In the past few hours, OpenAI published an official post on its blog announcing a new program that will let a select group of users access its ChatGPT Pro plans for free. It starts with 10,000 people chosen this summer and is set to reach 100,000 by the end of the year.

The program is called ChatGPT for Academic Researchers, and as the name suggests, it is aimed at academics. The list includes scientists, mathematicians, and engineers. Every professional coming from an academic institution selected by the company will receive hands-on support from OpenAI, access to the GPT-5.6 Sol Pro model, and the ability to invite four collaborators from their own institution to take part.

How OpenAI’s program works

OpenAI said in its statement that offering free access to its artificial intelligence tools is part of a commitment of more than $250 million through 2027 to support outside scientific research and discovery.

Anyone who already uses AI models to analyze data and draft funding proposals will be able to keep doing so without paying a monthly or annual subscription. In practice, it is a move to “formalize” the collaboration, a logic similar to ChatGPT Edu, the version of ChatGPT for schools that OpenAI makes available to selected academic institutions.

This is not the first time the company led by Sam Altman has courted researchers. Last January it launched Prism, an AI-based tool for working with scientific papers and documents. Available to anyone with an active ChatGPT account, it can be used to check items such as research citations and formatting. The initial demo also included a way to generate lesson plans, a tool especially useful for university professors.

The company’s long-term strategy

OpenAI has already stated that researchers’ data will not be used to train its models, though some observers remain skeptical of ChatGPT’s goodwill. Handing out free tools to research institutions could generate a larger number of scientific discoveries that, in some way, involve a GPT model.

But that is not all: by making more scientific fields dependent on the company’s tools, OpenAI could pave the way for future revenue tied to for-profit research. Whatever the ultimate goal, the decision will help provide full support to 100,000 researchers by the end of this year. And, as the statement reads, no data will be collected and then exploited for the advanced training of the company’s models.

Editor’s note

This article was originally published in Italian on money.it by Pasquale Conte on August 08, 2026 as «OpenAI offre ChatGPT Pro gratis ad alcuni utenti selezionati». It has been translated and adapted for an international audience by the Money.it International desk.