Tech company OpenAI is introducing a version of its generative artificial intelligence tool, ChatGPT, that is built specifically for teachers and school leaders, the technology company announced this week.
Educators will have a “dedicated environment” to use the latest version of OpenAI’s large-language model for free until June 2027, with built-in teacher-specific prompts, collaboration tools, and privacy protections, said Leah Belsky, the vice president and general manager of education for OpenAI, during a Nov. 18 press briefing.
The news comes as more teachers are starting to experiment and use AI tools in their classrooms.
July 2025 survey data from the EdWeek Research Center shows that 61% of teachers are using AI-driven tools in their classrooms at least a little, compared with 34% who said the same in December 2023.
ChatGPT, an AI-powered tool that can hold humanlike conversations and instantly generate an answer to seemingly any prompt, has been available to the general public since November 2022.
The teacher-specific version is OpenAI’s first launch into K-12.
This is a “critical” step for the company, Belsky said, because “every student today will grow up in a world that is going to be shaped by powerful AI tools, and teachers play a key role in helping students understand the technology, helping them understand how to use [it] in ways that can help them learn.”
AI in education will be more powerful and effective if teachers lead the way, she added.
OpenAI isn’t the first to create education-specific generative AI tools. Other ed-tech companies, such as Brisk Teaching, MagicSchool AI, and SchoolAI, have already been providing teacher-specific generative AI tools with K-12-specific privacy protections for a couple years now.
OpenAI’s news builds on the work the company has been doing to ensure students and teachers know how to use the technology. This summer, OpenAI launched the Study Mode feature for ChatGPT, which it billed as a personal tutor for students. OpenAI also partnered with the American Federation of Teachers to train more than 400,000 educators on AI skills.
How ChatGPT for Teachers works
ChatGPT for Teachers includes the usual features—such as unlimited messages, search, file uploads, and image generation—but puts it in a workspace where teachers can create classroom materials and collaborate with colleagues securely, according to OpenAI.
Anything shared with ChatGPT for Teachers will not be used to train OpenAI’s models by default, and the workspace is built to protect student data and help districts meet federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act requirements, according to the company.
ChatGPT for Teachers can remember details such as teachers’ grade level, curriculum, and preferred formats. It can also be connected to other tools, such as Google Drive or Microsoft 365. There are ready-to-use ideas and prompts from teachers who have used the tool. And school and district leaders can bring teachers into one workspace with role-based access controls.
Teachers and staff at schools and districts can get verified online to set up a free workspace, according to OpenAI. The tool is free for teachers until June 2027. OpenAI said it will give advance notice about the price change so schools and districts can decide whether to continue using the tool.
Critics aren’t impressed with what OpenAI is offering, however.
“From a technological standpoint, this is the equivalent of a big digital nothingburger,” said Benjamin Riley, the founder and CEO of think tank Cognitive Resonance, which published a paper in 2024 about the educational hazards of generative AI. “This just gives teachers access to regular ol’ ChatGPT albeit with the promise of greater data security,” something any user can already turn on or off.
Dylan Kane, a middle school math teacher at Lake County High School in Leadville, Colo., has experimented with ChatGPT to generate PDFs, but “it’s been pretty unreliable,” he said. “It really struggles with formatting, so I spend all this time fixing the formatting when I could have just made it myself.”
While he appreciates that ChatGPT for Teachers is private, secure, and a bit more “fine-tuned,” Kane feels the tool likely still won’t be specific enough to help with his teaching needs.
“It still makes mistakes plenty of times,” Kane said. “To me, if AI is going to be useful for teachers, the best way to do it is to build tools or prompts or workflows around very specific needs,” such as generating a handout using a specific format.
CEOs of competing ed-tech companies contend that OpenAI’s tool isn’t really built specifically with teachers in mind.
“ChatGPT can potentially solve some of the productivity gaps that teachers are experiencing,” said Arman Jaffer, the CEO of ed-tech company Brisk Teaching. “But when you’re a K-12 solution, you’re not focused just on utility, but on outcomes for student work. You’re focused on how a district can implement a tool that’s able to support improvements in standardized test scores, to actually create an inclusive community in the school, to think about AI literacy holistically.”
The tool is “helpful, but it is very different from building for teachers from the start,” said Adeel Khan, the founder and CEO of MagicSchool AI. “MagicSchool was created by former teachers and school leaders, and everything we make reflects how educators actually work.”
A spokesperson for OpenAI reiterated that the ChatGPT for Teachers is a clear signal of the company’s intention to build for educators, not around them. The company has spent time laying the groundwork instead of rushing the market, the spokesperson said. OpenAI also has research underway to understand learning outcomes.
OpenAI partners with school districts
Still, some districts are excited to roll out the teacher version of ChatGPT to their staff, to help shape and improve it over time.
ChatGPT for teachers “will go a long way in supporting our teachers and building teacher self-efficacy and agency in the work they do,” said LaTanya McDade, the superintendent for Prince William County schools in Virginia, one of 16 districts partnering with OpenAI, during the press briefing.
The district also sees the tool as “an opportunity to undergird our strategic plan,” which is “driven by innovation,” McDade said.
Kerri Holt, the chief technology officer for the Houston school district, said during the press briefing that the partnership “is not about replacing teachers or automating classrooms. It’s about giving a large, complex district the computational power to operate with precision, reduce bureaucratic drag, and scale redesign work we’ve already begun.”
The partnership will also include free training for teachers to learn more about the tool and how to leverage it effectively, according to OpenAI.
“This is the beginning of an overall focus on better serving teachers and schools,” said Belsky of OpenAI.
