OpenAI's Rosalind plan offers eligible U.S. labs up to 30 seats at no cost

On 15 October 2026, OpenAI published Bringing GPT-Rosalind to academic research labs, introducing the Rosalind Academic Plan. The post says eligible labs can receive up to 30 Business Standard seats at $0 per user per month for up to 12 months, with access to GPT-Rosalind subject to trusted-access approval. The help center guide OpenAI’s page points to says the offer is for academic labs at U.S. universities, and it calls the seats complimentary ChatGPT Business Standard seats.

Who can apply, and what the seats cover

A principal investigator or lab lead applies for the lab. The help guide says unaffiliated researchers and commercial organizations are not eligible, and that a university email or an existing subscription does not guarantee approval. Labs whose university already has an OpenAI Enterprise agreement use that process. Labs without one use the academic-lab application. The guide says only U.S. accounts qualify, and that applications are currently limited to university-affiliated research labs in the United States.

The announcement says an approved lab receives access to all commercially available frontier OpenAI models, subject to plan usage limits, and to GPT-Rosalind after trusted-access approval. The help guide says a Standard seat includes ChatGPT and Codex, still subject to their usage limits. API access is not included. The help guide says the offer includes neither API credits nor API usage, and that plan approval does not grant GPT-Rosalind through the API. Institutional API access on the GPT-Rosalind help page is a separate approval.

The help table says that after approval, setup provides up to 30 Business Standard seats at no cost for 12 months, and that a payment card is required during setup. The announcement’s time limit is “for up to 12 months.” The guide says to check the accepted offer for the complimentary period’s end date and the terms that apply afterward. The plan supports a maximum of 30 seats in one workspace. The guide says creating a separate paid workspace does not extend the offer or transfer a lab’s GPT-Rosalind approval. Buying a regular ChatGPT Business subscription does not enroll a lab in the offer or grant the model. The guide also says the plan is separate from ChatGPT Edu and from ChatGPT for Academic Researchers.

What OpenAI says GPT-Rosalind is

The GPT-Rosalind help page calls it a model for life sciences research. In a short answer on the same page, OpenAI calls it “OpenAI’s most capable model for life sciences research.” That superlative is OpenAI’s. The page says it is meant to synthesize evidence, reason across biological data, and coordinate tools, literature, databases, and specialist models. Named uses include target research, genomics, protein analysis, medicinal chemistry, literature synthesis, and experiment planning. OpenAI says the intended users are bioinformaticians, computational biologists, and early discovery biologists.

OpenAI’s Rosalind page describes Rosalind as its life sciences brand, and Rosalind Workbench as an orchestrated workspace in research preview. The help page says Workbench is in Codex and ChatGPT, with launch workflows for FASTQ quality control, bulk RNA sequencing, and single-cell RNA sequencing. Workbench does not require the GPT-Rosalind model, so having it does not show the model is on. The academic post offers both, with the model behind trusted-access approval.

Trusted access, and lab data

Before activating access, the announcement says OpenAI verifies the institution’s legitimacy and the PI or lab lead’s identity, reviews that person’s professional background, institutional appointment, and authority to oversee lab access, assesses the lab’s affiliation, research activities, and intended use, and sets responsibilities for the lab lead and a designated institutional safety contact.

The help guide says Persona verifies the university and the PI or lab lead’s identity as one part of that review, and that finishing the Persona step does not mean the application is approved. It also says the lab must name a trained biosafety contact the institution designates, with authority over the proposed work. The verified PI or lab lead is the sole workspace owner and manages member permissions. Joining the workspace does not by itself give GPT-Rosalind access. Members need a verified institutional email on the same domain as the approved lead. A visiting researcher on another institution’s domain cannot be added.

The announcement says research data shared through the plan is not used to train OpenAI’s models by default. Retention is a separate term: standard data retention applies by default. Zero Data Retention is not available under this offer. Enterprise security and privacy arrangements do not automatically apply to this Business-based plan, and GPT-Rosalind approval does not by itself activate Enhanced Privacy or Zero Data Retention. Depending on the available controls and applicable law, an administrator may be able to access, export, retain, or delete workspace data.

For registered high-sensitivity use cases, the announcement says safety checks account for the approved research context. When questions arise, OpenAI says it may follow up to clarify the work and confirm authorization. After activation, it says, safeguards continue through monitoring and enforcement. The help guide says access can be revoked if those requirements are no longer met. The offer is a sponsored seat plan for approved labs at U.S. universities.