AI for students: what universities allow, student prices and risks

What universities typically allow

There is no nationwide ban in Germany. Each university sets its own rules, often refined further by individual lecturers. Three examples show how similar the principles nevertheless are.

Goethe University Frankfurt says it supports, in principle, trying out and using generative AI in teaching and studying. Whether and for what AI tools may be used, however, is the responsibility of the lecturers.

The University of Göttingen regards AI models as tools that students should learn to use. In supervised exams such as written and oral exams, AI tools are not permitted there unless explicitly allowed. The condition for use is transparency: everyone must disclose the extent to which they used language models.

The University of Stuttgart allows AI within set principles. Students should ask the examiners if in doubt, document and label, in agreement with them, where and how they used which AI system, and check the output for accuracy and unintended plagiarism before using it.

Our assessment: the typical pattern is therefore allowed, but with agreement, labelling and personal responsibility. The rules of your own university and module always take precedence.

University AI chats: often the first choice

Many universities provide their own AI access, for which you do not need a private account with a commercial provider.

Through its AI-ToolLab, Goethe University Frankfurt offers all lecturers and students free, privacy-compliant access to AI tools; the data runs over the university's infrastructure. The university itself, however, calls the AI-ToolLab an experimental solution rather than an official service. The Göttingen computing centre GWDG runs the chatbot Chat AI; you need an Academic Cloud account to use it. According to GWDG, the external models from commercial providers are only open to the Max Planck Society, members of the University of Göttingen and institutions with a paid contract. The University of Stuttgart points to its RAI system, which offers models from GWDG and OpenAI.

It is worth looking at the details here too. According to the provider, Chat AI in the Academic Cloud stores content only locally for its self-hosted models and deletes it after the session. With the connected OpenAI models, however, requests are passed on unfiltered to the external service provider, including any personal details they contain.

Commercial tools and student prices (as of October 2026)

Gemini: Google gives students and trainees aged 18 and over a year of Google AI Plus free of charge. According to Google, it brings double usage limits, 400 GB of cloud storage and unlimited uploads for study notebooks. According to Google, you can redeem the offer until 31 December 2026. Google describes what happens afterwards inconsistently: the offer page mentions yearly proof of eligibility, a discount for at most four years and a follow-on price of 21.99 euros a month, but names Google AI Pro instead of AI Plus for it. The offer terms, on the other hand, only mention twelve free months, after which the usual monthly price of the relevant plan is charged automatically unless you cancel. According to Google, Google AI Plus normally costs 4.99 euros a month. Which price applies to you after the first year is therefore unclear. So check the terms before the first year is up.

ChatGPT: the free version can be used in Germany too. According to OpenAI, the student offer of four free months of ChatGPT Plus only applies to students at universities in the US. The regular price of Plus is 23 euros and Go 8 euros a month according to Notebookcheck.

Claude: can only be used from 18. Anthropic lists no individual student discount, only an education plan that whole universities can buy. Pro costs 20 US dollars a month excluding tax.

Gemini Notebook, listed under NotebookLM in Google's help pages, is a research assistant into which you load PDFs, websites, YouTube videos or audio files in order to ask questions about exactly those sources. According to Google, it is available in Germany.

Honest risks

Invented content: AI answers can be wrong, incomplete or inappropriate, the German consumer advice centres warn. This particularly affects references to literature that does not exist. The University of Göttingen stresses that responsibility for how generated texts are used lies with the users. You therefore have to find and read every source yourself.

Unintended plagiarism: the University of Stuttgart explicitly requires checking AI output for similarities with existing works.

AI detection: according to Goethe University, there is so far no reliable software for detecting AI texts; existing programs are very error-prone. Our assessment: you should not rely on this either way. Honest labelling protects you better than hoping not to be noticed.

Data: in the personal versions of ChatGPT, OpenAI may use your content for training, which you can switch off in the data controls. Do not upload unpublished research data or other people's data to commercial tools.

Learning: our final assessment: if you let AI solve every task, you will not learn the material that is tested in the exam without AI. Use AI rather for explanations, quizzing yourself and proofreading.