---
title: Offer a free course
description: How to offer a course for free or give selected people free access to a paid course
source: intercom
original: https://help.pathwright.com/en/articles/7996347-offer-a-free-course
retrieved: 2026-11-09
visibility: public
date: 2023-06-09
author: /people/pathwright-team.person.md
intercom-id: "7996347"
collection: Sell courses
section: Offer discount codes
---

# Offer a free course

When you create a new cohort, by default it will be set to "free" and be accessible "by invite only." You can check the pricing and accessibility of a specific cohort under the [cohort settings.](../../managing-path-settings/path-and-cohort-settings/cohort-settings-control-visibility-access-pricing-and-more.help.md)

Teachers and editors can always enroll for free. Learners, observers, and moderators will be required to pay if payment is required on the cohort.

## Make a cohort free for everyone

If you previously set a price on a cohort and would like to change it back to free, you can do that in the [cohort settings under "Commerce."](../../managing-path-settings/path-and-cohort-settings/cohort-settings-control-visibility-access-pricing-and-more.help.md) This will make the cohort free for all new enrollments (those who previously enrolled will not be affected).

## Make a cohort free for specific people

You may want to offer free access to specific people, such as a moderator, a learner who prepaid outside of Pathwright, or a scholarship learner, while accepting payment for all other learners.

As long as the cohort is not priced as "subscription only", you have the options to...

1. Create a separate cohort that is free and invite-only. Invite or add learners to this cohort and they will not need to pay.
2. To use the same cohort, but offer free access to selected learners, provide a discount code for free access. They'll apply the code on the final step of registration. [See instructions for creating discount codes here.](./create-your-own-discount-codes.help.md) You can even copy the shareable invite link and then [append a code to the end of the link](./append-a-discount-code-to-a-link.help.md) so that the code is pre-applied for everyone using that specific link.
3. We also have a feature called ["Add to Path" that allows you to assign courses to existing learners instantly,](../../add-and-manage-staff-and-members/inviting-people-to-a-course/add-to-path-assign-learning-paths-to-someone-to-join.help.md) with no payment required. This works best for assigning new courses to learners who are already members in your account.

## Free access to a subscription plan

If you're trying to give someone free access to a cohort that is priced as "subscription only," first have the individual subscribe (you can [provide a discount code](./create-your-own-discount-codes.help.md) for free months on a monthly plan). Then they can enroll for free or you can [use Add to Path to enroll them.](../../add-and-manage-staff-and-members/inviting-people-to-a-course/add-to-path-assign-learning-paths-to-someone-to-join.help.md)