OpenAI’s free ChatGPT program for academic researchers draws 13,000 applications

12:00 PM PT · August 11, 2026

OpenAI provided an update on ChatGPT for Academic Researchers, the free access program it launched this summer for verified academic teams, saying it is now reviewing more than 13,000 first wave applications representing as many as 65,000 individual researcher seats. Because demand has outpaced the initial capacity, OpenAI says it will select its first 10,000 seat cohort through a lottery among eligible applicants rather than on a first come basis, with everyone else remaining eligible for future selection rounds when applications reopen later this fall. Selected teams of up to five researchers get access to OpenAI’s frontier models, including GPT-5.6 Sol Pro, across ChatGPT, the ChatGPT Work collaboration product, and the Codex coding tool, with business grade privacy protections and a default policy of not training on their data. The program is part of a broader commitment of more than $250 million through 2027 to support external scientific research, which also includes the separate $50 million NextGenAI initiative backing research institutions directly. Early access has already gone live at institutions including the Institute for Advanced Study and France’s École normale supérieure, and OpenAI says it plans to scale the program to 100,000 researchers by 2027 as capacity allows.