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ChatGPT Edu Frequently Asked Questions

ChatGPT Edu is now available across the CSU system, providing students, faculty, and staff with powerful AI tools tailored for education and research. With enterprise-grade security, privacy protections, and the ability to create custom GPTs for campus collaboration, this AI resource is designed to support innovation and productivity at Chico State. OpenAI's ChatGPT Edu Agreement is tailored specifically 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), and SCIM integration.

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

More information about ChatGPT Edu can be found on the Open AI Education Hub and Introducing ChatGPT Edu resource page.

Each CSU campus will be allocated its own unique tenant with specific administrative controls. An overview of the service and rollout plan will take place on February 7, 2025, for CIOs. An in-depth technical implementation kick-off meeting will take place on February 11, 2025. Additional meetings will be scheduled after to address questions and issues that may come up with time. Please check the Division of Information Technology’s Artificial Intelligence webpage for updates.

Campus access for the ChatGPT platform will be provided after February 11, 2025, to CIO designated system admins initially, who are responsible for coordinating configuration changes to enable access, provision SSO, and update any necessary security settings.

Currently, ChatGPT Edu is scheduled to launch to all staff, faculty, and state-supported students the week of April 15, 2025.

There is no cost to you personally or your department for the plan purchased through the Chancellor's Office for all employees and students.

OpenAI provides onboarding and ongoing support to campus administrators throughout the implementation and usage phases.

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 to its student and employee communities.

The CSU is providing ChatGPT Edu, a plan specifically built for universities to responsibly deploy AI to students, faculty, researchers, and staff and protect intellectual property.

The Edu plan includes access to GPT-4o, advanced capabilities like data analytics, web browsing, document summarization, the ability to build and share custom GPTs, higher message limits, support for over 50 languages, and robust security and administrative controls. ChatGPT Edu includes web search, allowing users to access and retrieve up-to-date information from the internet to enhance their queries and research.

While the Edu plan offers extensive features, GPT-4.5 usage is limited to 10 messages every 5 hours. When the cap is reached, the user can switch to GPT-4o model or GPT-4o mini which allows for unlimited messages. The contract includes pricing to “step-up” that adjusts the GPT-4.5 use cap to that of other ChatGPT Edu plans at a rate still lower than other chat GPT Edu customers. Details for how to purchase this additional licensing are expected to be available around May 2025.

ChatGPT licenses are funded by the CSU Chancellor’s Office for all faculty and staff beginning February 2025 and will be available for students in April 2025.

One of the benefits of an enterprise agreement is that OpenAI commits to data privacy and security by ensuring that conversations and data are not used to train their models. The Edu plan includes commercial data protection features like SAML 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.

The CSU will not be monitoring individual user interactions or conversations with ChatGPT. The CSU will be collecting basic use statistics to understand the extent of adoption and use.

For administrators: The Edu plan offers a dedicated workspace and admin console, SCIM integration for user management, user groups, GPT management, and a basic user analytics dashboard for administrative purposes.

Within your organization, end users can view their own conversations. The OpenAI Compliance API provides audit log access and detailed use data which can be accessed to comply with a legal or similar need.

Yes, the Edu plan allows institutions to build custom GPTs tailored to specific courses or administrative functions, which can be shared within campus workspaces. However, custom GPTs rely on GPT-4o and their usage is limited by GPT-4o's capacity.

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

There are 500,000 user licenses available systemwide. These licenses were purchased to cover employees and students only. Licenses are not intended for alumni, auxiliary, continuing education students, faculty, and staff or other campus community members and partners.

The following section includes self-paced learning resources:

AI learning resources will be available in the CSU AI Commons by early 2025. We expect to have more information about Chico State's rollout in mid-February, 2025. Please check the Division of Information Technology’s Artificial Intelligence webpage for updates.

The Center for Technology Equity is also a drop-in resource for one-on-one support with ChatGPT. For faculty, TLP holds Faculty Zoom Lab office hours for drop-in support.

Admin Controls and Sustainability

OpenAI API access is covered under the CSU contractor. There are no negotiated pricing discounts. More information will be released shortly on billing and how it can be accessed.

The Edu plan offers a dedicated workspace and admin console, SCIM integration for user management, user groups, GPT management, and a basic user analytics dashboard for administrative purposes.

ChatGPT itself does not generate electronic waste, but the hardware used to run AI models (such as GPUs and servers) requires periodic upgrades, which can contribute to electronic waste. Sustainable technology practices, such as hardware recycling and energy-efficient chips, help mitigate this issue.

Estimating the exact energy consumption per response generated by OpenAI's GPT-4o involves several factors, including model size, infrastructure efficiency, and usage patterns. Recent analyses suggest that each GPT-4o query consumes approximately 0.3 watt-hours (Wh) of electricity.

To calculate the average energy consumption per response over a 24-hour period, we can consider the following approach:

Total Daily Energy Consumption: If GPT-4o processes around 200 million queries daily, the total energy consumption would be:

200,000,000 queries × 0.3 Wh/query = 60,000,000 Wh

This equates to 60 megawatt-hours (MWh) per day.

Average Energy per Response: Dividing the total daily energy consumption by the number of responses:

60,000,000 Wh/200,000,000 responses=0.3 Wh/ response

Therefore, on average, each response generated by GPT-4o consumes approximately 0.3 watt-hours of energy.

In comparison, the GPT-4o mini model is designed to be more energy-efficient, utilizing a smaller model size to deliver high-quality responses with reduced energy consumption. Given that GPT-4o mini is a scaled-down version of GPT-4o, it is reasonable to infer that its energy consumption per query is lower. If we conservatively estimate that GPT-4o mini consumes about half the energy per query as GPT-4o, this would equate to approximately 0.15 Wh per response.

To calculate the average energy consumption per response over a 24-hour period for GPT-4o mini:

Total Daily Energy Consumption: Assuming GPT-4o mini processes 200 million queries daily, the total energy consumption would be:

200,000,000 queries × 0.15 Wh/query = 30,000,000 Wh

This equates to 30 megawatt-hours (MWh) per day.

Average Energy per Response: Dividing the total daily energy consumption by the number of responses:

30,000,000 Wh/200,000,000 responses = 0.15 Wh/ response

Therefore, on average, each response generated by GPT-4o mini is estimated to consume approximately 0.15 watt-hours of energy.

It is important to note that these figures are approximations and can vary based on factors such as server efficiency, data center infrastructure, and the complexity of user queries. Additionally, as AI models and hardware continue to evolve, energy consumption per query may decrease over time due to optimizations and more efficient technologies.

Learn more about ChatGPT's sustainability and environmental impact.

Access to third-party GPTs is currently restricted in the ChatGPT EDU environment to prioritize data privacy and security. Institutionally managed accounts operate under stricter controls to protect user information and ensure compliance with University policies. Third-party GPTs typically function outside these secure boundaries, which is why their use is limited at this time.

If you rely on a specific third-party GPT for your work or research, many tools can often be recreated within the EDU environment using custom instructions and prompts. While this may not replicate every feature exactly, it allows you to build a similar experience within a secure, compliant framework.

We are also actively developing a process to review and evaluate third-party GPTs to determine which tools may eventually be approved for use. If you would like help building a custom GPT or want to share feedback about third-party tools you use, please reach out to doit@csuchico.edu. Our team would be happy to support you.