Academic & Education Program — Free Benecaster for Campus Podcasts

The Benecaster Academic Program is open to current students, faculty, and staff at accredited educational institutions who are producing podcasts in an institutional context. That means the show is connected to your campus, department, coursework, or role — not a personal project that happens to be made by someone who works at a university.

Eligible shows include: student-run campus podcasts, department and research communications, faculty-produced content affiliated with the institution, and staff productions for institutional departments. Alumni with no current enrollment or employment are not eligible. Personal podcasts by educators unrelated to their university role are not eligible.

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An institutional podcast is one produced at or for your institution — a show that would appear on your institution’s website, be produced under the institution’s name or logo, or be recognized as an official or affiliated student activity.

That includes student clubs and campus radio shows, journalism and media school productions, research communication podcasts, department public outreach shows, and student union productions. If you’d describe the show as your university’s podcast (or your department’s podcast, or your student newspaper’s podcast), it qualifies.

A professor’s independent podcast on a topic outside their institutional role — one they produce on personal time with no institutional affiliation — does not qualify, even if they’re a faculty member.

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Many institutions outside the United States — and some within it — don’t issue .edu addresses. That’s fine. The .edu path is just a faster route: applications with a .edu address and a valid letterhead document are approved automatically.

Without a .edu address, submit your application with a letterhead document and any additional materials that clearly establish your institutional affiliation. When you submit, we’ll send a verification email to the address you provided — click the link in that email to confirm it’s yours. After that:

• If you included a letterhead document, your application is approved automatically on the verification click.
• If you didn’t include a letterhead document, your application moves to manual review — we’ll be in touch.

The document needs to be on official institution letterhead — with the institution’s name, logo, or official header — and it should name the podcast and confirm its connection to the institution.

A generic department letterhead without any mention of the podcast isn’t sufficient. What we’re looking for is something that clearly shows the show is institutionally connected: a letter from a faculty advisor confirming a student show, a department head confirming an official departmental production, a student organization registration document, or similar.

It doesn’t need to be formal — a one-line confirmation on letterhead is fine. We just need to see that the institution knows the podcast exists and considers it affiliated.

Applications with a .edu email address and a valid letterhead document are approved automatically.

For non-.edu applications, there’s an extra step first: we send a verification email to the institutional address you provided, and you’ll need to click the link in that email to confirm it’s yours. After you verify:

• With a letterhead document included — your application is approved automatically on the verification click.
• Without a letterhead document — your application moves to manual review. We aim to respond within a few days.

Apply for Growth. It’s free under the academic program and covers up to 250 paying subscribers and 2,500 total tokens — more than enough for most campus and community shows. If you’re not sure how large your audience will be, start here. You can apply for an upgrade later if you need it.

If you’re running a larger production or multiple shows that genuinely outgrow Growth, Pro, Multi-Show, and Studio are available at 20% off. Apply for the plan you need — if approved, you’ll receive a coupon code to use at checkout for the discounted price.

If you’re not sure which plan fits, the pricing page has the full subscriber count and feature breakdown.

When your application is approved for a paid plan, we email you a one-use coupon code for 20% off the standard published price. The coupon is valid for 14 days from the date of your approval email.

Starting fresh on a paid plan: Go to the pricing page and click through to checkout for the plan you were approved for. Apply the coupon code at checkout and use the same email address you applied with — the discount won’t link to your academic account otherwise. Your license is provisioned automatically at the discounted price.

Upgrading from Growth: Go to your account dashboard, navigate to your license and plan, and click Upgrade. Apply the coupon code during the upgrade checkout using the same email address you applied with.

The coupon applies to the first billing period; renewals are billed at the standard rate unless you re-apply for a new coupon at renewal time.

If your coupon expires before you use it, email us and we’ll issue a new one.

Academic licenses are reviewed annually. About 30 days before your one-year anniversary, we’ll email you asking you to confirm that your institutional affiliation is still active — a single click is all that’s needed.

If your institutional email address has changed or been deactivated since you applied — common after graduation — email us at support@benecaster.com before your renewal date so we can update your contact information. The renewal reminder goes to the address on your original application.

We don’t auto-revoke licenses if you don’t respond immediately, but ongoing access does require continued affiliation. If you graduate, leave the institution, or the podcast moves outside an institutional context, the right thing to do is let us know — you can transition to a paid plan at the standard rate.

Benecaster also reserves the right to request re-verification at any time. Misrepresentation of eligibility results in immediate license revocation.

The free Launch plan is available immediately without an application — no card required, and it covers up to 10 paying subscribers. You can set up Benecaster on Launch while your academic application is under review.

If you applied without a .edu address: before your application enters review, we’ll send a verification email to your institutional address. You need to click the link in that email first — after that, if you included a letterhead document, your application is approved automatically. If not, it moves to manual review and you’ll hear back within a few days.

When your application is approved, you’ll receive an email with a link to activate your plan — your Growth plan (or approved higher plan) activates the moment you click through, and Launch is replaced automatically. No overlap billing to worry about.

The Academic Program covers the core plan only — the 20% discount applies to Starter, Pro, Multi-Show, or Studio (the Growth plan is free outright). Individual add-ons are not discounted.

Add-ons are separately available at their standard prices to any Benecaster account, including academic ones. If your institution needs the full add-on stack, the All Add-ons Bundle ($499/year) or Studio tier (which includes all podcaster add-ons) are the most cost-effective paths — with Studio at 20% off for qualifying institutions.

Great problem to have. If your show moves beyond an institutional context — graduates into a full commercial production, starts generating sponsorship revenue as an independent show, or otherwise stops being an institutional podcast — the right move is to transition to a paid plan at the standard rate.

Email us and we’ll walk you through the transition. Your existing license, subscribers, and data carry over — it’s just a billing change. There’s no migration required.

Yes, for different shows. Each application is for a specific podcast — if your institution has three separate podcasts produced by different teams, each team can apply individually. One license per show, each on its own academic plan.

If one person or team is producing multiple shows under a single Benecaster account, apply for the Multi-Show plan rather than applying separately for each show.

Email us at support@benecaster.com with “Academic program” in the subject line. We’ll update the address on your application so your annual renewal reminder and any other program communications reach you at the right address.

If your institutional email has been deactivated — common after graduation — it’s worth getting this updated before your renewal date. The reminder is sent to the address on your original application, so if that address no longer works, you won’t receive it.