# ChatGPT for Teachers: How to Get the Free Plan and Use It for Lessons, Quizzes and Parent Emails > How to get ChatGPT for Teachers, free for verified U.S. K-12 educators through June 2028, plus prompts to copy and what OpenAI says about student privacy and AI detectors. By Pat Simmons · November 12, 2026 · 12 min read Canonical: https://www.aiformortals.co/blog/chatgpt-for-teachers Yes, there is a free ChatGPT for teachers. OpenAI's ChatGPT for Teachers plan is free for verified U.S. K-12 teachers and school staff through June 2028. It runs in a private school workspace where, OpenAI says, anything you share is not used to train its models by default. Teachers outside U.S. K-12 schools can use the regular free ChatGPT plan, and universities buy a separate plan called ChatGPT Edu. ChatGPT is most useful to a teacher as a drafting assistant. Give it your grade, subject, standard and class needs, ask for a lesson outline, a quiz, a rubric comment or a translated parent email, then check every fact before it reaches students. AI detectors can't prove a student used AI, and OpenAI says so itself, so treat a detector score as a reason to talk with the student. Last checked November 12, 2026: OpenAI's ChatGPT for Teachers page, help article and pricing page, the ChatGPT Edu page, OpenAI's educator FAQ on AI detectors, Turnitin's AI writing pages, Anthropic's education page and MagicSchool's pricing page. ## Is there a free ChatGPT for teachers? Yes. ChatGPT for Teachers costs nothing for verified U.S. K-12 educators through June 2028, and OpenAI says it may change the price after that, with advance notice so schools can decide whether to stay. You qualify if you work for an accredited K-12 school or district in the United States as a teacher, staff member, administrator or district leader. Students can't use it. _The top of OpenAI's ChatGPT for Teachers page, with the free-through-June-2028 line under the headline and the Get verified button. Screenshot taken November 12, 2026, from chatgpt.com._ One date on OpenAI's own site doesn't match. The plan page, the announcement and the help article all say June 2028, while the FAQ at the bottom of OpenAI's pricing page still says June 2027. This page uses the date on the plan page. OpenAI's plan page lists what the free teacher plan includes: unlimited use of OpenAI's flagship model, file uploads, connectors to other apps, voice mode, image generation, data analysis, web search, memory and deep research. It adds shared projects, custom GPTs (saved versions of ChatGPT set up for one job) and admin controls for schools. If you teach at a university or at a school outside the U.S., the teacher plan isn't open to you. Your options are the regular plans on the pricing page, starting with Free at $0 a month, or a university-wide ChatGPT Edu plan if your campus buys one. This table puts the education plans side by side, using what each company says on its own pages (checked November 12, 2026). PlanWho it's forPriceWhat the company says about your data ChatGPT for TeachersVerified U.S. K-12 teachers, staff and district leadersFree through June 2028Not used to train OpenAI's models by default; built to help schools meet FERPA requirements ChatGPT FreeAnyone$0 a monthUsed to train models, with an opt-out ChatGPT EduUniversities: students, faculty, researchers and staffNo public price; through OpenAI's sales teamNo data or conversations used to train OpenAI models MagicSchool FreeIndividual teachers trying AI$0"Best in class privacy and security" MagicSchool PlusIndividual teachers who want every tool$8.33 per user a month billed yearly, or $12.99 a month billed monthlySame as Free MagicSchool EnterpriseDistrictsCustomAdds a custom data privacy agreement ## How to sign up for ChatGPT for Teachers You sign up on OpenAI's educator verification page with your school email, prove you're an educator, then create a workspace. These are the steps from OpenAI's ChatGPT for Teachers help article: - Go to the educator verification page and sign in or create a ChatGPT account with your school or district email address. - Complete educator verification with that same email address. - Back on the verification page, select Create a new workspace or Create workspace. - Name the workspace, review the Teacher Access Terms and the Student Data Privacy Agreement, tick the box and select Agree and Continue. - Follow the onboarding prompts to set your role, subjects and grade levels. Verification is run by SheerID, a company OpenAI uses to confirm educator status. OpenAI's plan page says SheerID checks you against official sources or your school's sign-in system, and asks you to upload documents for a manual review only when it needs to. If your school or district already has a Teachers workspace, ChatGPT offers it during sign-up and you can ask to join, or a workspace admin can invite your school email. A workspace only holds verified staff from one district, so you can't add teachers from another district. When verification fails with an "Unknown error", OpenAI's help article says to open the verification page in a different browser, sign in the same way and submit again. If it still fails, contact OpenAI Support through the chat bubble in its help center. District leaders get more from the same plan: in its announcement, OpenAI says they can claim the district's email domain to bring every educator into one workspace, set who can do what, and secure accounts with single sign-on. ## Is ChatGPT good for teachers? ChatGPT is good at the writing and planning work around teaching, as long as you check what it gives you. The chats U.S. teachers shared on OpenAI's teacher examples page cover lesson planning, research and admin: clearer assignment directions, quizzes, rubric comments on student papers, parent emails and translations. The work it handles best starts from something you already have. Upload your unit goals, a reading or a draft, and ask for a version for a different reading level, a quiz on it, or slides from your notes. OpenAI's announcement says the teacher plan can pull files from Google Drive or Microsoft 365 and build presentations in Canva. ChatGPT only knows what you tell it about your class, so a first draft stays generic until you add the details. Read every quiz answer, date and quote before it goes on a handout, and treat its rubric comments as a first pass you edit. The teacher plan has a memory setting: OpenAI says you can tell ChatGPT to remember your grade level, curriculum and preferred format. On a regular plan, you can set custom instructions with your grade and subject so you don't retype them in every chat. ## ChatGPT prompts for teachers: lesson plans, quizzes, rubrics and parent emails The best prompt for a teaching task names the grade, the subject, the time you have and the format you want back, and attaches the material it should work from. The templates below follow the tasks on OpenAI's teacher examples page. Swap the brackets for your own details and paste one into a new chat. _OpenAI's "Chats for teachers" page, where each card opens a starter prompt in ChatGPT, such as making assignment directions clearer or planning a multi-week unit. Screenshot taken November 12, 2026, from chatgpt.com._ A lesson plan **Lesson plan** ``` You are helping a [grade level] [subject] teacher. Write a lesson plan for one [length]-minute class on [topic], aligned to [standard]. My class: [number] students, including [English learners / students with IEPs / a wide reading range]. Include a 5-minute opener, a hands-on activity, a check for understanding and an exit ticket question. If anything you need is missing, ask me one question before you write the plan. ``` For a longer unit, attach your unit goals and ask for a plan across [number] days with a guiding question for each day, which is how one science teacher on OpenAI's examples page set it up. A quiz with an answer key **Quiz** ``` You are a [grade level] [subject] teacher. Write [number] multiple-choice questions on the attached [chapter / reading / notes]. Mix recall questions with questions that ask students to apply the idea. Give four options per question, then an answer key that says which line of the material supports each answer. ``` Asking for the line that supports each answer makes the key quicker to check against the reading. Feedback against your rubric **Rubric feedback** ``` Here is my rubric for [assignment] and one student paper with the name removed. Score the paper against each rubric row and quote the sentence that justifies each score. Then draft three comments for the student: one strength, one thing to fix first, and one next step. Keep the tone encouraging and write at a [grade level] reading level. ``` The grade stays yours. Use the scores to spot where you and the rubric disagree, and rewrite the comments in your own voice. On the regular free plan, take names out before you paste student work (the next section explains why). The same reading at three levels **Differentiated reading** ``` Rewrite the attached passage on [topic] at three reading levels: [grade level], two grades below, and one grade above. Keep every fact the same and keep the key vocabulary words: [list]. After each version, add three comprehension questions. ``` A parent email, then a translation **Parent email** ``` Draft a short email to the parents of my [grade level] class about [homework change / field trip / upcoming test]. Include these points: [dates, what students need, where to find it]. Keep it under 150 words, friendly and plain, with no school jargon. Then translate the final email into [language]. ``` If a parent wrote to you first, paste their message and your talking points and ask for a reply that answers each question. Read any translation with a colleague who speaks the language before it goes out when the message is sensitive. For more on drafting and editing with ChatGPT, see our guide to using ChatGPT as an editor. ## Is it safe to put student work into ChatGPT? It depends on the plan. ChatGPT for Teachers is the version OpenAI built for student information: its help article says the plan includes "FERPA-aligned protections and a student data privacy agreement", and that what you share is not used to train OpenAI's models by default. FERPA is the U.S. law that protects student education records. On the regular Free, Go, Plus and Pro plans, OpenAI's pricing page says your content is used to train its models, with an opt-out. On those plans, paste student work only with names and other identifying details removed, and check your district's AI policy before you use a personal account for anything about students. On the teacher plan, OpenAI says it may use automated systems to check content for safety and quality, and that access to stored conversations is limited to authorized employees who need it for engineering support, abuse investigations and legal compliance, and to contractors bound by confidentiality who review for abuse and misuse. For a plan-by-plan breakdown, read what each ChatGPT plan does with what you type. Students are a separate question. OpenAI's educator FAQ says users must be at least 13, and users between 13 and 18 need a parent's or guardian's permission. Our guide to what ChatGPT and Character.AI allow teens to do covers the teen settings in more detail. ## Can AI be used as a tutor? Yes, with a mode built for it. ChatGPT has study mode, which OpenAI says works through problems step by step with guiding questions, hints and quick quizzes instead of handing over the answer. At launch it was available on the Free, Plus, Pro and Team plans, and OpenAI said to turn it on by picking "Study and learn" from the tools in ChatGPT. OpenAI also lists the weak spots. Study mode runs on written instructions layered on top of the regular model, and OpenAI's launch post says that can mean "some inconsistent behavior and mistakes across conversations". OpenAI built it with college students in mind, so check it against your own class before you point younger students to it. Claude has a similar setting. Anthropic's education page says Claude's learning mode "asks questions that help you find the answers yourself". That page is written for universities and colleges. ## Can teachers check for AI? What AI detectors can and can't do Teachers can run an AI detector, but no detector can prove a student used AI. OpenAI's own educator FAQ asks "Do AI detectors work?" and answers: "In short, not in our experience." OpenAI explains why in the same article. When it trained its own detector, the tool labeled human writing, including Shakespeare and the Declaration of Independence, as AI-generated. OpenAI adds that there were signs it could affect students learning English as a second language, and students whose writing is formulaic or concise, more than others. OpenAI withdrew that classifier on July 20, 2023, "due to its low rate of accuracy". Asking ChatGPT doesn't work either. OpenAI's FAQ says ChatGPT has no knowledge of what might be AI-generated, so its answers to "did you write this?" are "random and have no basis in fact". Turnitin says its AI checker comes with Turnitin Originality, sits inside the same workflow as its similarity check and connects to your learning management system, the platform where students hand in work. In a post on false positives, Turnitin writes that it "does not make a determination of misconduct", and that because its false positive rate is not zero, the instructor must "apply your professional judgment, knowledge of your students, and the specific context surrounding the assignment". OpenAI's FAQ points to an approach some teachers use: ask students to share the link to their ChatGPT conversation along with the work. You see how they used it, what they asked, and whether they questioned the answers, which also makes their AI use part of the assignment. ## What other AI tools do teachers use? Two other options teachers look at are MagicSchool, a set of AI tools built for schools, and Claude, Anthropic's chatbot. This section lists what each one offers and costs, from its own pages, in no ranked order. MagicSchool's pricing page lists a Free plan with 80+ teacher tools, its Raina chatbot, quizzes and class writing feedback. Plus costs $8.33 per user a month billed yearly, or $12.99 billed monthly, and adds unlimited generations, saved history and 50+ tools for students. Districts get custom pricing, single sign-on and a custom data privacy agreement. It suits a teacher who would rather pick from a list of ready-made teacher tools than write prompts from scratch. _MagicSchool's three plans as shown on its pricing page: Free at $0, Plus at $8.33 a month billed yearly or $12.99 billed monthly, and custom Enterprise pricing for districts. Screenshot taken November 12, 2026, from magicschool.ai._ Claude's education offer is aimed at universities. Anthropic's education page describes a university-wide plan for students, faculty and staff, and says Anthropic only uses data to improve its models "when you give permission". A K-12 teacher can use Claude on its regular plans. You can follow ChatGPT's latest features on our ChatGPT tool page. ## Questions people ask Can I get ChatGPT for Teachers outside the U.S.? No. OpenAI's help article limits it to people who work for an accredited U.S. K-12 school or district. Teachers elsewhere can use ChatGPT's regular plans. Can college professors get it? No. Universities use ChatGPT Edu, which OpenAI's Edu page describes as a way "for universities to deploy AI to students, faculty, researchers, and campus operations". It is sold through OpenAI's sales team, with no public price. Can my students use ChatGPT for Teachers? No. OpenAI's plan page says "This plan is not for students." What happens after June 2028? OpenAI says it may introduce or adjust pricing after the free period, with the goal of keeping it affordable, and will give advance notice of any change. Which model does it use? OpenAI's help article says the plan includes "OpenAI's flagship model", with unlimited access according to the plan page. Is ChatGPT for Teachers FERPA compliant? OpenAI's wording is that the workspace is "built to protect student data" and that data export options "help schools meet FERPA requirements". For whether your workspace setup meets your district's rules, ask your district's technology office. Can ChatGPT tell me if a student's essay was written by AI? No. OpenAI says ChatGPT will sometimes make up an answer to "could this have been written by AI?" and those answers have no basis in fact. ## Sources - OpenAI: ChatGPT for K-12 teachers (checked November 12, 2026) - OpenAI Help Center: ChatGPT for Teachers - OpenAI: A free version of ChatGPT built for teachers - OpenAI: ChatGPT pricing (checked November 12, 2026) - OpenAI: ChatGPT Edu - OpenAI: Chats for teachers - OpenAI Help Center: How can educators respond to students presenting AI-generated content as their own? - OpenAI: New AI classifier for indicating AI-written text - OpenAI: Introducing study mode in ChatGPT - Turnitin: AI writing detection - Turnitin: Understanding false positives within our AI writing detection capabilities - Anthropic: Claude for higher education - MagicSchool: Pricing and plans (checked November 12, 2026)