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.

參加者可透過 ChatGPT、ChatGPT Work 和 Codex 免費使用我們的前沿模型，包括推出時提供的 GPT‑5.6⁠ 模型系列。他們亦可獲得更多深度研究用量、更高的使用限額，以及更大的上下文視窗。這些能力相輔相成，支援跨學科的科學推理、代理式執行及研究工作流程。

GPT‑5.6 Terra 在能力與效率之間取得平衡，適合日常研究；GPT‑5.6 Luna 可更快回應較輕量的任務；GPT‑5.6 Sol 則能應對最艱深的科學和數學問題。在衡量研究級數學推理能力的 FrontierMath Tier 4 中，GPT‑5.6 Sol 得分為 83%，GPT‑5.5 則為 72.5%。在評估複雜生物數據分析及科學推理能力的 GeneBench Pro 中，GPT‑5.6 Sol Pro 能解決 31.5% 的任務。

研究人員可使用超過 75 項生命科學技能⁠（在新視窗中開啟），涵蓋遺傳學、基因組學、測序、單細胞分析、蛋白質建模及藥物研發。連接器可支援跨學科研究，讓研究人員存取科學文獻、公開基因組及臨床數據庫、衞星影像、運算筆記簿、數據平台和參考文獻管理工具。

Codex 可協助編寫及除錯程式碼、分析數據集，並建立可重現的工作流程。ChatGPT Work 可支援較長期的項目，例如尋找資助機會、撰寫資助申請、審閱文獻、草擬論文，以及製作傳達研究成果的材料。

研究人員使用 AI 的起步點各有不同。有些人可能首次使用這些工具，另一些人則可能正在所屬領域開發進階應用。

計劃將按不同經驗水平提供培訓，內容涵蓋入門、改善工作流程，以至進階研究應用。參加者可獲熟悉研究工作流程的專家支援，包括協助把這些工具整合至其工作中。

隨着研究人員取得新發現，我們計劃創造更多機會，讓他們分享實用方法、互相學習，並展示跨學科用途。他們的意見將協助我們了解模型在哪些方面有用、有哪些不足，以及如何為研究社群帶來更大價值。

首階段計劃開放予指定學術機構中符合資格的研究人員。合資格機構⁠（在新視窗中開啟）必須是獲認可、可頒授學位且研究活動水平較高的學院或大學。

申請人須驗證其機構隸屬關係，並提供現行研究及擬議科學用途的資料。獲批的研究人員可邀請所屬機構最多四名協作者。每名協作者亦須驗證所屬機構，並會計入計劃的帳戶總數。

申請現已開放。你可在此處⁠（在新視窗中開啟）查看資格準則並提交申請。