AI, online gig help students abroad beat rising living cost amid falling rupee
New Delhi: Indian students abroad are adopting new ways for a side hustle to make ends meet, as living costs increase while the rupee’s free fall erodes the financial backing from home.
The traditional model of part-time work in cafés, retail stores and restaurants is giving way to online gigs, such as tutoring, design, coding, social media management, content writing, video and podcast editing, and paid research or student-support assignments within universities, said study abroad experts.
Growing use of artificial intelligence is accelerating this shift to remote options, which provide students some flexibility to make an earning within their visa frameworks even as governments tighten rules on work options for international students.
In the US, students on F-1 visas cannot engage in off-campus employment but can work up to 20 hours a week on campus during the academic term. In the UK, those on eligible degree-level courses can work up to 20 hours a week in term time. Canada allows eligible students up to 24 hours per week off-campus while Australia caps student work at 48 hours per fortnight during study periods.
These work help offset rising living costs as well as offer valuable exposure to global work environments, said experts. But the main driving force for many students to take up such work is the financial pressure, exacerbated by the currency depreciation.
The Indian rupee hit an all-time low against the dollar Friday. It has depreciated more than 5% so far in 2026 and nearly 11% since the beginning of the current fiscal year in April 2025. This is driving up the cost when converted into rupees. Many of these students take education loans in India that are disbursed in rupees.
The average education loan for overseas study has increased from around ₹39 lakh in 2024 to ₹43 lakh in 2025, said Piyush Kumar, regional director–South Asia, Canada & LatAm at IDP Education.
“Affordability has tightened even for families that had planned for overseas education,” said Adarsh Khandelwal, cofounder at Collegify.
Evolving earning formats
Students are also tapping income streams such as affiliate marketing, user-generated content, social-media monetisation and small-scale resale or ecommerce—particularly in thrifted goods, books and student essentials.
“Formats of earning are evolving,” said Manisha Zaveri, joint managing director at Career Mosaic. “They’re moving to remote work, gig models, or choosing destinations with better work rights.”
Not every student works during their course, but those taking substantial student loans often do, she said.
Planning is also becoming more strategic. Students are applying earlier to maximise scholarships, choosing universities that match their financial capacity, and selecting job-oriented programmes, said Kumar. In the US, universities are offering research, teaching, and graduate assistantships, which allow students to work while studying, sometimes across departments. Early networking for on-campus roles, co-ops, and assistantships has become essential.
“The modern student abroad is no longer only working by the hour. They are increasingly earning through skill, niche, and digital reach,” said Khandelwal.
Newer earning avenues include application mentoring and peer coaching for juniors in India, editing reels and YouTube shorts for founders back home, and running peer communities on WhatsApp or Discord.
AI tools are expanding the menu of options.
Three years ago, most student income was physical and shift-based, said Nikhil Jain, founder at ForeignAdmits. Today, AI-training work has become a significant source of income. “Platforms like Scale AI, Appen and Outlier are recruiting freelancers to evaluate and improve AI systems. Prompt-engineering gigs on Upwork pay $60–150 an hour,” he said.
Some students are turning to unconventional income sources—participating in clinical trials and focus groups at university hospitals, pet-sitting, or taking au-pair roles in Germany. “In the UK and Europe, students resell second-hand goods from charity shops on Vinted and eBay. Others list their student rooms on Airbnb during breaks,” Jain said.
