Federal agencies can now buy OpenAI’s ChatGPT for just $1 annually

OpenAI has announced a major partnership with the US government, making its frontier AI models available to federal agencies for just $1 for the next year through an agreement with the General Services Administration. This unprecedented deal represents the culmination of months of lobbying efforts by OpenAI executives and positions the company to capture a significant share of the massive federal AI market, particularly as the Trump administration accelerates government modernization efforts.

What you should know: The partnership grants federal employees access to OpenAI’s most advanced models at a symbolic price point, marking a significant expansion of AI tools across government operations.

• The General Services Administration (GSA), which manages government purchasing, added three AI models—OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude, and Google’s Gemini—to its federal purchasing list on Tuesday.
• OpenAI simultaneously launched two open-weight models, its first such release since 2019, which can run locally and be customized for agencies requiring high data security.
• The deal was framed as advancing Trump’s AI Action Plan, which aims to accelerate AI innovation in the United States.

Behind the scenes: OpenAI executives have been systematically building relationships with the Trump administration and federal agencies since before the president took office.

• High-ranking OpenAI employees have been meeting with the GSA and agencies like the Food and Drug Administration since at least May to promote the company’s tools, according to documents obtained by WIRED.
• On July 23, OpenAI Chief Operating Officer Brad Lightcap and other executives were invited to a private after party hosted by the Hill and Valley Forum in Washington, DC, alongside government employees involved in AI policy efforts and associates from DOGE (the Department of Government Efficiency).
• CEO Sam Altman has maintained a high-profile presence, standing beside Trump at the White House announcement of the Stargate datacenter project and accompanying the president on a Middle East business trip in May.

The big picture: American AI giants are increasingly aligning themselves with government interests as federal agencies represent massive potential customers with trillion-dollar budgets.

• Trump’s proposed Department of Defense budget for fiscal year 2026 is $1.01 trillion, representing a 13.4 percent increase and highlighting the enormous market opportunity.
• Under Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), AI adoption has accelerated across agencies, including the launch of an AI chatbot called GSAi and AI-powered regulation rewriting at the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
• Government agencies possess vast quantities of data that could prove valuable for AI companies, though OpenAI states that ChatGPT will not use federal employee interactions as training data.

Why this matters: The partnership signals a fundamental shift in how AI companies are positioning themselves within the federal ecosystem, potentially setting precedents for future government-tech collaborations while raising questions about data privacy and the concentration of AI power in government operations.