Vouchers

About CoCalc Vouchers 

A CoCalc voucher is a list of codes that can be redeemed for CoCalc licenses. Distributing codes is like distributing licenses, except that the keys do not circulate during distribution. In fact, license keys are not created until codes are redeemed by end users.

Here’s the CoCalc general voucher feature announcement and discussion: ANN: Vouchers - transferable codes that can be renewed later for a license.

Examples of Voucher Use 

Cash Vouchers 

CoCalc cash voucher codes are single-use codes that you can purchase and make available to somebody else, who can then redeem them at https://cocalc.com/redeem for that amount of credit on their CoCalc account. They can then buy anything in CoCalc using that credit, including upgrade licenses, dedicated VM’s and disks, pay-as-you-go project upgrades, student-pay course upgrades, GPT-4 chat evaluation, more vouchers, etc.

To buy a cash voucher code, visit https://cocalc.com/store/vouchers and do “Add Cash Voucher”.

For more detail, see the feature announcement and discussion: ANN: Cash Vouchers.

No Special Arrangement Is Needed 

You can purchase and resell vouchers without any special arrangement with us. The special arrangement (see “CoCalc Resellers” below) is only needed if you want to create vouchers and be billed later, only for the ones that were redeemed. If you purchase the vouchers ahead of time, you get a 25% discount immediately, and you then have a thing that can be resold, e.g., as part of an online course offering.

Hosting a Workshop 

Vouchers can be useful for running a workshop on CoCalc, offering simpler setup than CoCalc managed courses when attendees are not known until just before a session starts. Vouchers can be redeemed without going through the exchange of email addresses needed for a managed course.

CoCalc Resellers 

CoCalc resellers may choose to order vouchers before selling CoCalc licenses, then pay after some interval for codes that have been redeemed. Contact us at help@cocalc.com to learn about becoming a reseller.

CoCalc Administrators 

An administrator of On-Premises CoCalc may wish to create and issue vouchers to potential users of their CoCalc installation.

Obtaining a Voucher 

Put Item(s) into Shopping Cart 

You must have at least one non-subscription item in your shopping cart to create vouchers. Shop for upgrades, a license boost, or a dedicated VM or disk, and select a specific range of dates.

item in cart before creating voucher — shopping cart with 1 item before creating voucher

Configure the Voucher 

Click “Create Vouchers”. In the dialog that opens, configure the voucher as follows:

configure a voucher — configure payment, number of codes, and code format

Under “Pay Now or Invoice Later?” there will be one or more options:
- Pay Now: Buy the voucher immediately and get a 25% discount.
- Pay Later. Invoice me…: This option requires you to contact us and become a partner. If you are not a reseller, this option will not be enabled.
- Admin: This option will only be visible if you are a CoCalc administrator.
In the blank for “How Many Vouchers?”, enter the number of codes you want in the present voucher.
Under “Customize”, you can configure the format for the codes that are generated, including setting an optional prefix and suffix for each code.

Create the Voucher 

After configuring the voucher, click “Create n Vouchers” to pay, if necessary, and create your voucher with n codes. You will see a confirmation screen.

voucher order confirmation screen — voucher order confirmation

In the upper part of the screen, you will see one or more links, with the caption, “you can download the corresponding voucher codes via the links below”. The topmost link will take you to the codes for the new voucher.

Download Voucher Codes 

You can download the voucher codes immediately by clicking the link under “Order Complete!” above. You can also view and download codes for any vouchers at any time.

Distribute Codes to Users 

Once you have the voucher codes, you can distribute them by any means of your choice, for example email or text message. When you look at the list of codes there is a “Private Notes” field where you can keep track of what you have done with each voucher.

Here is some sample text you might use when sending out voucher codes:

You can redeem this code at https://cocalc.com/redeem

If you want to easily apply the license provided by this
voucher to a project, open that project's settings and
click the "Redeem Voucher" button. (You can do this with
the same voucher multiple times for different projects.)

Status of Vouchers Created 

For any voucher you have created, you can download all codes and view the status of all codes for any voucher at the created vouchers page.

display of created vouchers — status of created vouchers

Redeeming voucher codes 

To obtain license key(s) from a voucher, visit the code redemption page and enter the voucher code:

entering a code — entering the voucher code

You can also obtain a license key by selecting a project and scrolling down to “Redeem a voucher” in Project Settings:

redeeming a code — redeem voucher code button in project settings

When a user redeems a code, the corresponding license(s) start at the time of redemption and last for the same number of days as the original shopping cart item(s) used to create the voucher.

An end user can view all the voucher codes they have redeemed by browsing to the redeemed voucher page.

Questions?

If you want to try out using a voucher (or have any other questions), let us know. You can open a support request while signed into CoCalc by clicking Help at upper right, or just send an email to help@cocalc.com.