OpenAI Ends $1 Promotion, Switches to 'Half-Price' AI Offer for U.S. Government

Transition to Full-Scale Commercial Procurement


Expansion from Federal to State and Local Governments

OpenAI, the developer behind ChatGPT, has announced that it will supply its artificial intelligence (AI) models to the U.S. government at half the standard price. This marks an end to its previous “free trial” initiative, which offered government clients annual access for $1, and signals a transition to a full-scale commercial procurement phase.

On September 10 (local time), the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) announced that OpenAI has signed a ‘OneGOV’ contract to supply ChatGPT models to government agencies for 27 months starting October 1, at half the commercial price.

Under this agreement, OpenAI will provide its latest model, ‘GPT-6 Astra’, along with other AI services, at 50% of the standard commercial rate until December 31, 2028. There are no platform usage fees, minimum order quantities, or spending commitments required, allowing agencies to pay solely for actual usage. The standard monthly base fee of $15 per user is also fully waived.

This deal represents a shift from OpenAI’s promotion-oriented pilot program launched last August, which offered its AI technology to federal agencies for just $1 per year. With this, OpenAI is ending its virtually free promotional period and embarking on a full-scale paid business in the government AI market.

The GSA also described this agreement as the ‘next phase’ of AI adoption. Laura Stanton, Acting Assistant Commissioner for the Federal Acquisition Service at GSA, stated, “We launched the OneGOV AI contract so government agencies could test new technologies before entering into long-term procurement agreements. As AI is increasingly integrated into daily work, transitioning to a pay-as-you-go model is the natural next step.”

OpenAI also highlighted that over the past year, as GPT models have been adopted in the public sector, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reduced the time required for health literature reviews from several months to under 30 minutes, while the Georgia Department of Revenue shortened document digitization workflows from two weeks to just 15 minutes.

This contract shift expands OpenAI’s reach from federal agencies to state and local governments, as well as tribal authorities. Bloomberg reported that, as a result of this move, the number of ChatGPT’s public sector users in the U.S. could increase from over 1 million government employees currently to as many as 23 million across all public sector workers nationwide.

It is expected that rival AI firms will follow OpenAI’s lead with similar strategies. Fierce AI competition since last year has prompted companies to provide models to the U.S. government at minimal or virtually free rates. After OpenAI concluded a contract to supply AI for $1 per year, Anthropic followed suit with a similar deal, while Google and xAI (now SpaceXAI) further dropped prices to around $0.42–$0.47. Microsoft (MS) also offered its Copilot chatbot free for a year.

However, Bloomberg noted that OpenAI’s competitor, Anthropic, may face restrictions in its government business, as it has been designated a “supply chain risk entity” due to clashes with federal agencies including the Department of Defense. Furthermore, U.S. President Donald Trump instructed through social media that all government agencies cease using Anthropic, which could further limit their engagement with public sector clients.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.