Configure course student pay

What student pay is

Student pay lets an instructor require a course membership for each student project. Students can join the course during a grace period, then purchase the course membership when payment is required.

This is a course access workflow, not a general billing page. Configure it in the course file under Course Payment Options.

Payment choices

Each course has one payment mode:

1. Student pays directly. Each student buys the selected course membership.
2. Institute or instructor pays directly. The instructor buys course seats for students instead of making students pay individually.
3. Site license. A matching institutional site license covers students when one is available. If no matching site license is found, students can still pay directly or the instructor can buy seats.

When a matching site license is available, CoCalc selects it by default. When there is no matching site license, student pay is the default.

Choose the required membership

Select an enabled membership tier that an admin has marked course-visible. Tiers limited to instructor email domains require a matching verified email address. If no tier is available, ask an admin to check course visibility and any instructor-domain allowlist.

The course membership tier determines:

• the student price
• how long the course membership lasts
• the grace period length
• the project resources and limits students receive

If a student already has an active membership whose tier priority is at least the required course tier, they do not need to buy the course membership. This means one sufficiently high membership can cover multiple courses at the same time, and a student's own higher-tier membership can satisfy the course requirement. If a student switches classes or sections and has already bought a sufficient membership, they can usually keep using it without purchasing another membership.

Set the course start date

The grace period is counted from the course start date. Set this to the first day students should have full access.

Do not rely on the day you configure the course as the start date. Instructors often prepare courses days or weeks before students start working, so the start date must be explicit.

What students see

During the grace period, students see a warning banner in their course project. They can dismiss it and continue working.

After the grace period ends, the student project shows a payment-required page with a purchase button. This is meant as a frontend course workflow gate, not as a hard security or abuse boundary.

After a student buys the course membership, or claims a matching site license, the project becomes active again.

Instructor-paid seats

Use Institute or instructor pays directly when students should not enter payment information themselves. The instructor buys a course seat package for the selected membership tier and assigns seats to students.

This is useful for workshops, institutional courses, and settings where payment is handled outside the student account.

Site licenses

A site license is an institution-managed membership pool. CoCalc can use it for course access when the instructor's verified email domain and the license terms match the selected course membership.

If the course UI says No matching site license found, it usually means one of the following:

• the instructor email address is not verified
• the verified email domain does not match the site license
• the site license has no appropriate membership tier, automatically claimable student pool, or available seats
• there is no site license for this institution

Students can still use student pay or instructor-paid seats when a site license is not available.

Operational checklist

Before inviting students:

1. Select the required course membership tier.
2. Set the course start date.
3. Confirm the grace period shown in the panel.
4. Choose student pay, instructor pay, or site license.
5. Add one test student and verify what that student sees.
6. If students will pay directly, test the purchase flow before class starts.