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Microsoft's Windows 11 laptop deal for students comes with a $500 bonus – what's included

Microsoft's Windows 11 laptop deal for students comes with a $500 bonus – what's included
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Microsoft Surface Laptop in Sapphire
Kyle Kucharski/ZDNET

Microsoft has a brand-new offer for college students: When you buy a new Windows 11 laptop (from Microsoft, Amazon, Best Buy, or Walmart), you’ll get a year of Microsoft 365 Premium and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate included, along with a customizable Xbox controller — a value of more than $500, free.

You can choose a qualifying Windows PC from Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, or Surface. (To help you choose, check out our tested picks for the best laptops overall, and the best Windows laptops.)

Also: The best Windows laptops of 2026: Expert tested and reviewed

This Microsoft College Offer includes the following with your eligible PC purchase, for US students: 

  • 12 months of Microsoft 365 Premium: Access to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and more, with CoPilot built in for AI assistance
  • 12 months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate: Access to a library of hundreds of games, including new games on day one like Forza Horizon 6 and Fable, that you can play on PC, Xbox, and more devices with unlimited cloud gaming.
  • A free Xbox Wireless Controller: Design your own controller to personalize your gaming setup with custom colors. 

Students will need to verify their academic status using their college .edu email address, create a Microsoft account, and follow the provided steps after purchasing their PC.

If you’re planning to invest in a Windows machine for college, this offer is a no-brainer — choose the eligible model, size, manufacturer, and retailer you like best, and get the subscription and other perks included. Just make sure you buy before this Microsoft deal ends on June 30, 2026. 

Also: This is the lowest price on an M5 MacBook Air I’ve seen – and it launched a month ago

How I rated this deal 

This Microsoft deal gets you up to $500 in subscriptions included free with your new laptop purchase, along with a personalized Xbox controller. Based on our editor’s rating scale, I’m giving this offer a 5/5.

This Microsoft college student offer runs through 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time on June 30, 2026, while supplies of eligible PCs last. 

Deals are subject to sell out or expire antime, though ZDNET remains committed to finding, sharing, and updating the best product deals for you to score the best savings. Our team of experts regularly checks in on the deals we share to ensure they are still live and obtainable. We’re sorry if you’ve missed out on this deal, but don’t fret — we’re constantly finding new chances to save and sharing them with you at ZDNET.com. 

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Also: How we rate deals at ZDNET in 2025

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