OpenAI gives US government a 50% discount on AI models through GSA’s OneGov deal

The General Services Administration has completed a new agreement with OpenAI that gives public sector entities a 50 percent discount on the company’s advanced artificial intelligence models. The framework imposes no minimum spending thresholds, letting agencies scale usage based on operational demands rather than upfront enterprise licensing requirements.

Under the arrangement, model deployments are restricted to software environments that hold active authorization under the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program. Established in 2011, FedRAMP provides a standardized, governmentwide approach to security assessment, authorization, and continuous monitoring for cloud products and services.

The GSA’s “OneGov” strategy anchors the procurement model. This bulk-purchasing initiative, managed through the Federal Acquisition Service, aggregates the federal government’s purchasing power to drive down acquisition costs across commercial software sectors. It replaces piecemeal agency purchasing with centralized, governmentwide terms.

OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman stated that providing secure access to public sector workers is aimed at boosting government efficiency, strengthening administrative cybersecurity, and advancing objectives laid out in national technology strategies, including America’s AI Action Plan. Laura Stanton, Acting Commissioner of the GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service, said the procurement model reflects a shift toward consumption-based access.

The framework ensures that data processed by generative AI models remains bound by federal privacy, security, and governance baselines. This is achieved by requiring compliance with FedRAMP standards and GSA-specific AI terms and conditions. According to Stanton, the initiative allows agencies to evaluate commercial AI capabilities in operational environments before making long-term acquisition commitments, while establishing terms intended to invite competition from additional AI technology providers under the OneGov program.

State, local, and tribal government entities are eligible to leverage the GSA’s negotiated pricing and contractual framework under federal procurement guidelines. This enables smaller public administrations to access enterprise-level AI capabilities at reduced costs without undergoing separate procurement negotiations. GSA Administrator Edward C. Forst stated that the agreement establishes a secure, governmentwide operational framework to support the deployment of AI capabilities across agency missions while reducing administrative friction in public sector software adoption.