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How to Purchase

Faculty and Staff can purchase licenses for ChatGPT by submitting the  form. Once the form is submitted, IS will obtain the necessary fiscal approvals for the purchase. Student employees are only eligible if faculty or staff are purchasing the license with a MoCode.  License purchases are pro-rated quarterly.

ChatGPT Core

• Cost: $180 per year (prorated quarterly)
• Credits: 25 per week
• Use Case: Light usage

ChatGPT Plus

• Cost: $360 per year (prorated quarterly)
• Credits: 250 per week
• Use Case: Suitable for the majority of University users

ChatGPT Power

• Cost: $1,800 per year (prorated quarterly)
• Credits: 1,250 per week
• Use Case: Deep research

Credit and Usage Limits

• Chat — Unlimited
• Thinking Mini —Unlimited
• Thinking — 10 credits per message
• Pro — 50 credits per message
• Voice — 5 credits per minute
• Image Generation — 5 credits per message (three free per day)
• Agents — 30 credits per message
• Deep Research — 50 credits per task (five free per day)
• *Note: OpenAI reserves the right to modify credit costs at its sole discretion

Historical Information

• Single plan option for all UM System users.
• Single price point for everyone regardless of usage.
• Flat-fee billing from OpenAI based on user count, not usage of the product.

What's New

• 3 choices for Education plan options.
• Differing price points commensurate with usage.
• Pricing model based on forecasted usage rather than headcount.
• Each user will receive a weekly allocation of credits.
• Credits are consumed at varying rates based on which models and features are used.  Advanced models and features have a higher per-use consumption of credits.
• Basic chat remains unlimited and does not consume credits.

Why and When

• The information on this page reflects changes that went into effect April of 2026.
• All changes are effective immediately.  This is per OpenAI's shift in policy and does not reflect a timeline chosen by the University.
• OpenAI is restructuring offerings and price structure for all global customers.  

All data (regardless of format) must be classified in order to determine what security measures are necessary to adequately protect the University's information assets. Be aware of what types of data you are exposing to AI tools and the potential security risks by reviewing the UM System . 

The UM System Education versions of ChatGPT have been approved for DCL1 - DCL3 data and is SOC 2 Type II security compliant.  You can confirm your data is within a protected UM System workspace by looking for the blue circle with diamond icon in the bottom left corner.

After purchasing a license, you will receive an invitation email from OpenAI to join the UM System EDU Workspace.

1. Go to  and click Log In
2. Use your SSO@umsystem.edu for the email address and click Continue
3. Select "UM System" under "How do you want to log in?"
4. Continue the sign-in process using your UM System credentials and complete multi-factor authentication

You can upgrade your ChatGPT license to a higher tier (core to plus or plus to power) on a quarterly basis if your needs increase.  You can only downgrade to a lower tier (power to plus or plus to core) during annual renewals at the end of the fiscal year.

You will recieve a new pool of credits every week based on your license tier.  Unused credits do not rollover at the end of the week.  The 'week' is unique to each user and begins a rolling 7-day period when you consume your first credit.

What happens if I run out of credits?

If you run out of credits you will only be able to use the free models until the next week or upgrade to a higher level of ChatGPT.

Can I purchase additional credits without changing my subscription tier?

You can upgrade to a higher subscription tier to receive a larger allocation of credits.  There is no option to purchase temporary credits.

How do I check my credit quota?

This feature is still under development by OpenAI.  There is currently no way for a user on an EDU plan to check their credit usage or remaining balance.