Why am I requested to pay $44/year for GitHub Team, when I was told I would get it free, being a teacher approved for the GitHub Education program?

[ItaiBDalet]

I am a computer science high-school teacher. As such, I have enrolled to the GitHub education program (and have been approved). I was informed that my membership in the program makes me eligible for a free GitHub Team membership (see the following screenshot).

I would like to enrol in GitHub Team.

After accessing the GitHub Team homepage, and clicking the "Get started with Team" button, I was presented with a form requesting me to enter my organization name and whether the organization belongs to my personal account or to a business or institution. I chose "my personal account" in light of the answer I received in this forum to a previous question of mine.

I was then directed to a page where I was informed my GitHub Team membership would cost me $44/year, and was request to enter billing details (see the following screenshot).

Why am I required to pay and enter billing details if my GitHub Team membership is supposed to be free, as a teacher enrolled in the GitHub education program? How can I claim my free GitHub Team membership?

[arafajs]

I think the reason for this is that you chose to create a GitHub Team for your personal account. When you do this, you are not eligible for the free GitHub Team membership for education. Instead, you will need to pay for a regular GitHub Team membership, which costs $44/year.

To get the free GitHub Team membership, you need to create a GitHub Team for your organization. Your organization can be your school or any other educational institution that is part of the GitHub Campus Program.

[ItaiBDalet]

Oh, I see. I first have to create an organization inside my account, and then upgrade this organization to Team. Thanks!

[bmitc]

Could you give more direct instructions how you did this? I applied and approved for the free GitHub Team for education as well, but I see no option to upgrade or create a new organization for free GitHub Team. For example, I have already created a new GitHub.com organization prior to applying for the program. When I setup the program, I did not select the personal option but rather assigned it to my university institute. Now, when I go into the organization, I see no option to upgrade the organization (for free) to GitHub Team.

[bmitc]

To get the free GitHub Team membership, you need to create a GitHub Team for your organization. Your organization can be your school or any other educational institution that is part of the GitHub Campus Program.

The "FREE GitHub Team for courses, coding clubs, and nonprofit research" program/discount is different than the GitHub Campus program. For example, GitHub Campus is GitHub Enterprise, not Team.

[hotdogontology]

I have essentially the same question, but the answer does not make any sense to me. I have applied for education benefits, I have linked my personal account, I have been approved to receive the teacher benefits, and I have made an organization for my school that I wish to upgrade to the free Teams account for education, but that option is not available. What am I misunderstanding here?

[bmitc]

What I found out is that you have to wait several days for the benefits to actually kick in, even after you have been approved. You will get an email stating that your education benefits are now available. Once they are, then you should start seeing the ability to upgrade organizations to GitHub Team for free. I want to say that it took around three to five days for me.