When you're studying, there isn't usually much spare cash to spend on buying software. A reliable tool for reading and editing PDF files makes a huge difference to your workflow though. It's so much easier to get things done when you're not scrabbling around the internet looking for free ways to complete simple tasks. Stick around to find out whether you can get an Adobe Acrobat Pro free student account, and to learn about an awesome alternative you'll want to check out.
Part 1: Can You Get Adobe Pro free for students?
Many users wonder whether Adobe Acrobat Pro offers a free student version, but this is a misunderstanding. Adobe does not provide a free, standalone student edition of Acrobat Pro.
What Adobe offers instead is a student and teacher discount through its Creative Cloud plans. This means students can use Acrobat Pro at a lower price, but it is still part of a paid subscription.
According to Adobe's official student page:
- Students and educators can purchase the Creative Cloud All Apps plan at 70% off for the first year: US$19.98/month (billed monthly) or US$239.81/year (billed yearly. After the first year, the monthly price increases to US$39.99/month). This discount ends on Nov 28, 2025.
- This subscription includes Acrobat Pro along with many other Adobe applications.
- Verification of student or educator status is required.
- The discounted price is not free, and renewal terms may vary depending on eligibility.
In short: Acrobat Pro is not free for students — Adobe simply offers a discounted plan.
Part 2: A More Affordable Alternative: UPDF Student & Education Discount
UPDF is a great Adobe Acrobat alternative. Acrobat is prohibitively expensive for many people, and UPDF comes in at a fraction of the cost without compromising on features.
If you are looking for a more budget-friendly PDF solution, the UPDF education discount is significantly cheaper than Adobe's student pricing:
- UPDF Education Plan: Only $29.99/year, and one license works on 4 platforms (Windows, macOS, iOS, Android).
- UPDF Enterprise for Education: Includes an admin console for managing and assigning seats, just $59 per user/year.
- Adobe Student Pricing: Requires subscribing ($239.88 a year) to the Creative Cloud All Apps plan, which is significantly more expensive and includes many apps students may not need just to work with PDFs.
Check UPDF Students/Education Discount Now>>
If you want to try UPDF for free, you can simply register an account. Registered users can access most features at no cost, including many premium tools. Please note that the free version will save PDFs with a watermark. Just create an account and download the software — it's the easiest way to explore UPDF and see how it works for your needs.
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Main features of UPDF
UPDF contains a full suite of tools for working with PDFs, and it's more than able to hold its own among leading competitors.
Anytime you need to read or create a PDF file, UPDF can help you out.
Edit documents quickly and easily with a range of tools:
- Incorporate fillable forms

- Chat with PDFs: You can ask the AI to summarize, translate, and explain PDF content.

- Chat with Images: With the AI assistant, you can upload images and ask it to extract text or answer any questions.
- Convert PDFs to mind maps: When reading lengthy books, you can ask the AI to convert them to an intuitive mind map.
- Chat with AI: You can ask the AI any question.
Annotate and mark up PDF files:
- Draw straight into the document to help you visualize ideas
- Share feedback
- Review documents
- Use highlighting and sticky notes
- Add stickers and shapes to your files

Convert between a range of file formats:
- Transform scanned PDFs into editable documents

UPDF also lets you do the following:
- And much more.
Elevate your PDF experience – Download UPDF now!
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Discover how UPDF empowers students with its comprehensive features, making PDF management and editing a breeze. Don't miss the chance to explore the possibilities - watch the video now!
Part 3: Adobe Acrobat Pro for Students vs UPDF for Students
So, which is the best option for students? Since you can't exactly get Adobe Acrobat student free, should you stick with Adobe's student discounts? Or is it best to spend some time getting to know UPDF?
We've got an article to help you choose between Adobe Acrobat and UPDF. We've also made a table below to compare the main features, for your convenience.
| Pricing, Systems & Features | The Details | Adobe Acrobat Pro for Students | UPDF for Students |
| Annual Pricing | Single-student pricing | $239.88 per student | With AI add-on: $88.99 / student |
| Educational organization pricing | Varies according to requirements | Without AI add-on: $29.99 / student | |
| Compatibility | Which operating systems can I use? | Windows, Mac | Windows, Mac, iOS, Android |
| AI Assistant | AI chat | ||
| AI explain | |||
| AI write | |||
| AI summarizing | |||
| AI translation | |||
| PDF to mind map, chat with images | |||
| Edit PDF | Add text to PDFs | ||
| Edit existing text in PDFs | |||
| Add, delete, extract, rotate, crop, and replace images | |||
| Add and edit links, watermarks, backgrounds, headers and footers | |||
| Add rich tech by dragging and dropping | |||
| Read PDF | Open and read PDFs | ||
| Add and manage bookmarks | |||
| Search text inside PDFs | |||
| Display PDF in slideshow format | |||
| Annotate PDF | Highlight, strikethrough and underline | ||
| Text comments, text boxes, callouts, and sticky notes | |||
| Shapes, pencils, stamps, signatures | |||
| Manage a list of annotations | |||
| Squiggly lines | |||
| Stickers | |||
| OCR | Create searchable, editable PDFs from scanned documents and photos | ||
| Convert PDF | Convert between PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Text, RTF, HTML, and XML | ||
| Convert to and from image formats (PNG, JPEG, TIFF) | |||
| Save as PDF/A | |||
| Convert PDF to CSV | |||
| Convert PDF to BMP | |||
| Convert PDF to GIF | |||
| Organize PDF | Add, replace, extract, rotate, split and remove pages | ||
| Crop pages | |||
| Password-protect your PDFs | |||
| Redact sensitive information | |||
| Send PDFs as email attachments | |||
| Share PDFs as a link | |||
| Create PDF | Create a blank PDF | ||
| Create a PDF from Capture | |||
| Create a PDF from other file formats | |||
| Print PDFs | Print from PDF | ||
| Fill and Sign | Fill out forms within PDFs | ||
| Create PDF forms | |||
| Edit PDF forms | |||
| Digitally sign documents | |||
| Electronically sign documents | |||
| Other Features | Reduce file size by optimizing PDF | ||
| Combine multiple files into one PDF |
In Summary
Adobe Acrobat Pro offers a robust tool for working with PDFs, and provides a student discount to make the software more affordable. UPDF boasts an even more extensive range of tools, and for a significantly lower price, particularly when you take into account the discounts for students and educational organizations. If you're disappointed about the lack of Adobe Acrobat Pro free student accounts, UDPF could be the perfect tool for you. Even if you're not keen on paying, registered users can use almost all features completely free.
Download now so you can explore further.
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