ChatGPT Edu Frequently Asked Questions

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.

ChatGPT Edu began rolling out to all staff, faculty, and state-supported students the week of April 15, 2025, and has since included auxilliary groups such as Associates Students (AS) and the office of  Professional & Continuing Education (PCE.)

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-5, 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-5 Thinking model usage is limited to 200 messages per week. When the cap is reached, the user can switch to GPT-5 model or a lower model which allows for unlimited messages.

ChatGPT licenses are funded by the CSU Chancellor’s Office for all faculty and staff beginning February 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.

California State University, Chico (Chico State) is committed to upholding academic integrity, individual privacy, and responsible innovation in the use of enterprise Generative AI (GenAI) tools such as ChatGPT Edu, Google NotebookLM, Google Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot.  

As outlined in our Chico State Playbook, Chico State will succeed by embracing streamlined processes and adaptive ways of working to thrive in a rapidly evolving world. As such, we are recommitted to the highest standards of excellence, driven by a spirit of inspiration to build a diverse and inclusive community, and we put these values into practice by supporting groundbreaking teaching, research, creativity, and innovation.    

While the Division of Information Technology (DoIT) system administrators may manage settings and accounts, their access is limited to basic account information and aggregate usage data such as number of active users by day, number of messages sent to top GPTs,) and number of messages sent by model. DoIT does not monitor or review individual prompts, responses, or user interactions within GenAI tools. Chico State values the privacy of its students, faculty, and staff. Access to GenAI usage data is limited to anonymized, aggregate metrics—such as total number of users or queries—which help improve services while maintaining user confidentiality.  

There are, however, rare and critical exceptions that apply to all university-provided digital systems and tools:  

Legal Requests: A court order or legally binding request from law enforcement may compel the university to provide targeted, specific user data in the context of a legal investigation or proceeding.  

Cybersecurity Risks: if a significant cybersecurity threat or vulnerability arises within a Chico State provided GenAi tool, Division of IT (DoIT) subject matter experts may require access to protected data that may have been compromised.  

If such a case arises, access will only be granted after a legal review and validation by the Office of General Counsel and Risk Management. If authorized, only designated subject matter experts will carry out a narrowly tailored data search. Any resulting data is either the property of the requesting legal authority or used solely to protect the university’s digital assets. Chico State remains dedicated to fostering innovation through AI tools while safeguarding the privacy and academic freedom of our university community.  

Yes, the Edu plan allows institutions to build custom GPTs tailored to specific courses or administrative functions, which can be shared within campus workspaces.

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:

• OpenAI, LLMs & ChatGPT
• Multimodality Explained
• Introduction to Prompt Engineering 
• Introduction to GPTs 
• ChatGPT Search 
• Advanced Prompt Engineering 
• ChatGPT for Data Analysis 

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.

For privacy reasons, access to the ChatGPT API is currently disabled and cannot be granted. If you have an innovative idea on how AI can be applied at Chico State, please submit an Innovation Request so other options can be explored.

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:

1. 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.

1. 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:

1. 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.

1. 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.