Don't do it. AI makes you stupid, and using it for school is counterproductive.

I still have my edu email and it does a verification for class enrollment.

Deepseek v4 pro or kimi. U don't need cursor. Plain overpriced

If you are still evaluating options, https://api.getapiomni.com/ might be worth a look: one OpenAI-compatible /v1 key across GLM / DeepSeek / Qwen / Kimi, top up from $1, real-time balance, card / Apple Pay / Google Pay / PayPal, no region locks. Zed + DeepSeek/MiniMax/KimiK as the way to go - one OpenAI-compatible key feeds all of them.

I dont know anything about cursor specifically, but if you REALLY want an ai coding agent for free I guess opencode? You've probably seen the other comments on why using one is a bad idea though, especially for a beginner (personally learning go with neovim, its very rewarding).

Zed with Deepseek, MiniMax or KimiK is the way to go imo. You can't pirate API or AI subscription though... If you don't want to spend anything, try running locally if you have a good rig. Cursor is totally unnecessary.