OpenAI is launching ChatGPT for Academic Researchers, a program that will give 100,000 researchers at selected academic institutions free access to its frontier models, including the GPT‑5.6 family. The program aims to put powerful AI tools into the hands of the research community—rather than concentrating them in a few well-resourced labs—and let researchers decide which problems to pursue.

The company is starting with 10,000 researchers in summer 2026, with access already available at institutions such as the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) and École normale supérieure (ENS). It plans to expand to 100,000 researchers by 2027. Participants receive access to GPT‑5.6 Terra (balanced capability and efficiency), GPT‑5.6 Luna (faster lighter-weight tasks), and GPT‑5.6 Sol (the toughest scientific and mathematical problems, scoring 83% on FrontierMath Tier 4 compared with 72.5% for GPT‑5.5). Business-grade privacy protections are included, and data is not used to train models by default. Researchers can invite up to four collaborators from their institution.

The program also provides training tailored to different experience levels, hands-on support, and opportunities to share feedback. More than 75 life science skills are available, covering genetics, genomics, single-cell analysis, protein modeling, and drug discovery. Connectors give access to scientific literature, public genomic and clinical databases, satellite imagery, computational notebooks, data platforms, and reference managers. Codex helps write and debug code and build reproducible workflows; ChatGPT Work supports grant applications, literature reviews, manuscript drafting, and research communication.

OpenAI frames the program as part of a broader commitment of more than $250 million through 2027 to support external scientific research and discovery. That includes NextGenAI (a $50 million initiative supporting research institutions) and work with the Department of Energy’s Genesis Mission to bring frontier AI to national laboratories and universities.

The announcement includes usage data: roughly 1.3 million people use ChatGPT for advanced science and mathematics each week, generating about 8.4 million messages. In mathematics, AI has moved from occasional use on isolated problems to a more regular part of research, with a growing number of papers acknowledging ChatGPT’s contribution. Researchers in the top 20% of AI intensity within their field are almost twice as likely to ask AI to take on tasks estimated to require four hours or more (nearly 7% of requests, compared with 3.5% among other researchers). Examples cited include physicist Rogerio Jorge using AI to develop open-source fusion research software and computer scientists Barna Saha, Yinzhan Xu, and Christopher Ye using GPT‑5.5 Pro to develop a proof on limits of high-dimensional geometry computation.

The program is initially open to qualifying researchers at recognized, degree-granting colleges or universities with a high level of research activity. Applicants must verify their institutional affiliation and provide information about their active research and intended scientific use. For institutions with ChatGPT Edu, free access will be coordinated through the institution’s workspace.

OpenAI emphasizes that its strategy is not to decide which scientific problems deserve attention, but to put capable tools in the hands of the research community and let researchers pursue the questions they know best.