Summary
OpenAI’s Rosalind Academic Plan offers eligible labs at U.S. universities up to 30 free Business Standard seats for up to 12 months. Access to GPT-Rosalind requires trusted-access approval.
OpenAI announced the Rosalind Academic Plan on October 15, 2026, offering eligible labs at U.S. universities up to 30 Business Standard seats at no cost for up to 12 months. Access to GPT-Rosalind is subject to trusted-access approval. The plan also includes access to commercially available OpenAI frontier models, subject to usage limits; API access is not included.
What the plan includes
OpenAI describes GPT-Rosalind as a life sciences model designed for complex biological questions. It is paired with Rosalind Workbench, which the company says coordinates specialized tools for areas including medicinal chemistry, genomics and wet-lab assistance. The announcement lists potential research areas ranging from drug and protein design to diagnostics, vaccines, agriculture, ecology and antimicrobial resistance.
The offer is structured for labs: approved principal investigators (PIs) or lab leads can activate access for up to 30 named members. Research data shared through the plan is not used to train OpenAI’s models by default, according to the company.
Eligibility and access safeguards
The plan is currently available to academic labs at U.S. universities. PIs and lab leads at universities without an OpenAI Enterprise agreement can apply through the plan’s trusted-access process. Labs at institutions with an existing Enterprise agreement must request access through that institution’s Enterprise process.
OpenAI says its review checks the institution’s legitimacy and the PI or lab lead’s identity, professional background, appointment and authority to oversee access. It also assesses the lab’s affiliation, research activities and intended use, and establishes responsibilities for the lab lead and an institutional safety contact. The company says monitoring and enforcement continue after activation, with checks for registered high-sensitivity research taking the approved context into account.
The plan makes a specialized model and associated tools available to approved academic groups without a seat charge for the stated period. Its eligibility rules and approval process mean this is a targeted access programme, rather than unrestricted access for researchers generally.