Unlock Paid Apps for Free with Library Cards, .edu Emails & Employer Benefits
One-Line Flow: Use library cards, school emails, and employer perks to unlock premium apps without spending a damn cent.
No cracks. No sketchy APKs. Just exploiting systems that want to give you free shit.
Library Cards = Cheat Code
One free card unlocks $1,000+ in premium content. You can stack multiple cards in the Libby app. No limit.
Get a Free Card Online
Ages 13-26 (US): Brooklyn Public Library Books Unbanned — free nationwide
Texas: Houston MYLink — instant digital access
New York State: NYPL, Brooklyn, Queens — all free if you live, work, or study in NY
Everyone else: Check your local library’s website for “eCard” or “Digital Card” signup
What Your Library Card Unlocks
| Service | What You Get |
|---|---|
| New York Times | Full access (72-hour passes, unlimited renewals) |
| Wall Street Journal | 3-day passes, keep renewing forever |
| Kanopy | 30,000+ films — Criterion, A24, documentaries |
| LinkedIn Learning | 16,000+ courses (normally $40/month) |
| PressReader | Vogue, Forbes, Wired, thousands of magazines |
| Mango Languages | Full premium language courses |
| Freegal Music | 5-15 MP3 downloads weekly — yours forever |
How to renew NYT/WSJ: Library website → Databases → Click service → Redeem → Repeat when it expires. Infinite loop.
Hoopla BingePasses
One borrow = 7 days unlimited streaming:
- The Great Courses (university lectures)
- Curiosity Stream (documentaries)
- Creativebug (arts & crafts classes)
Most libraries give 10 borrows/month. Each BingePass = one borrow.
PressReader Hotspot Trick
At hotels and airport lounges, PressReader auto-activates without login. Download everything. Keep it forever.
Student Access (Free with .edu Email)
GitHub Student Developer Pack
URL: education.github.com/pack
Free tools included:
- GitHub Copilot (AI coding assistant)
- JetBrains IDEs (IntelliJ, PyCharm, WebStorm — all of them)
- DigitalOcean $200 credit
- Azure $100 credit
- 1Password for 1 year
- Free .me domain + SSL
- DataCamp, Frontend Masters, and more
Apply with school email. Graduate students qualify.
JetBrains (All IDEs Free)
URL: jetbrains.com/community/education
Every IDE they make. Free while enrolled.
Autodesk (Full Suite Free)
AutoCAD, Maya, 3ds Max, Fusion — 50+ apps. Free for students.
Microsoft 365 Education
Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams + unlimited OneDrive storage. Free with any school email.
WolframAlpha
Try wolframalpha.com SSO login with your school email. Many universities have full licenses you didn’t know about.
Duolingo Unlimited Hearts
No hack needed. Duolingo built this feature.
- Go to schools.duolingo.com
- Create a Classroom (you’re the “teacher”)
- Add yourself as a student
Result: Unlimited hearts. Forever.
Free Wellness Apps
Headspace (Free Paths)
- K-12 Educators: headspace.com/educators
- Starbucks Partners: headspace.com/starbucks
- NHS Workers (UK): headspace.com/nhs
- Check your employer benefits portal — 4,000+ companies offer it free
Calm (Free Through Insurance)
- Kaiser Permanente: Free at kp.org/selfcareapps
- UnitedHealthcare: uhc.app/calm
Waking Up (Free Scholarship)
Can’t afford it? Apply at wakingup.com/scholarship
No income check. No questions. Just free.
Free Fitness
Nike Training Club — 185+ workouts, completely free. Used to be $15/month. Now $0.
Planet Fitness Summer Pass — Ages 14-19 work out free June-August at planetfitness.com/summerpass
Free Books & Courses
- openlibrary.org — Borrow 5 digitized books free
- gutenberg.org — 70,000+ free ebooks
- standardebooks.org — Same books, beautifully formatted
- librivox.org — 17,000+ free audiobooks
Free Coursera Certificates: California residents get free access through any CA public library. St. Louis County Library offers it through slcl.org/coursera.
Misc Free Shit
EduVPN — eduvpn.org — Free VPN with school credentials
TestFlight Betas — In-app purchases are FREE in beta. Find links at github.com/pluwen/awesome-testflight-link
Free Hosting: GitHub Pages and Cloudflare Pages — unlimited bandwidth, $0
Paywall Bypass: Archive.is, SMRY.ai, or self-host Ladder
Quick Checklist
- Get a free library card online
- Stack multiple cards in Libby
- Activate NYT/WSJ/LinkedIn Learning through library
- Check employer benefits for Headspace/Calm
- Apply for GitHub Student Pack if you have .edu
- Create Duolingo classroom for unlimited hearts
- Apply for Waking Up scholarship
Everything here is 100% free through official channels. You’re not breaking anything — just reading the fine print better than everyone else.
Found more free methods? Drop them below.
edited by @SRZ to make it more awesome! 
!