Use Dataspheres AI for Free as a Student: VS Code, a Free Assistant and One Click | DATASPHERES AI - Dataspheres AI

A zero-cost setup for students: VS Code, GitHub Copilot Free or Copilot Student, Google Antigravity CLI, a free Dataspheres account and the one-click Install in VS Code link, with each free tier cited to its publisher on 15 October 2026.

A student can run the whole Dataspheres AI setup without paying anyone: a free editor, a free AI assistant inside it, a free Dataspheres account, and one click to join them. The parts below are the ones whose publishers state a no-cost tier on their own pages. Each tier was read on 15 October 2026 and is cited where it is used, because these terms move; if a page you open says something different, the page is right and this guide is behind. What free means here Three vendors are involved and each draws its free line differently. Microsoft publishes VS Code at no cost under its own licence and the editor itself has no usage meter. GitHub meters its assistant: Copilot Free allows 2,000 code completions and 50 chat requests a month, with agent mode and the terminal client included, and a plan at $0 (GitHub, Copilot plans page, 15 October 2026). Dataspheres AI has a free plan that is enough for this course and asks for no card. Nothing below needs a paid plan, and nothing below is a trial that expires. Step 1: install VS Code Download the editor from code.visualstudio.com/download for Windows, macOS or Linux and run the installer. No account is needed to install it. Open it once so it finishes its own first-run setup. Step 2: pick a free assistant GitHub Copilot Free is the one this guide uses, because it lives inside VS Code and accepts the one-click Dataspheres install link. Create a GitHub account if you have none, then in VS Code hover over the Copilot icon in the status bar, choose Use AI Features and sign in. Microsoft's own setup page says that an account with no Copilot subscription "will be signed up for the Copilot Free plan" at that point (Visual Studio Code docs, Copilot setup, 15 October 2026). The allowance is 2,000 completions and 50 chat requests a month, which is plenty to work through this course. GitHub Copilot Student raises that allowance for people who can prove they are enrolled. GitHub's Student Developer Pack page says "GitHub Copilot Student is available to verified students" and describes it as unlimited code completions with an allowance of AI credits for chat and agent use, models chosen by auto selection (GitHub Education, Student Developer Pack, 15 October 2026). Apply at education.github.com/pack with a school email or a dated student ID; approval takes a few days, and Copilot Free works in the meantime. Google Antigravity CLI is the free terminal agent from Google. Its predecessor, Gemini CLI, stopped serving free individual accounts on 18 June 2026 (Google, gemini-cli discussion 27274, 19 May 2026), so older guides that promise 1,000 free Gemini CLI requests a day no longer apply. The replacement installs in one step and signs in with a personal Google account; accounts without a paid Google AI plan get "a meaningful quota, refreshed weekly" and unlimited tab completions (Google, Antigravity plans page, 15 October 2026). The one-line installer for macOS, Linux and Windows is on Google's getting-started page ; it places a command named agy on your path, and the first run opens the Google sign-in. OpenAI Codex was checked and does not qualify. OpenAI's pricing page lists Codex in the terminal and the IDE extension for Plus, Pro, Business and Enterprise accounts, and describes the free ChatGPT plan only as a way to "explore Codex capabilities on quick coding tasks" (OpenAI, ChatGPT pricing page, 15 October 2026). The Codex repository names the same paid plans and offers an API key, which is billed per use. Skip it unless a plan is already paid for. Step 3: create a free Dataspheres account Go to dataspheres.ai and sign up with Google, Apple or an email address. The free plan is the one you land on; nothing asks for a card. Create one datasphere, which is the workspace the assistant will read and write, or accept the invitation to one a classmate or teacher already runs. Step 4: click Install in VS Code Open the Connect tab of the Developer Portal while signed in and press Install in VS Code . The same link is here: Install Dataspheres in VS Code . VS Code opens, asks you to trust the server at https://dataspheres.ai/mcp , then runs a Dataspheres sign-in in your browser. Approve it and the connection is made. Nothing is downloaded and no key is pasted; the connection is tied to your account and checks your role in each datasphere on every call. If the link does not open VS Code, create the file .vscode/mcp.json in any folder VS Code has open: { "servers": { "dataspheres": { "type": "http", "url": "https://dataspheres.ai/mcp" } } } For the Antigravity CLI or any other agent that reads a Model Context Protocol server, the address is the same one, and the connection signs in the same way. Step 5: start with the prompts Open Copilot Chat, switch it to agent mode, and ask it to list your dataspheres. It calls get_context and answers with each datasphere, your role in it, and the owner's standing brief for that space. That one exchange proves the connection. The connection also carries t