When you create a new cohort, by default it will be set to "free" and be accessible "by invite only." You can check the pricing and accessibility of a specific cohort under the cohort settings.
Teachers and editors can always enroll for free. Learners, observers, and moderators will be required to pay if payment is required on the cohort.
Make a cohort free for everyone
If you previously set a price on a cohort and would like to change it back to free, you can do that in the cohort settings under "Commerce." This will make the cohort free for all new enrollments (those who previously enrolled will not be affected).
Make a cohort free for specific people
You may want to offer free access to specific people, such as a moderator, a learner who prepaid outside of Pathwright, or a scholarship learner, while accepting payment for all other learners.
As long as the cohort is not priced as "subscription only", you have the options to...
Create a separate cohort that is free and invite-only. Invite or add learners to this cohort and they will not need to pay.
To use the same cohort, but offer free access to selected learners, provide a discount code for free access. They'll apply the code on the final step of registration. See instructions for creating discount codes here. You can even copy the shareable invite link and then append a code to the end of the link so that the code is pre-applied for everyone using that specific link.
We also have a feature called "Add to Path" that allows you to assign courses to existing learners instantly, with no payment required. This works best for assigning new courses to learners who are already members in your account.
Free access to a subscription plan
If you're trying to give someone free access to a cohort that is priced as "subscription only," first have the individual subscribe (you can provide a discount code for free months on a monthly plan). Then they can enroll for free or you can use Add to Path to enroll them.