OpenAI Ends Its $1-a-Year Government Deal for Metered Pricing

OpenAI and the General Services Administration signed a 27-month OneGov agreement Sept. 10 that replaces ChatGPT's $1-a-year pilot price for federal agencies with a consumption-based model, ending Sept. 30 when the current deal expires. Nextgov/FCW reported the new terms run from Oct. 1, 2026 through Dec. 31, 2028. The pilot it replaces dates to an August 2025 GSA announcement that first brought ChatGPT to federal agencies at $1 per agency for the year.

The $15-a-month fee drops to zero, usage does not

Under the new deal, agencies pay no platform-access fee, normally $15 per user per month, no minimum order and no spend commitment, but usage is billed by the token at a 50 percent discount off OpenAI's standard commercial rate, Nextgov/FCW reported. Laura Stanton, acting commissioner of GSA's Federal Acquisition Service, said "consumption-based access is the next logical step" as agencies fold AI into daily operations, and GSA officials told Nextgov the switch will likely raise costs for agencies that adopt the tools heavily, since the prior $1-a-year price covered unlimited use.

Eligibility expands from 1 million workers to 23 million

The agreement extends the discount beyond federal agencies to all state, local and tribal governments for the first time, expanding eligibility from roughly 1 million federal employees to about 23 million people across every level of government, according to Nextgov's reporting. Access runs through FedRAMP-authorized environments, the federal government's cloud-security certification program.

Term	Prior deal	New OneGov deal
License fee	$1 a year, flat	$0, metered usage
Usage discount	Unlimited at flat price	50% off standard rate
Duration	Through Sept. 30, 2026	Oct. 1, 2026-Dec. 31, 2028
Eligible users	About 1 million federal workers	About 23 million, all government levels

Daybreak Blue, OpenAI's cyber tool, comes at the same discount

Every verified government entity can now buy Daybreak Blue, OpenAI's cyber-defense product, at 50 percent off its standard commercial price, Nextgov reported. GSA Administrator Ed Forst said the arrangement is "positioning the federal government for the future by integrating advanced, AI-enabled capabilities into agency operations," and OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman said "giving public servants secure access to the best AI tools can help government be more efficient," according to FedScoop's coverage of the announcement.

OneGov has saved agencies $1.68 billion since it began

GSA's OneGov marketplace, the vehicle for the OpenAI deal, has saved participating agencies about $1.68 billion since its creation, with $1.4 billion of that from AI-specific agreements, FedScoop reported, citing GSA figures. Neither GSA nor OpenAI said how much the new 27-month agreement itself is projected to save or cost, and Stanton did not say what usage level would make an agency's bill under the new terms higher than the flat $1-a-year rate it is replacing. OpenAI's ChatGPT for Financial Services push with Morgan Stanley and the enterprise-facing Agents API it opened last week are both aimed at the same institutional buyers the GSA deal targets, though neither includes the token discount that applies only to verified government accounts.