16 Best Free Udacity Courses (2026): Is Udacity Free?

Last updated: September 2026. Written by Josh Hutcheson, OnlineCourseing editor. See our review methodology.

Udacity is best known for its paid Nanodegree programs, but it still hosts a set of free, self-paced courses. Some are on Udacity’s official free list and some are older courses that were never taken down. This guide answers is Udacity free? and lists the 16 free Udacity courses worth your time in 2026. We checked every one on Udacity’s own course pages on 29 September 2026: all 16 are marked free and still open for enrollment.

SHORT ANSWER

See Udacity’s free course list →

Is Udacity free?

Udacity runs a freemium model, and the split is sharper in 2026 than it used to be. Udacity now sells one subscription that opens its catalog of more than 500 courses and programs. A small set of courses stays outside that paywall:

• The official free list. Udacity maintains a free-course collection page with nine courses: Python, SQL, AI, product design, data analysis, machine learning, the Gemini API, statistics and an AI primer. These are the courses Udacity actively promotes as free, and all nine were updated in 2025 or 2026.
• Older free courses that are still open. Several free courses from Udacity’s earlier catalog (Git, HTML and CSS, JavaScript, A/B Testing, Shell Workshop, PyTorch and TensorFlow) are no longer on the free list but still have live, free course pages. Some have not been updated since 2022.
• Everything else is paid. Nanodegree programs and the rest of the catalog need the subscription: $249 per month, or $846 for a four-month bundle (about $212 per month, which Udacity bases on the average time to finish a Nanodegree).

Udacity’s course data marks each course as either “Free” or “Subscription”, so you can tell them apart before you enroll. One course listed as free on older round-ups, including an earlier version of this page, is now subscription-only: Data Science for Beginners. We have removed it.

If you want to learn a skill for $0, the courses below are legitimate and complete. If you want graded projects, expert feedback and a certificate to show employers, that is the paid side. Our Udacity Nanodegree review covers what the subscription actually adds, and Udacity Nanodegree cost breaks down the prices.

How we checked these courses

We did not complete all 16 courses from start to finish, and we will not pretend we did. Here is what we did on 29 September 2026:

• We read Udacity’s free-course collection page to get its official free list.
• We opened every course page and recorded what Udacity itself publishes: whether it is marked free or subscription, its rating and number of ratings, level, estimated time, number of lessons, instructors and last-updated date.
• We ranked the courses by how useful they are to someone starting out in tech, weighting how recently each was updated. A 2022 deep-learning course loses more to age than a 2022 shell course does.

The ratings are Udacity’s own learner ratings, not ours. Course lengths are Udacity’s estimates and assume a few hours a week.

All 16 free Udacity courses at a glance

Best free Udacity courses on Udacity’s official free list

These nine are on Udacity’s current free-course collection page, in the order Udacity lists them. They are the safest bets: actively maintained, and every one was updated within the last 18 months.

1. Introduction to Python Programming

Level: Beginner, no prerequisites · Time: about 3 weeks · Udacity rating: 4.5 (723 ratings) · Updated: May 25, 2026 · Taught by: Juno Lee

The best first course on the list for most people. It covers data types and operators, data structures, control flow, functions (including lambdas, iterators and generators) and, in the last lessons, setting up a local environment to write and run your own scripts. That final step matters: plenty of free Python courses keep you inside a browser editor, so you finish without ever having run a program on your own machine. This is also the course Udacity’s old “Programming Foundations with Python” link now redirects to. Our full Introduction to Python review goes lesson by lesson.

Start Introduction to Python Programming free on Udacity

2. SQL for Data Analysis

Level: No prerequisites listed · Time: about 1 month · Udacity rating: 4.7 (601 ratings) · Updated: June 4, 2026 · Taught by: Derek Steer

Goes further than most free SQL courses. Beyond SELECT, joins and aggregations, it covers subqueries, window functions and partitions, data cleaning and query optimization, which are the parts that separate basic SQL from job-ready SQL, and the last two lessons are marked advanced. If you only take one free Udacity course for a data job, take this one.

Start SQL for Data Analysis free on Udacity

3. Intro to Artificial Intelligence

Level: Intermediate · Time: self-paced (33 lessons) · Udacity rating: 4.4 (692 ratings) · Updated: May 15, 2025 · Taught by: Peter Norvig and Sebastian Thrun

The classic course that helped launch Udacity, taught by the co-author of the standard AI textbook and Udacity’s founder. It covers problem solving and search, probabilistic inference, machine learning, logic, planning, reinforcement learning, computer vision, robotics and natural language processing, with problem sets and a midterm exam. It is a foundations course, not a generative-AI course: you learn how reasoning under uncertainty works rather than how to call an LLM API. It suits students and anyone who wants the theory behind today’s tools. Pair it with the Gemini API course below if you also want something current.

Start Intro to Artificial Intelligence free on Udacity

4. Product Design

Level: No prerequisites listed · Time: about 3 weeks · Udacity rating: 4.6 (249 ratings) · Updated: May 11, 2026 · Taught by: Chris Saden and Amir Shevat

A practical introduction to validating a product idea before you build it: ideation and validation, UI and UX basics, Google’s Design Sprint process, mockups, and choosing the metrics that show whether people use what you shipped. It is useful for aspiring product managers and for developers who want to stop building features nobody asked for. It is short enough to finish in a few weekends.

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5. Intro to Data Analysis

Level: Intermediate · Time: about 4 weeks · Udacity rating: 4.4 (609 ratings) · Updated: May 14, 2026 · Taught by: Caroline Buckey

The natural next step after the Python course. You work through the full analysis process on real datasets with pandas, NumPy and Matplotlib: posing a question, cleaning the data, exploring it and communicating what you found, and it ends with a final project, Investigate a Dataset, so you finish with something to show. If you enjoy it, Udacity’s paid Data Analyst Nanodegree is the natural next step.

Start Intro to Data Analysis free on Udacity

6. Intro to Machine Learning

Level: Intermediate · Time: about 3 months · Udacity rating: 4.8 (140 ratings) · Updated: April 23, 2025 · Taught by: Katie Malone and Sebastian Thrun

Tied for the highest rating on this list, and the longest of the practical ones. It teaches machine learning end to end in Python and scikit-learn, from naive Bayes, SVMs and decision trees through clustering, feature selection, PCA, validation and evaluation metrics, and it ends with a final project built on the Enron email dataset. You need working Python and some statistics first; take courses 1 and 8 before this one.

Start Intro to Machine Learning free on Udacity

7. Gemini API by Google

Level: Intermediate, 1 prerequisite listed · Time: about 2 hours · Udacity rating: 4.8 (12 ratings) · Updated: July 1, 2025 · Taught by: UC Berkeley machine-learning instructors, per Udacity

The only current generative-AI course in Udacity’s free collection. In about two hours it shows you how to build small AI apps with Google’s Gemini API and AI Studio across text, images and code. It assumes you can already write Python. The rating is based on only 12 reviews, so treat it as promising rather than proven. It is the quickest way on this list to go from “I have heard of LLM APIs” to having called one.

Start Gemini API by Google free on Udacity

8. Intro to Statistics

Level: Beginner · Time: self-paced (44 lessons) · Udacity rating: 4.5 (148 ratings) · Updated: June 4, 2026 · Taught by: Sebastian Thrun

Covers visualization, probability and Bayes’ rule, distributions, the central limit theorem, confidence intervals, hypothesis testing and regression, with optional programming exercises and a final exam. The lessons are brief, so the 44-lesson count looks bigger than it is. Take it before machine learning or A/B testing; both assume you already understand what a confidence interval is telling you.

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9. Discovering AI and Machine Learning

Level: Discovery (non-technical) · Time: under 1 hour · Udacity rating: 4.8 (156 ratings) · Updated: June 27, 2025 · Taught by: Udacity

A plain-language overview of what AI and machine learning are and how businesses use them, with no code. It takes less than an hour. It is the right pick for managers and career changers who need the vocabulary before deciding whether to learn the technical side. Everyone else can skip straight to course 3 or 6.

Start Discovering AI and Machine Learning free on Udacity

Browse Udacity’s free courses →

Older free Udacity courses that are still open

These seven are not on the official free list any more, but each has a live course page marked free. Watch the update dates: the web and shell basics have aged well, but the deep-learning courses predate the transformer era.

10. Version Control with Git

Level: No prerequisites listed · Time: about 2 weeks · Udacity rating: 4.7 (168 ratings) · Updated: May 23, 2025 · Taught by: Richard Kalehoff

Git is the one tool every developer, analyst and data scientist ends up needing, and this course teaches it from first principles: creating a repository, reading its history, making commits, tagging, branching and merging, and undoing changes. Udacity’s description adds resolving conflicts. Take it alongside Shell Workshop (course 14).

Start Version Control with Git free on Udacity

11. Intro to HTML and CSS

Level: No prerequisites listed · Time: about 5 hours · Udacity rating: 4.6 (230 ratings) · Updated: March 14, 2024 · Taught by: Cameron Pittman and James Parkes

How web pages are structured with HTML and styled with CSS, taught as two syntax lessons, each followed by a problem set. The fundamentals have not changed, so the 2024 update date is less of a problem here than for the AI courses. It is the starting point for anyone heading toward front-end or full-stack work.

Start Intro to HTML and CSS free on Udacity

12. Intro to JavaScript

Level: No prerequisites listed · Time: about 3 weeks · Udacity rating: 4.7 (78 ratings) · Updated: March 7, 2022 · Taught by: Julia Van Cleve and James Parkes

Variables, data types, conditionals, loops, functions, arrays and objects. It was last updated in March 2022, so it teaches core syntax well but none of the modern tooling around it. Use it for the fundamentals, then practise on a current project.

Start Intro to JavaScript free on Udacity

13. A/B Testing

Level: Beginner · Time: about 4 weeks · Udacity rating: 4.6 (68 ratings) · Updated: May 23, 2025 · Taught by: Carrie Grimes, Caroline Buckey and others

How to run online experiments properly: the policy and ethics of experimenting on users, choosing and characterizing metrics, designing and sizing the experiment, and analyzing the results without fooling yourself. Few free courses anywhere cover experiment design this rigorously. It is essential for product analysts and growth marketers. Take Intro to Statistics first.

Start A/B Testing free on Udacity

14. Shell Workshop

Level: Beginner · Time: about 4 hours · Udacity rating: 4.7 (86 ratings) · Updated: March 7, 2022 · Taught by: Karl Krueger

A short introduction to the Bash shell: moving around directories, working with files, and the handful of commands you will use every day. Bash has barely changed, so the 2022 date does not matter much. Finish it in an afternoon before starting the Git course.

Start Shell Workshop free on Udacity

15. Intro to Deep Learning with PyTorch

Level: Intermediate (Python + basic ML assumed) · Time: about 1 month · Udacity rating: 4.6 (52 ratings) · Updated: March 7, 2022 · Taught by: Luis Serrano, Alexis Cook and others

Starts with how neural networks learn, then builds them in PyTorch: convolutional networks, style transfer, recurrent networks for sentiment prediction, and deploying a model. It includes a conversation with PyTorch co-creator Soumith Chintala. It was last updated in March 2022 and stops at recurrent networks, so expect nothing on the transformers behind modern LLMs.

Start Intro to Deep Learning with PyTorch free on Udacity

16. Intro to TensorFlow for Deep Learning

Level: Intermediate (Python assumed) · Time: about 3 weeks · Udacity rating: 4.4 (60 ratings) · Updated: September 25, 2023 · Taught by: Magnus Hyttsten, Juan Delgado and others

The TensorFlow and Keras counterpart to the PyTorch course: a first model on Fashion MNIST, convolutional networks, transfer learning, time-series forecasting, NLP with embeddings and recurrent networks, and TensorFlow Lite for mobile. Choose it only if the team or job you are aiming at uses TensorFlow. Most new deep-learning work uses PyTorch, so for most learners course 15 is the better default.

Start Intro to TensorFlow for Deep Learning free on Udacity

Three free learning paths

Taking the courses in a sensible order gets you further than picking them at random. Three sequences use only the free courses above:

Finish each path by building one small project of your own with the skills, such as a SQL analysis of a public dataset, a personal web page, or a small app that calls the Gemini API. Free courses do not give you a certificate, so that project is what you will show an employer.

Can you get a Udacity Nanodegree for free?

Not by just signing up. Nanodegrees need the paid subscription. The one legitimate route to a free Nanodegree is a sponsored scholarship, where a company pays for a cohort of learners.

The scholarship running in 2026 was AWS AI & ML Scholars, sponsored by Amazon Web Services. Its structure is typical of how these programs work:

• Phase 1, the challenge phase: open to anyone 18 or older, anywhere in the world, with no AI experience required. Up to 100,000 learners took free, self-paced AI and agentic-AI training based on the AWS AI Practitioner learning plan. Applications ran from March 24 to June 24, 2026.
• Phase 2, the Nanodegree: the top 4,500 learners by assessment score received a fully funded Nanodegree in one of three tracks (Future AWS AI Programmer, Future AWS Agentic AI Business Professional, and Future AWS Agent Engineer), running from August 4 to November 4, 2026.

That round is closed, but Udacity has a sign-up for future scholarships on its scholarships page, and the AWS round has run in earlier years. If a free Nanodegree is your goal, sign up for alerts and treat the challenge phase as a competition: only the top scorers advance. Also ask your employer, since many companies buy Udacity seats for their staff.

See the AWS AI & ML Scholars page →

If you are going to pay, check the current discount first. In September 2026 Udacity offered new users 40% off any plan for the first four months: $149.40 a month instead of $249, or $507.60 instead of $846 for the four-month bundle. Our Udacity coupon code guide tracks which discounts are live.

Do free Udacity courses give you a certificate?

No. Udacity’s free course pages do not list a certificate of completion, and Udacity lists “program certificates” as a benefit of its paid subscription. The searches for “Udacity free courses with certificate” are chasing something Udacity does not offer.

If you need a credential on your resume, you have three honest options: pay for a Nanodegree, win a sponsored scholarship, or earn a cheaper certificate elsewhere (see the alternatives below). Our list of free certifications for your resume covers credentials that genuinely cost nothing.

Free vs paid Udacity: what you actually get

The paid side is worth it only if you will use the projects and expert feedback. If you just want the knowledge, the free courses cover a surprising amount of the same ground. Our Udacity graduate reviews show what people say the paid version changed for them.

Who are free Udacity courses best for?

Free courses make the most sense if you are exploring a field before paying for anything, or if you are a working professional who needs one skill, such as SQL or Git, without a whole program. They also make good preparation for a paid Nanodegree: finishing Introduction to Python Programming and Intro to Data Analysis first means you start the paid program already moving.

They are a weaker fit if you need outside accountability to finish, if you need a credential for employers, or if you are making a full career change and need reviewed projects. In those cases a paid program, or one of the cheaper certificate options below, is a better use of your time.

How to get the most out of a free Udacity course

• Check the update date first. A 2026 SQL course and a 2022 deep-learning course are not the same bet.
• Set a weekly schedule. Free courses have no deadline, which is exactly why most people never finish them.
• Do the exercises, not just the videos. The quizzes are where the learning happens.
• Put your work on GitHub. Take the Git course early and commit your exercise solutions. It becomes a portfolio.
• Build one thing of your own at the end. That project is the proof employers look for, since there is no certificate.

“Free download” and “pirate Udacity” searches: read this first

A lot of people search for downloads or pirated copies of Udacity’s paid Nanodegrees. We do not recommend it. Pirated course dumps are usually out of date and incomplete, can carry malware, and leave out the reviewed projects and expert feedback that are the whole reason a Nanodegree costs money. The 16 courses on this page are free legally. If a paid program is out of budget, the better routes are a sponsored scholarship, the new-user discount, or a cheaper course on another platform.

Cheaper alternatives if you want a certificate

• Coursera lets you preview the first module of most courses free, then pay if you want the rest and the certificate. Full free access to a whole course is limited to select courses, and financial aid is available on most. See is Coursera worth it? and our Coursera vs Udacity comparison.
• Udemy courses are often discounted to under $20 in its frequent sales and come with a certificate of completion and lifetime access. See our Udemy review.
• freeCodeCamp is free end to end, certifications included, though it covers mainly web development and Python. We compare it directly in freeCodeCamp vs Udacity.
• AWS Skill Builder has free AI and machine-learning training. Udacity itself points scholarship applicants there now that the 2026 round is closed.

For the full structured, expert-reviewed experience, a paid Udacity Nanodegree is still the most hands-on option. Our best Udacity Nanodegrees list covers which ones are worth the money, and our wider guide to the best free online courses covers free options beyond Udacity.

Explore Udacity Nanodegrees →

Frequently asked questions

Is Udacity completely free?

No. Udacity has a small set of free courses (nine on its official free list in September 2026, plus some older courses that are still free), but its Nanodegree programs and most of its catalog sit behind a subscription of $249 per month, or $846 for a four-month bundle.

Do free Udacity courses come with a certificate?

Udacity’s free course pages do not list a certificate. Udacity lists program certificates as a benefit of its paid subscription, so if you need a credential for your resume, plan on a paid Nanodegree or a cheaper certificate from another platform.

Can I get a Udacity Nanodegree for free?

Only through a sponsored scholarship. In 2026 the AWS AI & ML Scholars program admitted up to 100,000 learners to a free challenge phase, and the top 4,500 by assessment score received a fully funded Nanodegree running from August 4 to November 4, 2026. Applications for that round closed on June 24, 2026; Udacity has a sign-up for future rounds on its scholarships page.

Does Udacity have a free trial?

Not as of September 2026. Udacity’s pricing page does not offer a free trial; it says “Try risk-free, cancel anytime” and offers new users 40% off any plan for the first four months. The free courses are the closest thing to a trial.

How much does Udacity cost?

Udacity’s subscription is $249 per month, or $846 for a four-month bundle (about $212 per month). With the 40% new-user discount, that is $149.40 per month or $507.60 for the four-month bundle for the first four months, after which plans switch to month to month.

How do I access Udacity’s free courses?

Create a free Udacity account, open a free course page and click Enroll. Free courses need no payment details and have no deadline. Udacity’s own list is at udacity.com/course-collection/free-udacity-courses.

Are Udacity’s free courses still worth taking in 2026?

The best ones are. SQL for Data Analysis, Introduction to Python Programming, Intro to Statistics and Intro to Data Analysis were all updated in 2026. Check the update date before starting any course: Intro to JavaScript, Shell Workshop and the PyTorch course have not been updated since March 2022.

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• Best Udacity Nanodegrees (paid)
• Udacity Nanodegree cost
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• Udemy vs Udacity