AutoCAD for Students in the UK: Free Education Licence, Rules and What Happens After Graduation

By AutoSoftKey Editorial·Published 5 September 2025·Updated 2 September 2026·4 min read

Short answer: UK students and teachers at accredited institutions can use AutoCAD free through the Autodesk Education plan: verify your status once, then renew the free single-user licence every year while you remain eligible. The student version is functionally the full AutoCAD but is strictly for learning — no paid or commercial work. Once you graduate you need a commercial licence, such as Autodesk’s subscription or a 3-year AutoCAD licence from AutoSoftKey.

AutoCAD is still the drawing package UK employers expect graduates in architecture, civil and mechanical engineering, surveying and product design to know. The good news is that learning it costs nothing if you are a student: Autodesk gives away the real thing. The catches are the eligibility checks, the annual renewal and the line between educational and commercial use, which this guide covers in detail.

Who is eligible for free AutoCAD

• Students aged 13 or over enrolled at a qualified educational institution (schools, colleges and universities recognised by an official body).
• Educators employed by a qualified institution.
• Institutions themselves, which can apply for lab and classroom licences.

Autodesk verifies eligibility through a third-party service (SheerID). A UK university email address usually clears verification automatically; otherwise you upload proof such as a student ID card with an expiry date, an enrolment letter or a recent transcript. Verification typically completes within a few days, and the education licence then runs for one year before you re-verify.

How to get the AutoCAD student version

1. Go to Autodesk’s Education Community and create an Autodesk account using your institutional email address.
2. Complete the eligibility check and upload documents if asked.
3. Once approved, open the AutoCAD product page in the Education Community and click Get product; the licence is added to your account.
4. Download the installer from Autodesk Account, install and sign in — the same steps as any other AutoCAD licence, described in our AutoCAD installation guide.

The Education plan is not limited to AutoCAD: Revit, Civil 3D, Inventor, Fusion, 3ds Max, Maya and most other Autodesk products are available on the same account, which is why architecture and engineering students rarely need to buy anything while studying.

What the student version can and cannot do

The educational plot stamp is the practical tell-tale: any drawing created or edited under an education licence carries it, and it spreads to other drawings that reference the file. Using the student version for freelance or paid work breaches Autodesk’s terms and is easy to detect, so treat the boundary seriously.

After graduation: your options in order of cost

Eligibility ends when you leave education (or when you take paid drafting work, whichever comes first). At that point the choices are:

• AutoCAD LT if your work is 2D only — about £492 a year from Autodesk or a 3-year licence from £39 at AutoSoftKey.
• Full AutoCAD for 3D, toolsets and automation — about £1,890 a year from Autodesk or a 3-year licence from £39.
• Autodesk Flex tokens if you will only open AutoCAD a few days a year.
• Autodesk Fusion for personal, non-commercial projects, which has a free hobbyist tier that AutoCAD does not — see our Fusion 360 price guide.

For a full breakdown of what Autodesk charges and how the 3-year licence compares, read the AutoCAD price UK guide.

Free alternatives while you learn

If verification fails or you are learning outside formal education, the AutoCAD Web app and Autodesk’s 15-day trial give short-term access, and open-source packages such as FreeCAD, LibreCAD and QCAD teach the same 2D principles. None of them substitutes for AutoCAD on a CV, but they keep you drafting until you can access the real thing.