OpenAI is proud to work with Estonia’s government on a world-first initiative to provide all students and teachers in the secondary school system with access to ChatGPT Edu, a version of ChatGPT customized for education systems, starting with 10th and 11th graders by September 2025. 

To date, ChatGPT has become a go-to tool for students globally to personalize their education and advance their personal development. Most ChatGPT users — nearly four in five — are under the age of 35 and the majority of conversations are focused on learning and schoolwork. By supporting AI literacy programs, expanding access to AI, and developing policies to make AI training accessible and affordable, we can ensure students will be better equipped as the workforce of the future.

Yet, access to AI is not distributed evenly. We are committed to working with educators and policymakers to help make AI tools like ChatGPT Edu widely available and responsibly integrated into teaching and learning. Educational institutions have a core role in ensuring that all students and teachers have access to AI and receive the necessary training to benefit from its potential. Estonia has fully embraced this challenge and will be one of the first countries in the world to integrate AI into its education system. 

OpenAI will provide the Estonian government with use of ChatGPT Edu, a customized version of ChatGPT built for education systems, and API services. The collaboration also will include technical support and knowledge-sharing for dedicated use cases such as custom GPTs focused on teaching and learning that will save teachers time by removing the administrative tasks from their day, as well as supporting students to build their creativity and critical thinking skills. Use cases can include feedback assistance, student support, study assistance, and lesson planning.

Estonia is already among the top 15 countries globally for ChatGPT usage with one active ChatGPT account for every four citizens, and aggregated usage data shows Estonians use ChatGPT primarily for tutoring and teaching, computer programming and writing.

The push is part of Estonia’s AI Leap 2025 initiative to integrate AI capabilities into education, providing free AI tools and a framework for their use in learning. Launched by the President of Estonia as a public-private sector collaboration, AI Leap builds on the legacy of Estonia's historic Tiger Leap project from 1996 that computerized Estonian schools and laid the foundation for the country's emergence globally as a digital pioneer. 

“Estonia's competitiveness depends on how well we can prepare young people for the age of artificial intelligence," said Minister of Education and Research Kristina Kallas. "In order for AI to support learning, especially the development of cognitive skills such as critical thinking, but also our economic growth, we will invest strongly in teacher training as part of the AI Leap. Well-prepared teachers will be able to implement AI capabilities smartly in schools.”

Leah Belsky, Vice President of Education, OpenAI, said, “Millions of students around the world are already using ChatGPT to enrich and personalise their learning. Estonia is setting an example for the world as one of the first countries to fully integrate AI into its education system for the benefit of all students and teachers. We're excited to work with the government to offer access to this transformative technology and help ensure its future workforce is AI-ready.”

ChatGPT Edu is a version of ChatGPT built for large-scale deployments across educational institutions. This offering includes OpenAI’s latest models, GDPR compliance, enterprise-level security and controls with cost-effective pricing, allowing for responsible rollout to every student, faculty and staff member, and researcher. With ChatGPT Edu, educational institutions around the world like ESCP, Harvard University, London Business School, Oxford, and The California State University System have taken steps to make AI as fundamental to their campus as using the internet. Estonia’s deployment of ChatGPT Edu is the first by a government to ensure that students across an entire nation - not just across distinct campuses - have access to this transformative technology.

At OpenAI, we see AI as an innovation as fundamental as electricity, changing how we live, how we work, and how we engage with one another. Our mission is to ensure that as AI advances, it benefits everyone. We're building AI to help people solve hard problems because by helping with the hard problems, AI can benefit the most people possible — through more scientific discoveries, better healthcare, and of course, better education. We’re off to a strong start, creating freely available intelligence being used by more than 400 million people around the world, including 3 million developers. We believe AI will scale human ingenuity and drive unprecedented productivity, economic growth, and new freedoms that help people accomplish what we can't even imagine today.