Accelerating scientific discovery with ChatGPT for Academic Researchers

We believe 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. Our 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.

We’re introducing ChatGPT for Academic Researchers, a program that will give 100,000 researchers at selected academic institutions free access to our 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.

We’re 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). We plan to expand to 100,000 researchers through 2027. Participants will have access to our 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 our 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 us.

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, 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. Together, these efforts reflect our belief that scientific progress accelerates when more researchers have the tools to pursue their own ideas.

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.

Our strategy is not to decide which scientific problems deserve attention or try to solve them all ourselves. It is to put capable tools in the hands of the research community and let researchers pursue the questions they know best.

参与者可在 ChatGPT、ChatGPT 工作和 Codex 中免费使用我们的前沿模型，首发时包括 GPT‑5.6⁠ 模型系列。他们还将获得更广泛的深度研究功能、更高的使用上限和更大的上下文窗口。这些能力共同支持科学推理、智能体式执行，以及跨学科研究工作流程。

GPT‑5.6 Terra 兼顾能力与效率，适合日常研究；GPT‑5.6 Luna 能更快响应轻量级任务；GPT‑5.6 Sol 则用于攻克最困难的科学和数学问题。在衡量研究级数学推理能力的 FrontierMath Tier 4 中，GPT‑5.6 Sol 得分为 83%，而 GPT‑5.5 为 72.5%。在评估复杂生物数据分析和科学推理能力的 GeneBench Pro 中，GPT‑5.6 Sol Pro 能解决 31.5% 的任务。

研究人员可使用超过 75 项生命科学技能⁠（在新窗口中打开），涵盖遗传学、基因组学、测序、单细胞分析、蛋白质建模和药物发现。连接器可支持跨学科研究，让研究人员访问科学文献、公共基因组与临床数据库、卫星影像、计算笔记本、数据平台和参考文献管理工具。

Codex 可帮助编写和调试代码、分析数据集，以及构建可复现的工作流程。ChatGPT 工作可支持周期较长的项目，例如寻找资助机会、准备资助申请、评阅文献、起草论文，以及制作成果交流材料。

不同研究人员使用 AI 的起点各不相同。有些人可能首次使用这些工具，另一些人则可能正在开发本领域的高级应用。

该计划将根据不同经验水平提供定制培训，涵盖入门、改进工作流程和高级研究应用。参与者可获得熟悉研究工作流程的专家支持，包括协助将这些工具融入实际工作。

随着研究人员不断取得新发现，我们计划创造更多机会，让他们分享实用方法、相互学习，并展示跨学科应用。他们的反馈将帮助我们了解模型在哪些方面有用、有哪些不足，以及如何让模型为研究界创造更大价值。

首期计划面向指定学术机构中符合条件的研究人员开放。符合条件的机构⁠（在新窗口中打开）必须是经认可、具有学位授予资格且研究活动水平较高的学院或大学。

申请人需要验证其机构隶属关系，并提供当前研究及拟开展科学用途的相关信息。获批的研究人员可邀请最多四名同机构合作者。每位合作者也必须验证其机构隶属关系，并计入该计划的账户总数。

申请现已开放。你可以在此⁠（在新窗口中打开）查看资格标准并申请。