GSA and OpenAI Set 27-Month OneGov ChatGPT Deal With $0 License Fee

OpenAI for Government and the U.S. General Services Administration on September 10, 2026, announced a new multi-year OneGov agreement that will give federal, state, local, and tribal governments access to ChatGPT with a $0 license fee and 50% off usage costs. OpenAI stated the standard license fee is normally $15 per user per month; under the agreement it drops to $0 with no minimum commitment. The offer runs 27 months, from October 1, 2026, through December 31, 2028.

Terms, Eligibility, and Ordering

The agreement is the first under the next phase of GSA’s OneGov AI strategy, and the offer is expected to take effect October 1, 2026, GSA said in its release. Participating governments receive a 50% discount on token-based usage across ChatGPT models, including those in FedRAMP-authorized environments. There is no platform-access fee, no minimum orders, and no spend commitment, so agencies pay only for what they use. Eligibility covers the federal executive, legislative, and judicial branches as well as state, local, and tribal governments. Access is available directly, through resellers, and via supported cloud marketplaces, and agencies can procure through GSA’s Multiple Award Schedule once the offer takes effect. The agreement includes training and enablement resources and incorporates GSA’s AI terms and conditions to help safeguard government data.

OpenAI stated this is the first time the benefits of the agreement will be available to state, local, and tribal governments in addition to the federal government, and that it is extending the same offer to all state, local, and tribal governments. The company said more than one million government employees already have access to ChatGPT through existing agreements and that the expanded partnership extends eligibility across a U.S. public-sector workforce of approximately 23 million people. OpenAI said the tools offered include GPT-6 Astra.

The new agreement builds on the original OneGov partnership between GSA and OpenAI, announced on August 6, 2025, under which every participating U.S. federal agency received access to ChatGPT Enterprise for a nominal fee of $1 for one year, plus an additional 60-day period of unlimited use of advanced models. GSA stated that OneGov has achieved approximately $1.68 billion in cost savings since its inception, of which approximately $1.4 billion stems from AI agreements that expanded access to AI tools for roughly 3.5 million federal employees, and that it is renewing agreements where appropriate as those offers expire.

GSA Administrator Edward C. Forst said the agreement provides a secure, governmentwide framework that helps agencies adopt AI at scale and strengthens their ability to carry out mission-critical work. “Giving public servants secure access to the best AI tools can help government be more efficient, strengthen cybersecurity, and improve the services people rely on,” said OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Laura Stanton, acting commissioner of GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service, said agencies wanted the ability to try new technologies before committing to a lengthy acquisition and that, as agencies increasingly integrate AI into their regular operations, “providing consumption-based access is the next logical step.” She said GSA welcomes additional AI technology companies to engage through OneGov. GSA stated the agreement supports the White House’s America’s AI Action Plan and OMB Memoranda M-25-21, “Accelerating Federal Use of AI through Innovation, Governance, and Public Trust,” and M-25-22, “Driving Efficient Acquisition of Artificial Intelligence in Government.”

OpenAI cited several agency results from the past year. The CDC accelerated public-health literature reviews that previously took days or months, producing most initial reports in under 30 minutes, with productivity gains reported by 92% of participating experts, the company stated. Georgia’s Department of Revenue reduced the time needed to digitize a tax form from as much as two weeks to 15 minutes. North Carolina’s Department of State Treasurer used ChatGPT to identify millions of dollars in potential unclaimed property that could be returned to residents. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory used ChatGPT to accelerate development of a preliminary fusion-research model, compressing work that could have taken months into hours.

Expanded Cyber-Defense Support

Under a new policy announced with the agreement, every verified government entity will be approved for OpenAI’s Daybreak Blue cyber-defender access at 50% off standard commercial pricing, with scaled training and enablement, the company stated. Government defenders can also request Daybreak Red access for advanced vulnerability research, exploit validation, and red teaming at standard commercial pricing. OpenAI stated that Daybreak Access is improving the speed and quality of vulnerability research, malware analysis, and security-tool development for government cyber defenders protecting emergency response, transportation, public health, utilities, and other critical systems.

OpenAI introduced Daybreak earlier in 2026 to let verified public- and private-sector defenders use advanced AI for authorized cyber defense. Daybreak Blue supports common defensive work with its mainline models, while Daybreak Red gives approved organizations access to specialized cyber models for more sensitive and technically demanding work. The company stated on September 3, 2026, that thousands of defenders across 2,000 approved organizations and workspaces already use Daybreak, including cybersecurity companies, defense organizations, and law enforcement organizations.

The announcement builds on Daybreak for Frontline Defenders, which OpenAI announced on September 3, 2026, with a $1 billion global commitment to subsidized access, training, technical support, and partnerships for frontline cyber defenders, targeted to be consumed over six months. That initiative includes a public-sector and water-focused pilot with the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center to train and support state, local, tribal, and territorial cyber defenders, and more than 35 partner products and partner-operated services through the Daybreak Defense Network. Following recent attacks on U.S. water systems, OpenAI offered affected states and utilities up to $1 million in no-cost API credits, Daybreak access, and technical assistance. OpenAI President Greg Brockman’s recent essay The Defender’s Window and an industry-wide open letter signed by more than 150 organizations both call for collective action across industry and government.

OpenAI stated that ChatGPT Enterprise does not use business data, including inputs or outputs, to train or improve its models, and that participating organizations retain the protections associated with the eligible services they choose. The company will provide buyer guidance, usage estimates, spend controls, onboarding, FinOps guidance, webinars, and an expanded Government Academy to support adoption. OpenAI will host a webinar, OpenAI OneGov 2.0: What Government Leaders Need to Know, on September 14, 2026, at 11:15 a.m. ET, covering the agreement and how to get started.