OpenAI Launches Free ChatGPT Programme for 100,000 Academic Researchers
Participants will receive access to OpenAI's latest frontier models, including GPT-5.6 Sol Pro, along with the ability to invite up to four collaborators from their institution.
OpenAI has announced ChatGPT for Academic Researchers, a new initiative that will provide 100,000 researchers at selected universities with free access to its most advanced AI models by 2027.
Participants will receive access to OpenAI's latest frontier models, including GPT-5.6 Sol Pro, along with the ability to invite up to four collaborators from their institution.
"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, our $50 million initiative supporting research institutions, and our work with the Department of Energy’s Genesis Mission to bring frontier AI to researchers at national laboratories and universities," the company said in a blog post.
Last week, OpenAI competitor Anthropic launched a new grant programme to accelerate research into rare genetic diseases by providing researchers and early-stage biotechnology companies with access to its AI models through Claude API credits.
OpenAI said the rollout begins this summer with 10,000 researchers, including those at institutions such as the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) and École normale supérieure (ENS).
The programme is designed to accelerate scientific discovery by helping researchers across science, engineering, and mathematics tackle complex problems and improve productivity.
so excited for this.
— Sam Altman (@sama) July 30, 2026
very close to models that will significantly accelerate scientific discovery; the best way to do this is for us to empower scientists, not to try to figure out everything ourselves.
we all deserve the benefits. https://t.co/nzfHpb96re
The company said researchers will be able to use ChatGPT and Codex for tasks ranging from literature reviews, grant writing, and hypothesis generation to genomic analysis, protein modeling, coding, and data analysis.
Workspaces will include enterprise-grade privacy and security protections, with research data not used to train OpenAI's models by default.
According to OpenAI, around 1.3 million people now use ChatGPT each week for advanced science and mathematics, generating nearly 8.4 million messages. The company also noted a growing number of academic papers, particularly in mathematics, now acknowledge ChatGPT's contribution to research.
Recently, OpenAI launched the OpenAI Student Collective, a new global programme to empower undergraduate students to lead AI education and innovation on university campuses across India, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan, and South Korea.
