Getting online when you cannot afford the internet bill
An internet connection is now part of almost everything — job applications, school, doctor visits, benefits paperwork — and the regular monthly price is more than a lot of households can pay. There is more help for this than most people realize. Some of it is free the same day, some of it is a federal discount, and most of it comes from the internet companies themselves, which sell separate low-priced plans to households that qualify.
This page covers all of it: places to get online free today, the Lifeline discount, each major company's low-income plan, help for students, ways to get a computer, and a free tool that searches for offers at your own address.
- SCAM WARNING: Any website or company charging a fee to enroll you in free or discounted internet, or any call, text, social medial message, or email claiming you were selected is a scam — including sites still pretending to sign people up for the closed federal discount program. Requests for payment, bank details, or gift cards are always fraudulent.
Free ways to get online today
If you need internet right now and there is no money for it, start with the public library. Every branch has free Wi-Fi and computers you can use inside, and many libraries also let you check out a mobile hotspot and take it home, which means free internet at your house for the length of the loan. These lending programs vary from one library system to the next and some have waiting lists, so ask at the desk.
Free Wi-Fi also exists at many community centers, many parks and downtown areas, laundromats, and most fast food restaurants and coffee shops. It is not private, so do not use it for banking or anything sensitive, but it covers a job application or an email when nothing else is available.
And if anyone in your household has phone service through the Lifeline program described below, most of those phone plans include some hotspot data, which lets a laptop connect through the phone for short stretches of work.
Lifeline, the one federal discount left
One federal discount still exists for phone and internet bills, and it is called Lifeline. It takes a set amount off one bill per household every month — phone or internet, your choice — and the discount is larger for households on qualifying Tribal lands.
You can qualify through SNAP, Medicaid, SSI, federal housing assistance, the veterans pension, certain Tribal programs, or a low enough income. Apply through the program's official site at lifelinesupport.org, which checks whether you qualify and then shows the phone and internet companies in your area that accept the discount. A couple of states run their own application systems, and the site sends you the right way if you live in one.
Lifeline has been running for decades. The discount is modest on its own, and it does the most good combined with one of the cheap company plans below. The Lifeline benefit - how to apply guide page on this sites walks through the application step by step and covers the free phone service side of the program.
The internet companies' own discount plans
Nearly every large internet company sells a separate low-priced plan for households on assistance programs or with lower incomes, and these plans are now the main way families bring the bill down. They follow a pattern: you prove that someone in the household is on a program such as SNAP, Medicaid, SSI, or the school lunch program — or that your income is under the company's limit — and in return you get home internet at a small fraction of the regular price, usually with the equipment included, no contract, and no credit check.
The first question is always which companies serve your address, because you can only sign up with a company that actually offers service where you live. Then find that company below.
Xfinity from Comcast runs Internet Essentials, the largest of these programs and the one that reaches the most homes. The Xfinity Internet Essentials cheap internet guide covers its two versions, the qualification rules, the application, and Comcast's prepaid option for people who do not qualify.
Access from AT&T (website: https://www.att.com/internet/access/) gives qualifying households a low set price on AT&T home internet, with the equipment, installation, and Wi-Fi included and no deposit or contract. The qualifying list is long — SNAP, Medicaid, SSI, WIC, housing assistance, the school lunch program, Head Start, LIHEAP, a Pell Grant, the veterans pension, Tribal programs, or income under the program's limit — and people who already have AT&T internet can apply to have the lower price put on their existing service.
Spectrum Internet Assist (website: https://www.spectrum.com/internet/spectrum-internet-assist) is Charter's version, open to households with a child on free or reduced price school lunch and to seniors on SSI. The modem is included, there is no data cap and no contract, a lower rate exists for households on certain assistance programs, and New York residents have extra ways to qualify under that state's rules.
Cox runs two programs. Connect2Compete at https://www.cox.com/residential/internet/connect2compete.html is for families with a K-12 student who are on a program such as the school lunch program, SNAP, TANF, or housing assistance, and it includes the modem, self-installation, and hotspot access, with no credit check and no Social Security number required to apply. ConnectAssist is Cox's version for households without school children, with a broader list of qualifying programs, reached through the same Cox application.
Verizon Forward (website: https://www.verizon.com/discounts/verizon-forward/) works differently. Instead of a special plan, it is a monthly discount taken off Verizon's regular home internet plans — Fios, 5G Home, and LTE Home — for households on a long list of assistance programs or with income under the limit, and the same discount is now available to Frontier Fiber customers as well. One step matters: after Verizon approves you, an email arrives with a final link, and the discount does not land on your bill until you finish that step.
Optimum Advantage Internet (website: https://www.optimum.com/internet/advantage-internet) covers the areas Optimum serves, with free installation, the equipment included, and no contract. It is open to households on Lifeline-type assistance programs, families whose school gives free meals to every student, Pell Grant students, veterans on public assistance, and seniors on SSI.
Several smaller and regional companies, including Mediacom and Astound, run plans built the same way. If your company is not listed here, search its name together with the words low income, or call and ask whether it has a plan for households on assistance programs. The answer is usually yes.
Prepaid plans, when nothing else fits
If no program fits — the income is a little too high, or there is no benefits paperwork to show — a few companies sell prepaid home internet with no credit check, no deposit, and no contract. You pay for a month at a time, you can stop and restart whenever you need to, and the application asks nothing about your finances. It costs more than the discount plans and less than regular service. Ask the companies that serve your address whether they sell a prepaid or month-to-month internet plan.
If a student lives in your house
Families with a student have options nobody else gets, including a free hotspot with free yearly data from T-Mobile and hotspot lending through schools. The guide to free internet for students from K to college covers that whole set, from kindergarten through college.
State and local programs
Some states have passed laws requiring internet companies to sell a cheap plan to lower income households, and a few states and cities run discount programs of their own. What exists changes from one state to the next, so the quickest checks are asking your provider directly, dialing 211, and looking at your state's public utility commission or broadband office website.
Finding every offer at your address
If sorting through this company by company sounds like too much, a nonprofit called EveryoneOn runs a free search tool that takes your zip code and your situation and lists the low-cost internet plans and cheap computers available where you live. The NHPB guide to EveryoneOn explains how the tool works and what shows up in it.
Getting a computer too
Handling the bill is only half of it if there is no computer in the house. The free laptop and desktop computer options covers nonprofit refurbishers, school programs, and other ways to get a machine at little or no cost.
A warning while you look into any of this: every program on this page is free to apply to, and none of them will contact you first. A website charging a fee to enroll you in free or discounted internet, or a call or message saying you were selected for a program, is a scam — and that includes anything still claiming to sign people up for the old federal discount program, which is closed and takes no applications. The NHPB guide to avoiding financial assistance scams covers the warning signs.
The company plans, the Lifeline discount, and the state programs described here change their prices, rules, and availability on their own schedules, and not every option exists in every area. Verify the current terms directly with each program before you sign up.
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