A free version of ChatGPT built for teachers
TL;DR
OpenAI introduces ChatGPT for Teachers, a free AI tool for U.S. K-12 educators until June 2027. It offers secure, tailored support for lesson planning, collaboration, and AI literacy, helping save time and enhance teaching.
Key Takeaways
- •ChatGPT for Teachers is free for verified U.S. K-12 educators through June 2027, with education-grade security and compliance.
- •Features include personalized teaching support, integration with tools like Google Drive, and collaboration options for educators.
- •It includes an AI Literacy Blueprint and partnerships to support responsible AI use and teacher-led innovation in schools.
Tags
Today we’re introducing ChatGPT for Teachers and making it free through June 2027.
Of the 800 million people who use ChatGPT each week, teachers are some of the earliest and most active adopters. Three in five (opens in a new window)already use an AI tool, and those that use it weekly report saving hours each week—giving them more time to spend with students. They also play a critical role in helping students and families understand how AI can support learning.
ChatGPT for Teachers is built for both educators and school leaders. Teachers get a secure workspace to adapt materials for their classrooms, get more out of prep time, collaborate with peers, and get comfortable using AI on their own terms. School and district leaders can bring their teachers and school staff into one account with the same education-grade privacy, security, and compliance programs that protect student data and support FERPA requirements.
To ensure broad access, ChatGPT for Teachers is free for verified(opens in a new window) U.S. K–12 educators through June 2027. We’re also releasing an AI Literacy Blueprint(opens in a new window) that gives school leaders and policymakers a clear path for supporting teacher-led, responsible AI use.
This work builds on our partnership with the American Federation of Teachers to support teacher-led innovation and equip 400,000 K–12 educators with practical AI skills; our collaboration with Ministries of Education globally, including Estonia and Greece; and our broader work to make our tools more responsive to academic needs across both K–12 and higher education, supporting both educators and learners.
Get verified(opens in a new window) or learn more on our website(opens in a new window).
Key features
ChatGPT for Teachers brings the most helpful tools in ChatGPT—like unlimited messages with GPT‑5.1 Auto, search, file uploads, connectors, and image generation—into a workspace where teachers can securely work with classroom materials and student information, collaborate with colleagues, and learn from other educators.
Here’s what it includes:
- Education-grade security & compliance: Anything you share with ChatGPT for Teachers is not used to train our models by default, and the workspace is built to protect student data and help schools meet FERPA requirements.
- Personalized teaching support: Tell ChatGPT to remember details like your grade level, curriculum, and preferred format so responses feel tailored to your teaching style and classroom. You’re in control of your settings.
- Connected to your tools: Build presentations with Canva in ChatGPT, and bring in lesson plans and files from Google Drive or Microsoft 365 so every chat starts with your classroom context, saving you time on prep.
- Examples from real teachers: Discover ready-to-use ideas and prompts from teachers already using ChatGPT, directly under the message composer in your workspace.
- Collaboration: Use custom GPTs to create templates with other teachers at your school or district, or co-plan lessons and presentations together in shared projects.
- Admin controls: School and district leaders can claim their domain to bring educators into one workspace with role-based access controls, and secure accounts with SAML SSO.
Getting started: Teachers and staff at K–12 schools or districts in the U.S. can get verified(opens in a new window) to set up a free workspace and invite colleagues from their school or district to join. Verification is handled by SheerID, our third-party partner, using a secure process to confirm educator status.
The current free period runs through June 2027. After that, we may adjust pricing, but our goal is to keep ChatGPT for Teachers affordable for educators. If anything changes, we’ll give advance notice so teachers and schools can decide whether to continue.
How teachers already use ChatGPT
To help teachers get started, we talked with educators who already use ChatGPT for classroom work. Here are a few examples they shared:
Plan a multi-week unit
My science department is rewriting our 8th-grade physical sciences curriculum, and I need help creating a unit based on the attached goals. Please come up with a plan for a 20-day unit with 55-minute classes. I want a guiding question for each day to help center the learning. Provide hands-on activities to give students a way to explore these topics.
Tripp Reed | Try this now(opens in a new window)
Generate examples for an assignment
You are an expert English teacher. Using the prompt for the attached readings, generate seven different example responses.
The responses should be a paragraph long and vary in strength from extremely well written to very poorly written. The responses should be written in the RACES format (restate, answer, cite, explain, and summarize). Include a rationale for each response on what level of writing it is.
Ali Lewis | Try this now(opens in a new window)
Match ISTE standards to your curriculum
Give me all the relevant ISTE standards for students and teachers that apply to this curriculum.
Coral Riley | Try this now(opens in a new window)
You can explore the full set of shared prompts on our website(opens in a new window), or find them right inside ChatGPT.
Our growing work with U.S. schools
To help guide how ChatGPT for Teachers rolls out to teachers across the U.S., we're also working with our first cohort of leading districts representing nearly 150,000 teachers and staff. Together, we’re learning what supports teachers best at scale—districts are sharing real classroom needs and implementation insights. Their feedback will be used to help shape how we improve ChatGPT for Teachers and support teachers and schools over time.
Cohort 1 includes: Capistrano Unified School District (CA), Dallas Independent School District (TX), Fairfax County Public Schools (VA), Fulton County Schools (GA), Houston Independent School District (TX), Humble Independent School District (TX), Idaho Digital Learning Alliance (ID), KIPP Miami Public Schools (FL), KIPP New Jersey Public Schools (NJ), KIPP Public Schools Northern California (CA), Lynwood Unified School District (CA), Prince William County Public Schools (VA), Region One Education Service Center (TX), School District U-46 (IL), Township High School District 211 (IL), and Waukee Community School District (IA). We are also working with the Delaware Department of Education, which has adopted ChatGPT for its employees and is supporting districts and charters statewide in exploring implementation for their educators.
"Whether our staff are longtime ChatGPT users or just getting started, this is an exciting step forward. They will have access to trusted AI tools that help them save time, think bigger, and focus on what matters most: supporting our students and community."
Empowering teachers to lead
Every student today is growing up with AI, and teachers play a central role in helping them learn how to use these tools responsibly and effectively. To support that work, educators need space to explore AI for themselves. ChatGPT for Teachers is built to help them do just that—offering practical, hands-on experience they can bring back to their classrooms. And by making it free for millions of educators, we hope to make it easier for all types of schools to benefit from safe, thoughtful uses of AI in learning.
"When AI tools are designed around what educators actually need in their classrooms, they create real opportunities to support teaching and learning. ChatGPT for Teachers demonstrates that principle in action. As resources like this become part of teachers' daily workflows, thoughtful training will be essential to help educators use them confidently and creatively. At ISTE, we're committed to supporting the field as teachers lead the way in shaping effective and responsible AI use for learning."
Additional resources include the ChatGPT Foundations Course for K–12 Educators(opens in a new window), created with Common Sense Media, and the OpenAI Academy(opens in a new window).
Together, these efforts reflect our core belief: AI in education works best when teachers lead.
Learn more about ChatGPT for Teachers on our website(opens in a new window) or contact our team(opens in a new window).