UT Austin Agreed to Pay Over $4.2 Million for ChatGPT and Claude, Contracts Show

Oct 31, 2026
Contracts obtained by The Daily Texan show the University of Texas at Austin committed more than $4.2 million over two years to ChatGPT Edu and Claude Edu.

The University of Texas at Austin agreed to pay a combined total of more than $4.2 million for two year subscriptions to ChatGPT Edu and Claude Edu, The Daily Texan reports, citing contracts it obtained through an open records request. UT announced free access to both services for all students and employees in June.

The agreement with OpenAI costs about $1.1 million a year and covers 75,000 users and 24.5 million credits. It began on May 6. The two year agreement with Anthropic commits UT to spend $2 million for 70,000 users and began on April 30. UT also has a separate $73,000 one year agreement for premium Claude Edu versions, available to faculty, staff and departments by request.

Roughly 18,000 faculty, staff and students have created accounts for both services since June, said Mario Guerra, UT's associate vice president of AI platforms and innovation.

A Daily Texan analysis found that UT pays less per ChatGPT Edu user than other institutions with public contract data. The paper notes the analysis is not comprehensive, because most universities have not made their contracts public.

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