I am running into the same issue. However, I do not see the “free for students and educators” option shown in the image provided. I went through the entire payment process. Is Figma doing away with the free education plan?

Hi ​@Jeremy_Dennis, thanks for reaching out! 

The previous screenshot and steps are outdated, which may be causing the confusion.
You can upgrade your team to the Education status by following these steps:

1. From the file browser, switch to the team you’d like to upgrade and click All projects.
2. Click the dropdown menu next to the team name and select View settings.
3. Click the prompt to Upgrade your plan.
4. Select Upgrade to Professional. 
5. In the summary on the right, select Yes for the Is this an Education team? option. 
6. Click Next: Review.
7. Click Complete upgrade. 
8. Figma will upgrade the team to an Education team.

Hope this helps! Please let me know if you run into any further issues.

Having the same issue with creating new teams.

Following the steps but do not see ‘educational’ option in step #5.

Hi ​@Yana_Sakellion, thanks for reaching out! 

You mention creating new teams. Do you already have an existing EDU team? 

Please note that with your EDU verification, you can only have one active EDU team, which would explain why you cannot upgrade any additional teams.

If you’re trying to create a new EDU team and do not have an existing team, can you please provide a screenshot of what you’re seeing on your end? We’ll pass this onto our team to investigate, as needed. 

Hi ​@dvaliao , thank you so much for the prompt response. 

A follow up question, please  - is this a new limitation?

In the past I was able to create multiple ‘edu’ teams for the different courses I teach. Because of the course level difference, it is really not an option to run a single team. Is there a suggested method to address this?

Hey ​@Yana_Sakellion, sorry for the confusion! 

I was previously misinformed. Once your account has been verified, you can create as many Education teams as needed, but it does not make all of your teams education teams by default.

Is your issue only happening when you’re creating new teams? Or are you also having issues upgrading existing teams? 

Kirrily Haskard wrote:

 

This seems to be working differently now. As there was a pop-up for educational plan in the left menu once approved and allowed me to then select the team to upgrade. Different to the instructions but I guess it worked eventually.

Hi again,  ​@dvaliao I am still not able to convert new teams to adu accounts. no pop-ups for me 😥

I have other ‘edu’ teams, but the new ones just won’t budge. Anyone who is verified found a workaround for this? 

 

Hi ​@Yana_Sakellion ,

Thank you for reaching out. I'm Toku, and I work on the same team as @dvaliao. I'll be happy to help!

Could you please contact education@figma.com? Our education team can check the status of your new team and provide you with any necessary details.

I hope they can resolve your questions soon. Thanks again for your patience!

Toku

I think I’ve discovered the solution: You now have to create the team as a Free team first, then there is a button below your teams in the sidebar to upgrade to the Education team.

I was reverified about a month ago, and am now getting a popup stating that my education plan expires in 8 days. I went in to reverify again and was told,

Verification failed

You’ve already used up your free access to the Figma Education plan.

Upgrade your plan to keep creating and editing unlimited files, or create a new Professional team.

I am confused. How do I complete my educational courses without access to the Figma education plan? This whole process has been a nightmare for the past couple months. I just want to finish my course work, but am continuously bottlenecked by this issue. Can I get some help from the Figma team on this? There must be something I am doing incorrectly here.

Hey ​@Jeremy_Dennis, sorry to hear this! 
 

Please reach out to the Figma EDU team directly at education@figma.com. Since you just recently reverified, the team can check your verification status. 

Hey All,

As ​​​​@Josiah Spence mentioned above, the process to upgrade your starter teams has changed. From this page, you’ll want to close the window and upgrade from the Choose team button behind it.

Thanks for the reply dvaliao.

I went ahead and reached out via email. I also resubmitted a ticket to this issue on the 22nd of April (#1332687). I am waiting on someone to look at the open ticket, but still have not had a reply (it’s only been a week). My plan ends in 2 days.

I dealt with this same issue (#1280302) on March 6th. I was told by a Figma product support specialist, “ I took a look and can confirm your account and teams EDU status was approved.

Hi ​@Jeremy_Dennis, thanks for reaching out! 

Since your student validation ends in a couple of days, it sounds like you need to be re-verified as a student first. Please reach out to the Figma EDU team directly at education@figma.com.

Thanks for all the help!

I want to give clarity for everyone in this thread so they are aware if they are / plan on taking any online courses or bootcamps (ex: Google’s UX Certification via Coursera). The following was from a helpful conversation from an Education Program Manager at Figma in response to my issue renewing EDU status:

Licenses for bootcamp and online course users are limited to 6 months. That is publicly available on the first source you shared, also linked here.

we can only extend licenses up to a maximum of 1 year, I'm not able to extend your education licensing further.

Your options moving forward are to either use up to 3 free files on a starter team or upgrade your team to our Pro plan to continue editing.

That being said, if you are taking one of these courses, be sure to finish within 6 (max 12 with an exception) before your license expires without extension. This holds true regardless of work commitments, shifting priorities or continued enrollment and progress.