OpenAI Launches Free ChatGPT Program for 100,000 Academic Researchers
July 30, 2026 — OpenAI believes the benefits of frontier AI should not be concentrated in a few companies and well-resourced labs. Scientific progress depends on researchers asking the right questions, testing new ideas, and building on what others have discovered. OpenAI’s role is to put powerful tools in their hands—and work alongside them to design models that accelerate their research while keeping them in control.
Credit: Prathmesh T/Shutterstock
OpenAI is introducing ChatGPT for Academic Researchers, a program that will give 100,000 researchers at selected academic institutions free access to its frontier models. The program will help researchers across the sciences, mathematics, and engineering take on advanced problems, accelerate discovery, and improve productivity, from preparing grant applications to testing hypotheses.
OpenAI is starting with 10,000 researchers this summer, with access already available at institutions such as the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) and École normale supérieure (ENS). OpenAI plans to expand to 100,000 researchers through 2027. Participants will have access to OpenAI frontier models, including GPT‑5.6 Sol Pro at launch, and can invite up to four collaborators from their institution. Workspaces include business-grade privacy and security protections, and data is not used to train OpenAI models by default. Researchers can use tools and skills to support work ranging from genomic analysis and protein modeling to literature reviews, grant writing, and publishing.
The program also includes training, hands-on support, and opportunities to learn from other researchers and share feedback with OpenAI.
For institutions with ChatGPT Edu, free access granted through this program will be coordinated through the institution’s workspace. Learn more about ChatGPT Edu and how OpenAI supports higher education.
ChatGPT for Academic Researchers is part of a commitment of more than $250 million through 2027 to support external scientific research and discovery. That includes NextGenAI, OpenAI’s $50 million initiative supporting research institutions, and the company’s work with the Department of Energy’s Genesis Mission to bring frontier AI to researchers at national laboratories and universities. Together, these efforts reflect OpenAI’s belief that scientific progress accelerates when more researchers have the tools to pursue their own ideas.
AI Is Accelerating Research
AI is becoming a more capable research tool faster than many expected. Each week, roughly 1.3 million people use ChatGPT for advanced science and mathematics, generating about 8.4 million messages.
The shift is especially visible in mathematics. In the past six months, AI has moved from occasional use on isolated problems to a more regular part of mathematical research. A growing number of papers now acknowledge ChatGPT’s contribution, reflecting how quickly researchers are adopting these tools in their work.
Researchers use ChatGPT and Codex across nearly every stage of scientific work. ChatGPT helps researchers interrogate ideas, acquire knowledge, generate hypotheses, and communicate their findings. Codex supports research execution and formal analysis, including writing code and analyzing results.
These patterns are showing up in research. Physicist Rogerio Jorge and his team are using AI to develop open-source fusion research software used by industry and national laboratories to design fusion energy devices. In theoretical computer science, researchers Barna Saha, Yinzhan Xu, and Christopher Ye used GPT‑5.5 Pro to develop a proof establishing new limits on how efficiently computers can solve high-dimensional geometry problems, then validated and refined the results themselves.
Researchers using these tools most intensively are also taking on more ambitious work. Those in the top 20% of AI usage within their field are almost twice as likely as their peers to ask AI to take on tasks estimated to require four hours or more: nearly 7% of their requests, compared with 3.5% among other researchers in the same field.
OpenAI’s strategy is not to decide which scientific problems deserve attention or try to solve them all. It is to put capable tools in the hands of the research community and let researchers pursue the questions they know best.
What Participants Will Get
Participants will receive free access to OpenAI’s frontier models across ChatGPT, ChatGPT Work, and Codex, including the GPT‑5.6 family of models at launch. They will also have expanded deep research, higher usage limits, and larger context windows. Together, these capabilities support scientific reasoning, agentic execution, and research workflows across disciplines.
GPT‑5.6 Terra balances capability and efficiency for everyday research, GPT‑5.6 Luna provides faster responses for lighter-weight tasks, and GPT‑5.6 Sol tackles the most difficult scientific and mathematical problems. On FrontierMath Tier 4, which measures research-level mathematical reasoning, GPT‑5.6 Sol scores 83%, compared with 72.5% for GPT‑5.5. On GeneBench Pro, which evaluates complex biological data analysis and scientific reasoning, GPT‑5.6 Sol Pro solves 31.5% of tasks.
Researchers can use more than 75 life science skills spanning genetics, genomics, sequencing, single-cell analysis, protein modeling, and drug discovery. Connectors support research across disciplines, providing access to scientific literature, public genomic and clinical databases, satellite imagery, computational notebooks, data platforms, and reference managers.
Codex can help write and debug code, analyze datasets, and build reproducible workflows. ChatGPT Work can support longer projects such as finding funding opportunities, preparing grant applications, reviewing literature, drafting manuscripts, and creating materials to communicate results.
Training and Research Support
Researchers will have different starting points with AI. Some may be using these tools for the first time; others may be developing advanced applications in their fields.
The program will offer training tailored to different levels of experience, from getting started and improving workflows to advanced research applications. Participants will have access to specialists familiar with research workflows, including help integrating these tools into their work.
As researchers make discoveries, OpenAI plans to create more opportunities for researchers to share practical approaches, learn from one another, and highlight uses across disciplines. Their feedback will help OpenAI understand where its models are useful, where they fall short, and how to make them more valuable to the research community.
How to Apply
The initial program is open to qualifying researchers at selected academic institutions. Eligible institutions must be recognized, degree-granting colleges or universities with a high level of research activity.
Applicants will need to verify their institutional affiliation and provide information about their active research and intended scientific use. Approved researchers may invite up to four collaborators from their institution. Each collaborator must also verify their affiliation and counts toward the program’s total number of accounts.
Applications are open today. You can review the eligibility criteria and apply here.
Source: OpenAI
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