Sign Up For Onshape Education

Yes, students under 13 may use Onshape in an educational context when appropriate consent is provided.

Onshape complies with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and similar international regulations. Accounts for students under 13 must be created or authorized by a qualified adult, such as:

• A school or district acting on behalf of parents or guardians
• An educator or program administrator
• A parent or legal guardian

Students under 13 should not independently create accounts without this authorization. When putting in the birthday, the qualified adult creating the account can put their own birthday to signify that someone above the age limit is registering.

An email address is required to create an Onshape account.

Onshape uses email for:

• Account verification
• Important system notifications
• Password recovery

If your organization blocks emails from external senders, we recommend:

• Working with your IT department to allow emails from Onshape, or [provide a link to whitelisting]
• Using an alternate email address that can receive external messages

Accounts cannot be created without an email address unless access is provided through an Enterprise (SSO-managed) account, where email handling is managed by the organization.

Educational accounts are available to individuals and organizations engaged in qualified educational activities, including:

• Students (K–12, higher education, and qualified student competitions)
• Educators teaching or supporting coursework or instruction
• Schools, universities, and districts
• Team mentors and coaches supporting qualified student programs

A .edu email address is not required to be eligible. Eligibility is based on educational use—not email domain.

Yes. Homeschool students and educators are eligible for Onshape education accounts.

Homeschool users should register through the education sign‑up process and use Onshape exclusively for non‑commercial, educational purposes, consistent with our Education plan terms.

Yes. Coaches and mentors supporting qualified student programs (such as robotics or engineering competitions) are eligible for education accounts.

These accounts are intended to support student learning, mentoring, and instructional activities—not commercial work.

Commercial use means using Onshape for business, professional, or profit‑generating activities, including:

• Client or paid consulting work
• Designing products for sale or manufacturing
• Contract or freelance engineering work
• Any use involving private or proprietary data

Education and Free plans are for non‑commercial use only. Commercial use and private data require a paid Onshape plan.

Yes. Onshape may use automated or manual verification to confirm eligibility for education plans.

Verification can include:

• Reviewing account information
• Requesting additional confirmation of educational affiliation
• Periodic re‑verification

Providing inaccurate or misleading information may result in loss of education plan access.

Education plans do not require manual renewal, but eligibility may be periodically re‑verified.

If your educational status changes, you may need to update your account or transition to a different Onshape plan.

If you are no longer eligible for an education plan:

• Your account may be transitioned to a Free plan, or
• You may choose to upgrade to a paid plan

Your designs are not automatically deleted, but access level and data visibility may change depending on the plan you move to.

No problem. You can upgrade an existing account to an Education plan.

Log in to your account and apply through the education sign‑up process. Once approved, your account will reflect Education plan features without requiring a new login.

Under U.S. COPPA requirements, children under 13 cannot independently create accounts. However, schools and educators can provide consent on behalf of parents when a service is being used for educational purposes within the classroom or school program.

In practice, this means:

• If you are using Onshape as part of a school-sponsored educational activity, your institution (or you as an educator acting on its behalf) may provide consent for students under 13.
• This consent should be consistent with your school or district’s policies around student data privacy (for example, agreements or approvals already in place through your district).