ChatGPT Edu

ChatGPT logo alongside a man and a woman sitting around a laptop.

Log In To ChatGPT

OpenAI’s ChatGPT Edu is available to all CSU students, faculty, and staff. ChatGPT is an advanced generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) solution that can help summarize documents, assist with text composition, conduct data analytics, and perform various other tasks.    

The CSU adopted ChatGPT Edu because the CSU is committed to closing equity and accessibility gaps by providing access to high-quality AI tools to support academic achievement for its students and employee communities. 

What Can ChatGPT Do?

ChatGPT can perform many tasks such as writing, coding, data analysis, translation, project management and more. To see what it can do for you, visit OpenAI - ChatGPT.

Which ChatGPT Intelligence Option Should I Use?

  • Instant: Best for quick questions and routine everyday tasks.
  • Medium: Appropriate for most academic and administrative work, including drafting communications, summarizing documents, brainstorming, and organizing information.
  • High: Best for complex work requiring deeper analysis, such as comparing proposals, developing policies, or synthesizing information from multiple sources.
  • Pro: Intended for especially challenging or multi-step tasks that benefit from the greatest reasoning effort.
ChatGPT intelligence drop down.

Note: Higher reasoning levels may take longer and are not necessarily needed for everyday work. Available options may vary depending on CSUN’s ChatGPT Edu workspace settings.

Who is it For?

OpenAl's ChatGPT Edu agreement is tailored specifically for the California State University (CSU) system, providing advanced Al capabilities for all employees and students. It offers the ability to build custom GPTs for sharing within campus workspaces, as well as features such as single sign-On (SSO), and SCIM integration.

ChatGPT Edu is available to all active students, faculty, and staff. Alumni can access ChatGPT one year post-graduation. Emeritus are not eligible at this time.

Is Training Available?

Training tutorials are available below.

What is Study Mode?


Study Mode is designed to help you build a deeper understanding of any topic through guided exploration. Once enabled, ChatGPT engages you in an interactive dialogue to assess your goals and skill level, then works with you to learn collaboratively.

How to Enable Study Mode:

Click on Tools in the ChatGPT prompt window, then select Study and learn from the dropdown menu. Or visit: chatgpt.com/studymode

FAQs

Accessing ChatGPT for the First Time

1. Go to the ChatGPT login link at: https://www.csun.edu/ai/chatgptlogin

2. Login with your CSUN User ID and Password. 

3. A "Welcome to the CSUN workspace" message displays. 

4. Select the "Okay, let's go" button to begin. 

Accessing ChatGPT as a Previous User

1. Go to the ChatGPT login link at: https://www.csun.edu/ai/chatgptlogin

2. Login with your CSUN User ID and Password. 

3. A "You've been added to a ChatGPT Edu workspace" message displays. 

4. At "What should we do with your existing workspace?" You will have two options:

    • Transfer existing chat history and GPTs, or...

    • Export and delete existing chat history

5. Make the appropriate selection and choose Continue. 

6. Confirm your choice. You are now added to the workspace. 

  • Access to GPT-5.5, OpenAI's flagship model, excelling in text interpretation, coding, and mathematics
  • Advanced capabilities such as data analytics, web browsing, and document summarization
  • The ability to build GPTs, custom versions of ChatGPT, and share them within university workspaces
  • Significantly higher message limits than the free version of ChatGPT
  • Improved language capabilities across quality and speed, with over 50 languages supported
  • Conversations and data are not used to train OpenAI models

There is no direct cost to students, faculty, employees, colleges, divisions or departments for the plan purchased through the Chancellors Office. ChatGPT is being funded by the CSU Chancellor’s Office through July 2026 at which time an extension will be evaluated. 

  • New agreement is 3 years from July 1 2026
  • Graduated students will retain access for 1 year after graduation
  • All Faculty, Staff and Enrolled Students can access

  • CSUN’s ChatGPT Edu environment, and its encompassing data, will remain private to CSUN.
    • No CSUN conversations or data will be shared with OpenAI or other universities, for training purposes or AI models. ChatGPT Edu has robust data privacy, security and administrative controls such as group permissions, etc. 

The CSU ChatGPT Edu plan includes enterprise commercial data protection features like SAML Single Sign-On (SSO), domain verification, custom data retention windows, SOC 2 Type 2 compliance, and data encryption at rest and in transit.

Yes. This feature is available now. 

 

Yes, OpenAI provides applications for various platforms, including iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS. Access and sign-in instructions to follow once authentication settings are in place. 

All of your existing chat history and GPTs from your Personal workspace will be moved to the CSUN workspace. Any plugins or custom instructions that you've set up in your personal workspace will be deleted upon merging.

For more information, visit OpenAI.

  • Alumni, yes, 1 year post graduation
  • Emeritus, no.

FERP participants and retired annuitants who have continued active status are eligible to access ChatGPT Edu.

  • Yes, there is a cost recovery done back to the auxiliary unit.

  • Non level 1 data 
  • Non-copyrighted material. Before uploading copyrighted material, ChatGPT users should check with the publisher to obtain approval. 

  • Infrastructure: Our data centers impact the environment through energy and water use. Our main partner, Azure, aims to be carbon negative by 2030, use 100% renewable energy by 2025, and achieve water positivity, zero waste, and net-zero deforestation by 2030.
  • Organization Initiatives: We're working on industry scorecards (ISO 14001, 26000, and OHSAS 18001/ISO 45001), related disclosures (CSRD, SFDR, SECR, TCFD), and researching ways to reduce the carbon footprint of ML training.

At this time, the web browser version of ChatGPT has known accessibility barriers. These barriers may interfere with assistive technology, including screen readers.

Faculty should not require the use of ChatGPT Edu to complete assignments or assessments, unless you provide an alternate method that does not require ChatGPT.

The contract for ChatGPT Edu from the CSU Chancellor’s Office includes a commitment from OpenAI to fix the accessibility barriers.

Self-paced learning resources are available below:

Additional AI learning resources will be added as they become available. For general questions, contact the IT Help Center.

ChatGPT has added an 'Export data' feature called Export Data. It is accessed by on the CSUN logo located in the lower-left-hand corner. However, this requires the Help Center to first add the user to a group. 

  • Settings > Data Controls > Export data (click the Export button).
  • Users will be presented with. A "Request data export - are you sure?" dialogue pop-up and need to click 'Confirm export' to initiate the export.