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The numbers don’t work out in the average college student’s favor. Most are figuring out how to pay for housing, textbooks, tuition and food — at a time when they may not even be working while attending classes. So anything that can help lessen the outflow of cash is worth considering. Here at Engadget, we’ve tried out our fair share of apps for productivity, creativity and entertainment. The good news for college students is some of those apps are free, or at least have a suitable no-cost version of an otherwise paid service. Here, we’ve rounded up the best free tools and services for college students so you can get work done — and enjoy yourself afterwards — for zero dollars spent.
Google Docs
Engadget
You’re probably going to need a productivity suite at school. Thankfully, the days of having to buy an expensive software bundle are long gone. Google Docs can handle the document creation you’ll need over a semester, whether it’s writing term papers, crunching data in spreadsheets or whipping up group presentations. Automatic cloud saves can spare you the heartache of losing progress.
You may want to subscribe to a Google One plan if the free 15GB of Drive storage proves too limiting. And as capable as Docs may be, there may be some classes where professors insist on paid services like Microsoft 365. If you’re free to choose your work tools, however, Docs is an easy choice — particularly if you already rely on Calendar, Meet and other parts of the Google ecosystem. — Jon Fingas, Former Reporter
Free scanning apps
CamScanner
Whether you need to digitize a paper handout from class or snap a shot of your classmate’s written notes, a document scanning app will come in handy. Our previous pick for this category, Evernote Scannable, is sadly no longer free and now goes for $3 a week or $50 for the year. But there are still a couple of mobile document scanner apps that won’t make you pay a monthly fee.
Adobe Scan and CamScanner offer scaled down versions of their paid services and both work with Apple or Android phones. They let you convert real-world pages into digital PDFs and, of course, they also offer AI-powered features like summarizing and answering questions based on a text — but most AI features are reserved for paid subscribers.
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