We are thrilled to share that we have selected 185 open source projects for the 21st year of Google Summer of Code (GSoC)

Get to know more about each organization via their individual GSoC program page. There you will find the best way to engage with each community, view project ideas, and read their contributor guidance for applying to their organization.

Applications for the GSoC Contributors are open March 24 - April 8, 2025

The 2025 GSoC program is open to students and to beginners in open source software development. If you are eager to enhance your chances of becoming a GSoC contributor this year, we highly recommend following these steps:

• Get inspired by watching the 'Introduction to GSoC' video for a quick overview and the Community Talks to learn more about past projects that contributors completed.
• Review the Contributor Guide and Advice for Applying to GSoC.
• Review the list of accepted organizations.
• We recommend finding two to three Orgs that interest you and reading through their project ideas. Use the filters on the site to help you narrow down based on the programming languages you are familiar with or categories that interest you.
• Once you find an idea that excites you, reach out to the organization right away via their preferred communication methods. Communicating early and often will increase your chances of being accepted.
• Introduce yourself to the mentors and community and ask questions to determine if this project idea is a good fit for your skill set and interests.
• Use the information you received to write up your proposal.

Join us in our upcoming Info session!

• Contributor Talk #3 on Thursday, March 6, 16:00 UTC
Join the talk here: meet.google.com/gyq-mcuz-wey

Finally, you can find more information about the program on our website which includes the full 2025 timeline. You’ll also find the FAQ, Program Rules and some videos with more details about GSoC for both contributors and mentors.

Welcome aboard 2025 Mentoring Organizations! We are looking forward to an amazing year!

By Stephanie Taylor, Mary Radomile & Lucila Ortíz – GSoC Program Admins

Level up your coding skills in Google Summer of Code 2025

Get ready for the 2025 Google Summer of Code (GSoC) program! We started this adventure in 2005 and over the past 20 years we have welcomed over 21,000 new contributors to open source through the program under the guidance of 20,000+ mentors from over 1,000 open source organizations. Check out the video below to learn more about the impact GSoC has made over the last two decades.

Our mission since day one has been to foster the next generation of open source contributors. Participants are immersed in a supportive environment where they spend 3+ months collaborating on real-world projects alongside experienced mentors. This deep dive into open source not only builds valuable coding skills, but cultivates a strong understanding of community dynamics and best practices, empowering them to become impactful contributors.

2024 was a milestone year with 1,127 GSoC contributors completing their projects with 195 open source organizations. We hope to surpass these numbers in 2025!

Be a GSoC 2025 mentoring organization

Application period: January 27 – Feb 11

Interested organizations can learn more by visiting our website; there you’ll find supportive materials to get started.

An invaluable resource is our Mentor Guide, which is a quick way to familiarize yourself with the GSoC program. You’ll find tips on how to engage your community, suggestions on how to present achievable project ideas, and guidance on applying these to your communities.

We are happy to welcome organizations new to GSoC each year. Typically, 20-30 organizations join us for the first time, and we encourage you to apply. In 2025, we're particularly excited to expand our reach in the Security and Machine Learning domains.

Learn more about being a GSoC mentoring organization

Join us in our first information session of the year:

• Organization Applications Tips on Tuesday, January 22 17:00 UTC

  Join the talk here: meet.google.com/gse-thow-xmc

Be a GSoC 2025 contributor

Application period: March 24 - April 8

If you are a beginner to open source development or a student interested in learning about open source, this is your chance to get involved and gain experience on real-world software development projects. Follow these quick steps to set yourself up for success:

• Learn more about GSoC on our official website.
• Watch our Introduction to GSoC video for a quick overview of the program.
• Review the Contributor Guide to get insightful ideas from past students and mentors for your program success.
• Read the GSoC Program rules to understand how GSoC works.

Learn more about being a GSoC contributor

Join one of our upcoming information sessions:

• Contributor Talk #1 on Wednesday, February 19, 16:00 UTC

  Join the talk here: meet.google.com/oct-wgna-paa

• Contributor Talk #2 on Tuesday, February 25, 2:00 UTC

  Join the talk here: meet.google.com/zau-gtwk-tif

• Contributor Talk #3 on Thursday, March 6, 16:00 UTC

 Join the talk here: meet.google.com/gyq-mcuz-wey

Please help us spread the word about GSoC 2025 to your peers, family members, colleagues, universities and anyone interested in making a difference in the open source community. Join us and help shape the future of open source!

By Stephanie Taylor, Mary Radomile, and Lucila Ortiz

Level up your coding skills in Google Summer of Code 2025

Get ready for the 2025 Google Summer of Code (GSoC) program! We started this adventure in 2005 and over the past 20 years we have welcomed over 21,000 new contributors to open source through the program under the guidance of 20,000+ mentors from over 1,000 open source organizations. Check out the video below to learn more about the impact GSoC has made over the last two decades.

Our mission since day one has been to foster the next generation of open source contributors. Participants are immersed in a supportive environment where they spend 3+ months collaborating on real-world projects alongside experienced mentors. This deep dive into open source not only builds valuable coding skills, but cultivates a strong understanding of community dynamics and best practices, empowering them to become impactful contributors.

2024 was a milestone year with 1,127 GSoC contributors completing their projects with 195 open source organizations. We hope to surpass these numbers in 2025!

Be a GSoC 2025 mentoring organization

Application period: January 27 – Feb 11

Interested organizations can learn more by visiting our website; there you’ll find supportive materials to get started.

An invaluable resource is our Mentor Guide, which is a quick way to familiarize yourself with the GSoC program. You’ll find tips on how to engage your community, suggestions on how to present achievable project ideas, and guidance on applying these to your communities.

We are happy to welcome organizations new to GSoC each year. Typically, 20-30 organizations join us for the first time, and we encourage you to apply. In 2025, we're particularly excited to expand our reach in the Security and Machine Learning domains.

Learn more about being a GSoC mentoring organization

Join us in our first information session of the year:

• Organization Applications Tips on Tuesday, January 22 17:00 UTC

  Join the talk here: meet.google.com/gse-thow-xmc

Be a GSoC 2025 contributor

Application period: March 24 - April 8

If you are a beginner to open source development or a student interested in learning about open source, this is your chance to get involved and gain experience on real-world software development projects. Follow these quick steps to set yourself up for success:

• Learn more about GSoC on our official website.
• Watch our Introduction to GSoC video for a quick overview of the program.
• Review the Contributor Guide to get insightful ideas from past students and mentors for your program success.
• Read the GSoC Program rules to understand how GSoC works.

Learn more about being a GSoC contributor

Join one of our upcoming information sessions:

• Contributor Talk #1 on Wednesday, February 19, 16:00 UTC

  Join the talk here: meet.google.com/oct-wgna-paa

• Contributor Talk #2 on Tuesday, February 25, 2:00 UTC

  Join the talk here: meet.google.com/zau-gtwk-tif

• Contributor Talk #3 on Thursday, March 6, 16:00 UTC

 Join the talk here: meet.google.com/gyq-mcuz-wey

Please help us spread the word about GSoC 2025 to your peers, family members, colleagues, universities and anyone interested in making a difference in the open source community. Join us and help shape the future of open source!

By Stephanie Taylor, Mary Radomile, and Lucila Ortiz

Nurturing the Next Generation of Open Source Contributors

In the ever-evolving landscape of technology, open source software development plays a pivotal role in fostering innovation and collaboration on a global scale. For 20 years the Google Summer of Code (GSoC) program has introduced and nurtured new contributors entering the open source community. At All Things Open 2024, we’re excited to celebrate the 20th anniversary of GSoC, and reflect on some of the contributions this initiative has made to the world of software development.

About the Google Summer of Code program

Since its inception in 2005, one of GSoC’s goals has been to act as a bridge between aspiring developers and the open source ecosystem. The program's core principle revolves around mentorship; pairing participants with experienced developers from open source organizations of all shapes and sizes. GSoC has facilitated the connection of over 21,000 contributors from 123 countries. In 2005, the program reached over 200 contributors from 51 countries––a 10,400% increase in 20 years! This global reach underscores the program's commitment to fostering an inclusive and diverse open source community.

Over the years, participants have collectively produced over 43 million lines of code, and contributed to the development and health of over 1,000 open source organizations. This substantial body of work not only strengthens the foundation of open source projects, but also shows the program's effectiveness by empowering new developers to make meaningful contributions.

GSoC's Impact: Bridging the gap between aspiring developers and open source

GSoC has far-reaching positive effects extending beyond the participants accepted into the program. For organizations, the GSoC application process itself acts as a catalyst for positive change in their communities. To apply, they must refine their documentation, develop newcomer-friendly tasks, and foster a collaborative environment to define potential projects. These efforts strengthen their communities, enhance organization, and create a more welcoming space for new members. Even when their application isn't accepted, organizations and contributors that don't make it into the program continue to benefit from these improvements.

Similarly, developers who apply to GSoC gain valuable insights. They discover open source projects aligned with their interests and realize the vast and exciting landscape of open source work. Many even go on to contribute to these projects independently, outside the formal GSoC structure.

The impact of GSoC extends beyond numbers. Participants tell us that one of the most significant aspects of GSoC is the invaluable learning experience it offers. Through their 12+ week programming projects, contributors gain exposure to real-world software development practices, coding standards, and collaboration techniques. The guidance and mentorship provided by seasoned open source developers enables participants to hone their skills, build confidence, and develop a deeper understanding of the open source ethos.

The value of mentorship and learning within the open source community

For participating organizations, GSoC serves as a valuable pipeline for identifying and attracting fresh perspectives. Many GSoC contributors continue to engage with their new communities long after the program concludes, becoming active members, maintainers, and even mentors themselves; in fact, GSoC has had more than 20,000 mentors hailing from 138 countries. This cycle of learning and contribution perpetuates the growth and sustainability of the open source ecosystem. We’re excited to build an even deeper connection with our GSoC alumni in 2025 to help strengthen the long term contributor and maintainer community further.

Celebrating 20 Years of GSoC

With the 20th anniversary of Google Summer of Code, we celebrate the program's enduring tradition as a catalyst for open source innovation. By providing a platform for collaboration, mentorship, and skill development, GSoC has empowered countless individuals to embark on fulfilling careers in software development while simultaneously enriching the open source ecosystem.

Join me at Google’s All Things Open keynote to learn more about GSoC and celebrate its 20th anniversary.

Posted by Timothy Jordan – Director, Developer Relations & Open Source, Google

We are celebrating our 20th anniversary of Google Summer of Code (GSoC) and we are thrilled to announce the new 1,220 Contributors that will be writing code for 195 open source mentoring organizations starting May 27. Over the last few weeks, our mentoring organizations have read through applications, had discussions with applicants, and made the difficult decision of selecting the GSoC Contributors they will be mentoring this summer.

Highlighting significant results from this year’s application period:

• 43,984 applicants from 172 countries
• 9,107 proposals submitted by 6,518 applicants
• 1,220 GSoC contributors accepted from 73 countries
• Over 2,800 mentors and organization administrators
• 34 mentoring organizations are participating in their 16th-20th GSoC!

Starting today, our GSoC 2024 Contributors will actively engage with their new open source community and become familiar with their organizations during the Community Bonding period. Mentors will guide the GSoC Contributors through documentation and introduce them to community norms and processes while helping plan their milestones and projects for the summer. Coding begins May 27th and while most folks will wrap up September 2nd, GSoC Contributors have the opportunity to request a longer coding period and wrap up their projects between early September and early November based on their schedules and availability.

We’d like to express our gratitude to the thousands of applicants who took the time and effort to reach out to our mentoring organizations and submit proposals this year. The experience of researching, asking questions and becoming more familiar with open source communities has hopefully helped you feel excited about open source and maybe you found a great community that you want to contribute to outside of Google Summer of Code! Communication is key to GSoC and open source, and staying connected with the community or reaching out to other organizations is an exceptional way to set the stage for future opportunities. Open source communities are always looking for new and eager collaborators to join their projects.

A huge thank you to all of our mentors and organization administrators who make this program so special and impactful for thousands of developers each year. Google Summer of Code continues because of the dedication of mentors to keep the open source ecosystem thriving by supporting new developers and their exciting perspectives and ideas. Google is honored to support the open source ecosystem (and 1,000+ open source projects and 20,000+ developers) over these past 20 years.

GSoC Contributors — have fun this summer, keep learning and enjoy becoming part of the open source community! Your mentors and community members have dozens, and in some cases hundreds, of years of combined experience so let them share their knowledge with you to help you become phenomenal open source contributors.

By Stephanie Taylor – Program Lead and Lucila Ortiz – Program Administrator

We are thrilled to announce that the Contributor applications for Google Summer of Code (GSoC) 2024 are now open! If you are a Student or a beginner in open source software development and 18+ years old, we hope you will apply. The application period opened March 18th at 18:00 UTC and closes April 2nd at 18:00 UTC.

This year we are celebrating the 20th year of Google Summer of Code! During GSoC, contributors will spend 12+ weeks writing code and learning more about open source software development under the guidance of experienced mentors.

Since 2005, GSoC has welcomed thousands of new developers into the open source community every year. The GSoC program has brought together over 20,000 contributors from 116 countries and 19,000 mentors from 850+ open source organizations.

This year we have added more projects focused on Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Security than ever before; keep in mind the following points before applying:

• Consider the three project sizes: ~90 hours, ~175 hours, and ~350 hours and choose which time commitment is best for you.
• Contributors can submit a maximum of 3 project proposals (to different orgs or even multiple proposals to the same org).

With GSoC contributor applications now open, please review these helpful tips to guide your application:

• Read the program rules, FAQ, contributor guide, and advice for applying and join us in our Discord chat Channel to connect with the community.
• Review the list of 195 mentoring organizations and use filters to sort by your interests including programming language (python, Rust, etc.) and category (data, development tools, artificial intelligence, infrastructure and cloud, security, etc.).
• Narrow down your list to 2-4 organizations and review their ideas list.
• Reach out to the organizations via their contact methods listed on the GSoC site immediately.
• Engage with the organization early and often, good communication is key! You must talk to the organization about your proposal before the application period ends if you want to be accepted into the program.
• Watch our Intro to GSoC video, as well as the GSoC Org Highlight videos and Community Talks series, to get inspired about projects that contributors have worked on in the past.

Interested contributors may register and submit project proposals on the GSoC site from now until Tuesday, April 2nd at 18:00 UTC.

Best of luck to all our applicants!

By Stephanie Taylor, Program Manager, and Lucila Ortiz, Associate Program Manager for the Google Open Source Programs Office

We are thrilled to share that we have 195 open source projects that have been selected for Google Summer of Code (GSoC) 2024! This year we are excited to welcome 30 new organizations for their first year as part of the program.

Check out our program site to view the complete list of GSoC 2024 accepted mentoring organizations. Get to know more about each organization on their GSoC program page, which includes reading through the project ideas that they are looking for GSoC contributors to work on this year.

Are you interested in being a GSoC Contributor?

The 2024 GSoC program is open to students and to beginners in open source software development. Contributor applications will open on Monday, March 18, 2024 at 18:00 UTC with a deadline of Tuesday, April 2, 2024 18:00 UTC to submit your application (including your project proposal).

If you are eager to enhance your chances of becoming a successful contributor this year, we highly recommend beginning your preparations and initiating communication with the organizations that interest you right away. Below are some tips for prospective GSoC contributors to accomplish before the application period begins March 18th:

• Watch our ‘Introduction to GSoC’ video to see a quick overview of the program, and view our Community Talks or Org Highlight Videos to get inspired and learn more about some projects that contributors have worked on in the past.
• Check out the Contributor Guide (so much great info in here!) and Advice for Applying to GSoC doc.
• Review the list of accepted organizations here. We recommend finding two to four that interest you and reading through their project ideas lists. Use the filters on the site to help you narrow down based on the programming languages you are familiar with and the categories that interest you (cloud, AI, security, science, etc.).
• As soon as you see an idea that sparks your interest, reach out to the organization via their preferred communication methods (listed on their org page on the GSoC program site). The earlier you start the conversation, the better your chances of being accepted as a GSoC contributor.
• Talk with the mentors and community to determine if this project idea is something you would enjoy working on during the program. Find a project that excites you, otherwise it may be a challenging summer for you and your mentor.
• Use the information you received during your communications with the mentors and other org community members to write up your proposal.

You can find more information about the program on our website which includes a full timeline of important dates. We also urge anyone interested in applying to read the FAQ and Program Rules and watch some of our other videos with more details about GSoC for contributors and mentors.

A hearty welcome—and thank you—to all of our mentor organizations. We look forward to working with all of you during this 20th year of Google Summer of Code!

By By Stephanie Taylor – Google Open Source

On November 17th, we wrapped up our 2023 Google Summer of Code program where 903 contributors completed open source projects for 168 OSS organizations. This year 70% (628) of the successful 2023 contributors opted for a 12-week project, while the remaining 30% (275) completed their GSoC work over the past few weeks. That being said, many contributors choose to continue involvement in the OSS community after finishing their GSoC projects. GSoC is typically just one small chapter in a contributor's lifetime open source journey.

Our mentors and GSoC contributors spent a lot of time giving us invaluable feedback from the program so we wanted to share a few top insights below. Their comments help us to keep the program relevant and to continue to meet the needs of open source communities and new open source contributors.

Advice for future contributors

As we head into our 20th year of GSoC, we wanted to highlight some of the advice that the 2023 GSoC contributors offered to future contributors. Much of the advice falls into the themes of:

• Communicate early and often with mentors.
• Take the time in February as soon as orgs are announced to find the right org and choose a project you are excited about, it will make the program much more enjoyable.
• Set realistic goals and break tasks into milestones.
• Be open to learning! Open source can seem intimidating but you have amazing mentors and the community there encouraging and supporting you.

We welcomed 18 new mentoring organizations this year, many of which were able to attend our Mentor Summit on Google’s campus a few weeks ago.

In 2023, 10.15% of GSoC contributors were non-students. This was the second year since we opened up the program to non-students. We hope to continue to have more potential GSoC contributors who are changing careers or not currently enrolled in academic programs join the program.

“My advice is to just go for it. I'm a thirty-something career-changer who doesn't have a technical background; at times, I doubt myself and my ability to transition into a more technical field. During GSoC, I was paired with knowledgeable, friendly, engaging mentors who trusted me to get the work done. It was empowering, and I did work that I'm extremely proud of. To anyone in my shoes who may be afraid to take the plunge, I highly encourage them to do so. Seriously - if I can do it, anyone can."

– brittneyjuliet, GSoC’23 Contributor

Favorite part of GSoC

GSoC contributors have shared their favorite parts of GSoC with some very common themes:

• Working on real-world projects that thousands/millions of people actually use and rely on
• Interacting with experienced developers and truly being part of an enthusiastic, welcoming community
• Making a difference
• Gaining overall skills and confidence to boost their careers that can’t be obtained from classrooms alone

How GSoC improved their programming skills

95.5% of contributors believe GSoC improved their programming skills. The most common responses to how GSoC improved their skills were:

• Practical experience. Applying programming concepts and techniques to real projects.
• Learning to write cleaner, more maintainable code.
• Enhanced problem solving skills.
• Project management - learned how to break large, complex problems into smaller, organized tasks.
• Learning to understand complex codebases.
• Learning new concepts and technologies.
• Engaging in code reviews with mentors regularly helped to grasp industry best practices.

We want to thank all of our mentors, organization administrators, and GSoC contributors for a rewarding and smooth GSoC 2023. The excitement from our GSoC contributors throughout the program and our mentors at the recent Mentor Summit was palpable. Thank you all for the time and energy you put in to make open source communities stronger and sustainable.

GSoC 2024 will be open for organization applications from January 22–February 6, 2024. We will announce the 2024 accepted GSoC organizations February 21 on the program site: g.co/gsoc. GSoC contributor applications will be open March 18–April 2, 2024.

By Stephanie Taylor, Program Manager, and Perry Burnham, Associate Program Manager for the Google Open Source Programs Office

Google Summer of Code (GSoC) will be celebrating its 20th anniversary with our upcoming 2024 program. Over the past 19 years we have welcomed over 19,000 new contributors to open source through the program under the guidance of 19,000+ mentors from over 800 open source organizations in a wide range of fields.

We are honored and thrilled to keep GSoC’s mission of bringing new contributors into open source communities alive for 20 years. Open source communities thrive when they have new contributors with fresh, exciting ideas and the renewed energy they bring to these communities. Mentorship is a vital way to keep these new contributors coming into the open source ecosystem where they can see collaboration at its finest from their community members all across the world, all with different backgrounds and skills working towards a common goal.

With just over a week left in the 2023 program, we have had one of our most enthusiastic groups of GSoC contributors with 841 GSoC contributors completing their projects with 159 open source organizations. There are 68 GSoC contributors wrapping up their projects. A GSoC 2023 wrap up blog post will be coming late this month with stats and quotes from our contributors and mentors.

Our contributors and mentors have given us invaluable feedback and we are making one adjustment around project time commitment/project scope. For the 2024 program, there will be three options for project scope: medium at ~175 hours, large at ~350 hours and a new size: small at ~90 hours. The idea is to remove the barrier of available time that many potential contributors have and open the program to people who want to learn about open source development but can’t dedicate all or even half of their summer to the program.

As a reminder, GSoC 2024 is open to students and to beginners in open source software development that are over the age of 18 at time of registration.

Interested in applying to the Google Summer of Code Program?

Open Source Organizations

Check out our website to learn what it means to be a participating mentor organization. Watch the GSoC Org Highlight videos and get inspired about projects that contributors have worked on in the past.

Take a look through our mentor guide to learn about what it means to be part of Google Summer of Code, how to prepare your community, gather excited mentors, create achievable project ideas, and tips for applying. We welcome all types of open source organizations and encourage you to apply—it is especially exciting for us to welcome new orgs into the program and we hope you are inspired to get involved with our growing community. In 2024, we look forward to accepting more artificial intelligence/machine learning open source organizations.

Want to be a GSoC Contributor?

New to open source development or a student? Eager to gain experience on real-world software development projects used by thousands of people? It is never too early to start thinking about what kind of open source organization you’d like to learn more about and how the application process works!

Watch our ‘Introduction to GSoC’ video to see a quick overview of the program. Read through our contributor guide for important tips from past participants on preparing your proposal, what to think about if you wish to apply for the program, and explore our website for other resources. Continue to check for more information about the 2024 program once the 2023 program ends later this month.

Please share information about the 2024 GSoC program with your friends, family, colleagues, and anyone you think may be interested in joining our community. We are excited to welcome new contributors and mentoring organizations to celebrate the 20th year of Google Summer of Code!

By Stephanie Taylor – Program Manager, Google Open Source Programs Office