How to Redeem an Educator Code: Activate Premium with a BG Code

How to redeem an educator code, in short: open the BlueGrays app, go to the Profile tab at the bottom, tap Redeem Code, type or paste the code your teacher gave you (it starts with BG) into the BG-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX field and tap the Redeem Code button. If your teacher sent the code as a link, it is even easier: tap the link, the Redeem Code screen opens with the code already filled in, and you only press the button. Once the code is accepted your account becomes BlueGrays Premium straight away; the 30 or 365 days start that day, no card is needed and nothing is charged when the time runs out.

This guide is written for students and parents. We go through what the code is, how to enter it in three ways (in the app, through a link and on the web), the three things to check before you enter it, the five error messages you might see and what to do about each, what Premium unlocks for you, how to make the most of your first week, which of your details your teacher can see, and what happens when the time is up. It takes about ten minutes to read; entering the code usually takes less than a minute.

What is an educator code and how does it work?

An educator code is a single-use Premium code that your teacher buys in bulk from the Educator Packages screen in BlueGrays. The teacher pays once from their own phone, through the App Store or Google Play and with their own account; the codes land on their My Codes screen and they give one to each student. You don't buy anything and you don't touch a card or your store account. The code always has the same format: BG at the start, followed by three groups of four characters separated by hyphens. The groups can contain capital letters and digits, for example BG-7K2Q-M0RA-4TZ1. The table below collects every rule you need to know about the code.

The row people mix up most is the start date. Say your teacher bought yearly codes at the start of September but you entered yours on 15 September 2026: your Premium lasts until 15 September 2027, and none of the days in between are lost. If you enter a monthly code on 2 November, Premium stays on until 2 December. That's why the best moment to enter the code is the week your teacher says the course begins; if you enter it much earlier, part of the time passes before the lessons start.

Step by step in the app: Profile > Redeem Code

1. Open BlueGrays and sign in with the account your teacher asked you to use. If you don't have an account yet, sign up first; the code is always added to the account that is signed in at that moment.
2. Go to the Profile tab in the bottom menu.
3. Tap the Redeem Code row (it says "Activate a premium code" underneath). The Redeem Code banner on the subscription screen that presents Premium ("Enter the code from your educator to get premium") opens the same screen.
4. Type the code into the BG-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX field. If your teacher sent it in a message, copying and pasting is the safest option; if you type it by hand, don't skip the hyphens.
5. Tap the Redeem Code button.
6. If you see "Code redeemed successfully! Your premium account is active.", you're done. To check, open a Premium project that was locked: the steps, the circuit diagram and the code should now be visible.

Don't worry about upper and lower case: the system turns the code into capitals automatically, so bg-7k2q-m0ra-4tz1 is read as the same code. Spaces at the start or end are removed as well. What really needs attention is characters that look alike; we cover them separately in the error table below. Once the code is accepted you never need to enter it again; when you sign in with the same account on another phone or tablet, Premium comes with you.

With a link: the code is filled in for you

Teachers often send the code with the share option on the My Codes screen. In that case the message contains both the code itself and a link that opens it in the app. Open the message on the phone where BlueGrays is installed and tap the link: the app opens and the Redeem Code screen appears with the code field already filled in. Check that the code matches the one in the message and tap Redeem Code. The link only carries the code, it doesn't choose your account, so make sure you are signed in with the right account before you tap it. The link is meant for you alone: if you forward it to a friend and they tap it first, the code is used on their account.

On the web: when your phone isn't with you

If your phone isn't with you, you're in the school computer lab or the link won't open on your phone, you can enter the code on the web too. Go to bluegrays.com in a browser, sign in with the same account you use in the app and open the Redeem Code page. Type the code the same way and tap Redeem Code; Premium is added to that same account, and the Premium projects unlock when you open the app with it. On the web you can only redeem codes, not buy anything, and you don't need to buy anything anyway. If you already entered the code on the web, there's no need to try again in the app; a second attempt shows an "already used" warning.

Before you enter the code: a 3-minute checklist

Once a code is used it is tied to that account, and you can't move it to another account yourself. So checking these points one by one before you tap the button is much easier than writing to your teacher afterwards:

• The right account: Did you sign in with your school email or your personal one? If you have accounts with both, ask your teacher which one they want and check on the Profile tab which email you are signed in with. If you signed in with Google or Apple, check which account was picked.
• No active store subscription: If your account has a Premium subscription bought through the App Store or Google Play that is still running, you can't redeem a code. The subscription has to end first; details below.
• The code is yours: The code should have been given to you personally. Don't enter a code that was shared in the class group for someone else; that code is another student's Premium.
• Don't share the code: Don't forward the code or its link to friends, and don't post a screenshot of it anywhere public. The first account to enter the code gets it.
• A recognisable profile: When you redeem the code, your name and username become visible to your teacher. If you signed up with a nickname, use a name your teacher will recognise, or tell them which username is yours.
• Internet connection: The code is checked on the server; if the screen hangs on weak school Wi-Fi, try again with mobile data or another network.

Error messages and how to fix them

When something goes wrong, the app shows a short message under the code field. Almost all of them can be fixed in a minute; for the rest, all you need to do is write to your teacher with the right information. The table below lists the messages the app shows, what they mean and what you should do:

If you have an active subscription: switching from subscription to code

Some students have already bought a monthly or yearly individual Premium subscription with their own account. While that subscription is running, an educator code isn't accepted, because two Premiums can't run at once and the code's days would be wasted. The fix is simple: first turn off automatic renewal for the BlueGrays subscription in your phone's subscription settings (the App Store on iPhone, Google Play on Android). Cancelling doesn't waste the period you paid for; Premium stays on until the end of that period. Once the period is over and the subscription has fully ended, enter the code. The code waits in the meantime and isn't lost, because unused codes have no expiry date. Tell your teacher too, so they know why your code still shows as unused. If your Premium comes from an earlier educator code rather than a store subscription, things are different: you can enter the new code without waiting. In that case the times add up, and the new code's days are added on top of your current end date. For example, if you have 10 days left and enter a new 30-day code, you get 40 days in total.

What does the code unlock?

The moment the code is accepted, your account becomes BlueGrays Premium just as if you had subscribed yourself. The app has 200+ projects for the Arduino, ESP32 and Raspberry Pi Pico; 60 of them (20 per platform) are fully open to everyone, and the rest unlock with Premium. With BlueGrays IoT in Workshop › My devices you can control an ESP32 or Raspberry Pi Pico W board from your phone; your first device is free, and with Premium you can connect up to 10. The details are in the guide to controlling an ESP32 from your phone. The table shows the difference between a free account and a Premium one:

It's also worth knowing what the code doesn't change. Being Premium doesn't show your teacher which projects you finished or how many points you scored in the daily questions; there's no class dashboard like that in the app. Hand in your work the way your teacher asks (a photo of the working circuit, showing your screen at the end of the lesson and so on). When you finish a project, tap I made it on the project page: it's added to your Completed Projects list in Workshop, and you can show that list to your teacher on your own screen.

Your first week: a plan so Premium isn't wasted

Because the time starts the day you enter the code, it would be a shame to spend the first week clicking on random projects. The seven-day plan below assumes you have an Arduino Uno or Nano and a simple starter kit; if you use an ESP32 or a Pico, follow the same steps with the projects for your board.

The most useful part of the plan is Understand the code. Every project starts with a "What does this code do?" summary, then Step by step explains each part of the code separately, If you get stuck covers common mistakes, and at the end a Try it yourself task waits for you with a hint and a hidden solution. If you work through these four sections instead of just copying and uploading the code, you'll be able to answer when your teacher asks "what does this line do?" in class. The Daily questions refresh every night at 00:00; a few minutes every day sticks better than one long session a week.

Privacy: which of your details does your teacher see?

When you redeem an educator code, your name, username, email address and profile photo are shared with the teacher who gave you the code. On the My Codes screen the teacher sees who used which code, the day it was activated and when your Premium ends. The reason is simple: when a teacher hands out 20 or 30 codes, this is the only way to keep track of who is Premium, who hasn't entered their code yet and whether a code went to the wrong account. Your password, your messages, the projects you open and your scores in the daily questions are not part of that screen.

This sharing happens the moment you redeem the code, so it's important to know in advance. If you'd rather not have your profile photo and username visible to a teacher, you can change them before you enter the code. When you're asked to use an account created with your school email, this is usually the reason: the teacher can easily match the name on the list with the class register. As long as you only take codes from your own teacher, your details are shared with that teacher alone.

What happens when the time is up?

When the 30 or 365 days are over, the Premium features switch off on their own and you're not charged anything, because the code isn't a subscription. Your account isn't deleted; the free projects, the 7 free tools, the Daily questions, the Code guide and the forum stay open. The steps, diagrams and code of the Premium projects are locked again. If you want to carry on, you have two options: ask your teacher for a new code or start your own individual subscription. The table below sums up the most common situations:

A short note for parents

• No card needed: You don't need to add a payment method to your child's Apple or Google account. The teacher pays once from their own account.
• No automatic payments: The code isn't a subscription; after 30 or 365 days Premium switches off and you're never asked to pay.
• What the teacher sees: Your child's name, username, email and profile photo in BlueGrays, plus the code's activation and end dates. Project progress and quiz scores are not shown to the teacher.
• Existing subscription: If your child's account has a subscription bought earlier that is still running, the code can't be used; cancel the subscription in the store settings and wait for the period to end.
• The code is personal: Each code works once on one account; siblings can't share a code, each of them needs their own.

If you have your code, all that's left is to check you're signed in with the right account and enter it on the Profile > Redeem Code screen; a minute later the Premium projects are waiting for you. If the app isn't on your phone yet, download BlueGrays, sign in with the account your teacher asked for and start your first week with the plan above.