edit any Figma design or FigJam files in the team.
- Click Send invite to send email invitations. If they're already using Figma, they'll get an in app notification as well.
Invite via link
Team invite links let team members invite other collaborators to your team via a dedicated link.
- Open the team page in the file browser.
- Click Invite in the top-right corner.
- Click to select which permission you want for the link. You can set an invite link to
can view
orcan edit
permissions. - Click Copy link to add the link to your clipboard.
- Paste or send the link to anyone you want to join the team.
Note: Figma will add anyone who clicks that link to the team. Team admins can reset invite links or turn them off to expire existing links which haven't been redeemed. Invite team members →