SheerID

SheerID is a verification company that confirms whether someone actually qualifies as a college student, teacher, or another specific category. When a company like Google offers a student discount, it's hard for them to individually check whether every applicant is really enrolled. So they outsource this verification to a specialist like SheerID, and users have to submit their school email or enrollment information and pass SheerID's screening before they can get the benefit.

Think of the student-discount booth at an amusement park where you show your student ID and get a stamp — except that booth isn't run by the park itself but by a separate, contracted verification company. If a signup flow, like Google's free plan for college students, includes a SheerID verification step in the middle, you have to clear that step before moving on to see the next screen and the payment terms.

News reports explain that "SheerID is the third-party student verification service Google uses to confirm actual enrollment status." The key point is that Google doesn't check enrollment records directly — it goes through a separate company's verification process — and only after passing that verification does the free-offer signup actually go through.

When you go through the identity verification step while signing up for a student discount or other eligibility-based offer, check the address bar or the bottom of the page for the name SheerID — that's when you can actually see this verification process at work.