Key takeaways #
- Millions of students at 132 universities across 18 countries can now access a free year of Kiro, no credit card required.
- The program piloted earlier this year with thousands of students building apps from accessibility to healthcare.
- Students get the same AI agent that Mondelēz International, Siemens, and Amazon use to ship software.
An AI future requires builders #
AIis lowering the barrier to building software and redefining how work gets done. More people are moving beyond simply using AI to building with AI, creating personalized workflows that make their days easier and chasing the ideas they’ve always wanted to pursue. AI is accelerating how people build, but it doesn’t replace the need for people who can think critically, define what needs to exist, and bring it to life. Those people need experience with advanced AI tools, a clear vision for what they want to create, and enough expertise in their field to know when AI gets it right and when it doesn’t.
We are investing in this next generation of builders by putting advanced agentic capabilities in their hands while they are still in school. Starting today, millions of students at 132 universities across 18 countries can get a full year of free access to
Kiro, the AI agent for software engineering, with 1,000 credits a month so they can bring their big ideas to life.
Giving students a head start with AI agents #
AI agentsare now a standard tool for developing software, and students are already experimenting with them. But free tiers only go so far. With limited access to advanced capabilities, students struggle to catch their stride or quickly hit usage caps from short trials, leaving them with half-finished projects and frustrated. This isn’t conducive to learning, so we’re giving students Kiro offerings that go beyond a standard free tier: 1,000 credits a month, the latest models, and the zero-install Kiro Web. With this toolkit, students can see projects to completion and stay in flow long enough to actually learn.
This program started as a
pilotin March 2026 with 11 universities across two countries. Since then,thousands of studentsare now building their ideas to life. They created an accessibility app for visually impaired users, and a wellness platform connecting patients to medical professionals through voice activation. The students behind these projects come from a variety of backgrounds and experience levels, with some even producing their first lines of code. They are all finding their own way to learn, experiment, and create real apps with Kiro.
Approaching AI like the pros #
The solutions students built didn’t come together by simply having a capable tool. Students were more intentional about critical and creative thinking, and about using best practices for building with AI. With Kiro, students learn the same spec-driven development technique that teams at
Mondelēz International(the snack company behind Oreo), Siemens, Amazon, and many other organizations use to build software. Students collaborate with Kiro to map out what they want to create, including requirements, design decisions, and implementation steps. They then look for gaps in their thinking, generate code, and confirm that the outputs match the spec.
Because Kiro handles repetitive execution, students get more meaningful cycles of thinking like professional builders—breaking down complex problems, defining what good looks like, and steering agents toward a goal—all before entering the workforce.
Building what comes next #
The best software of the next decade will come from people who grew up building alongside agents as part of their creative process. Students from the Kiro program are already redefining what they can accomplish with AI before their first job, and students not yet part of the program keep asking for it at their school so they can do the same.
This is our answer. For today’s rollout, we’re scaling university availability by 12 times from our initial pilot—expanding beyond North America to Asia Pacific, Europe, and Latin America. We’ll keep going. We can’t wait to see what students build.
See if you’re eligible and sign up on the
Kiro for students program page. Dive deeper with theKiro technical blog.
Participating schools #
Asia Pacific
Indonesia
- Binus University
Japan
- Kobe University
Malaysia
- Asia Pacific University of Technology and Innovation
Singapore
- Institute of Technical Education
- Nanyang Polytechnic
- Nanyang Technological University
- National Institute of Education
- National University of Singapore
- Ngee Ann Polytechnic
- Republic Polytechnic
- Singapore Institute of Management
- Singapore Institute of Technology
- Singapore Management University
- Singapore Polytechnic
- Singapore University of Social Sciences
- Singapore University of Technology and Design
- Temasek Polytechnic
South Korea
- Kookmin University
- Seoul National University
- Yonsei University
Europe
France
- Université de Technologie de Troyes
Germany
- Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main
- IU Internationale Hochschule
- Technical University Munich
- Technische Universität Darmstadt
- University of Giessen
Hungary
- Budapest University of Technology and Economics
Romania
- Alexandru Ioan Cuza University
- Politehnica University Timișoara
- Universitatea Babeș-Bolyai
- University Politehnica of Bucharest
Spain
- Esade
- IE University
- Universitat Oberta de Catalunya
Switzerland
- Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences
- École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)
- ETH Zurich
- Hochschule Luzern
- Scuola universitaria professionale della Svizzera italiana
- Technische Berufsschule Zürich
- Universität Basel
- University of Zurich
United Kingdom
- City of Glasgow College
- Heriot Watt University
- Imperial College London
- Teesside University
- University College London
- University of Bath
- University of East London
- University of Hertfordshire
- University of Manchester
Latin America
Brazil
- Afya - Unigranrio
- Cruzeiro do Sul Educação
- IFSP - Instituto Federal São Paulo
- Insper
- Inteli
- PUC Minas
- UNICAMP
- UNIFESP
- UNIP
- UniSENAI-SC
- UNIT - Universidade Tiradentes
- USP - Universidade de São Paulo
- Vitru Educação
Chile
- Universidad Andrés Bello
- Universidad San Sebastián
Colombia
- Corporación Universitaria Minuto de Dios
- Universidad de Los Andes
- Universidad Digital de Antioquia
- Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas
- Universidad EAFIT
- Universidad Nacional de Colombia
Mexico
- Tecnologico de Monterrey
- Universidad Anáhuac
North America
Canada
- Dalhousie University
- Humber Polytechnic
- Queen's University
- Université de Montréal
- University of British Columbia
- University of Toronto
- University of Victoria
- University of Waterloo
United States
- Arizona State University
- Boston University
- Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo
- California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
- California State University, Bakersfield
- California State University, East Bay
- California State University, Fresno
- California State University, Fullerton
- California State University, Monterey Bay
- California State University, Northridge
- Carnegie Mellon University
- Florida International University
- Florida State University
- Georgia Institute of Technology
- Hampton University
- Iowa State University
- Loyola Marymount University
- Marshall University
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Miami Dade College
- New Jersey Institute of Technology
- New York University
- Northeastern University
- Pace University
- Pennsylvania State University
- Purdue University
- Rutgers University
- San Diego State University
- San Francisco State University
- San Jose State University
- Sonoma State University
- St. John's University
- The George Washington University
- The Ohio State University
- University of Alabama
- University of Arizona
- University of California Los Angeles
- University of Chicago
- University of Colorado Boulder
- University of Florida
- University of Illinois Springfield
- University of Maryland, College Park
- University of Rhode Island
- University of South Florida
- University of St. Thomas
- University of Tennessee, Knoxville
- University of Texas at Austin
- University of Utah
- University of Wisconsin-Madison
- Vanderbilt University
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