OpenAI ChatGPT Edu FAQ

OpenAI's ChatGPT Edu Agreement is tailored for the California State University (CSU) system, providing advanced AI capabilities for all employees and students. It offers the ability to build custom GPTs for sharing within campus workspaces, as well as the needed privacy and data protection, and other enterprise security such as single sign-on (SSO).

ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot technology that can process natural human language and generate a response, enhancing personal productivity and assisting with teaching and learning activities.

  • Enrolled students (active)
  • Staff
  • Faculty
  • All other affiliations are not eligible

Invitations to join the ChatGPT EDU Workspace are automatically sent based on your university affiliation.

  • Students: You will receive your invitation to join the ChatGPT EDU Workspace within 24-48 hours of enrollment.
  • Staff/Faculty: You will receive your invitation to join the ChatGPT EDU Workspace within 24-48 hours after HR updates PeopleSoft.
  • Other affiliations (e.g., volunteers, persons of interest, alumni, emeritus) do not have access to ChatGPT.
For steps on how to accept your ChatGPT EDU Workspace invitation, please review our ChatGPT EDU Onboarding Quick Start Guide.

There is no cost to you personally or your department. The CSU Chancellor's Office purchased the plan for all faculty, researchers, staff, and students.

The CSU Chancellor’s Office has signed an 18-month (February 2025 - July 2026) contract for ChatGPT with an option to extend the agreement.

The CSU is committed to closing equity and accessibility gaps, providing access to high-quality AI tools to support academic achievement for its student and employee communities.

The CSU is providing ChatGPT Edu, a plan built for universities to responsibly deploy AI to students, faculty, researchers, and staff while protecting their privacy and intellectual property. OpenAI does not use CSU ChatGPT Edu data to train their underlying Large Language Models.

ChatGPT licenses are funded by the CSU Chancellor’s Office.

You can upload:

  • Non-sensitive data that does not contain Level 1 (L1) classified information.
  • Public or openly shareable data that does not require special access controls.
  • De-identified data that has been stripped of personally identifiable information (PII) or other sensitive details.
  • Non-copyrighted material that you have permission to share and process.
  • For more details on data classification, refer to the CSU Data Classification guidelines.

Yes, the CSU ChatGPT Edu plan includes enterprise commercial data protection features like SAML Single Sign-On (SSO), domain verification, custom data retention windows, SOC 2 Type 2 compliance, and data encryption at rest and in transit.

Our agreement with OpenAI includes language that ensures your ChatGPT interactions and data are not used to train their underlying large language models or improve their services.

CSUB will not be monitoring individual user interactions or conversations in ChatGPT. CSUB will collect basic usage statistics to understand the extent of adoption and use.

Yes, the ChatGPT Edu plan allows institutions to build custom GPTs tailored to specific courses or administrative functions, which can be shared within the campus workspace to enhance learning and operational efficiency. Custom GPTs require the use of the GPT-4o model.

Yes, OpenAI provides applications for various platforms, including iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS, ensuring users can access ChatGPT across different devices.

  • Free Plan Users: Faculty, staff, and students using the Free plan with their @csub.edu email address for their personal ChatGPT account will be prompted to archive or migrate their existing chat history into the CSU ChatGPT workspace upon logging in. This ensures a smooth transition to the new environment.
  • Paid Plan Users: Faculty, staff, and students with Paid plans (e.g., Plus, Team, or Pro) who are using their @csub.edu email address for their personal ChatGPT account will have an opportunity to migrate their chat history before their paid account is deactivated once they are invited to ChatGPT EDU. Upon accepting their invitation to ChatGPT EDU, paid users will automatically receive a prorated refund for their remaining subscription period.

Student assistants should use their student ChatGPT Edu account for both student and student assistant activities.

Use of GenAI for assignments can range from absolutely forbidden to required. Your professor can specify if, when, and how AI should be used for a given course or assignment.

AI technologies like ChatGPT have environmental concerns, particularly regarding energy consumption. OpenAI, in collaboration with Microsoft Azure, has committed to sustainable initiatives including carbon negativity by 2030 and the use of 100% renewable energy by 2025.

View the OpenAI Supplier Code of Conduct.

Self-paced learning resources are available: 

 AI learning resources will be available in the CSU AI Commons by early 2025.