The University of Maine System (UMS) is making ChatGPT Edu available as a UMS-managed workspace to employees and active students. If you currently use a paid ChatGPT plan with your @maine.edu email address, this article explains what is included with UMS ChatGPT Edu, how it compares with your current plan, and the choices available for your existing paid subscription.
What features and usage are included with UMS ChatGPT Edu?
UMS ChatGPT Edu provides access to ChatGPT in a UMS-managed environment designed for university work. It provides many of the capabilities employees may already use with an individual paid ChatGPT account while allowing UMS to centrally manage access, security, permissions, and usage.
The current UMS configuration includes the following capabilities for faculty and staff:
- Reasoning model access
- Web search
- Deep research
- Projects, including creating, managing, and sharing projects
- GPT creation and management
- Access to UMS-approved GPTs
- Skills
- Image generation
- Voice
- ChatGPT for PowerPoint
- ChatGPT for Excel and Sheets
- Code execution in code blocks
- Internet access for supported code workflows
- Shared and improved memory
- Ability to share chats within the UMS workspace
NOTE: Some capabilities available in other ChatGPT plans or higher UMS roles are intentionally restricted. The faculty, staff, and student configurations do not include Work, Codex, early-access models, Pro model access, publishing GPTs externally, or installing and uploading skills. UMS may adjust available features as the service evolves.
How much usage is included?
UMS uses monthly credits to manage access to higher-cost ChatGPT capabilities. Faculty, staff, and students are assigned the same Advanced role, meaning they have the same core capabilities. Their included monthly usage allocations differ. The initial allocations are:
| UMS Group |
Monthly Credits |
Annual Cost |
| Students |
50 |
Included |
| Staff |
225 |
Included |
| Faculty |
350 |
Included |
| Power Users |
1,000 |
$600 |
| Technical Users |
2,000 |
$1,200 |
The Power User and Technical User tiers are purchased by the department or unit. A chartfield and a purchasing approver are required, and students cannot purchase.
Most employees will therefore receive either 225 credits per month as staff or 350 credits per month as faculty.
If you belong to more than one eligible group, you receive the highest applicable allocation rather than adding the allocations together. For example, someone who qualifies for both the staff and faculty groups would receive the higher allocation.
Credits are allocated on the first of each month. UMS plans to review actual usage after launch and may adjust the model based on experience and demand.
How does UMS ChatGPT Edu compare with my current paid plan?
For many employees, UMS ChatGPT Edu may provide the ChatGPT capabilities they need for university work without requiring them to continue paying personally for a separate subscription.
There are some important differences. UMS ChatGPT Edu is an institutionally managed workspace, so available models, features, permissions, and usage are determined by the UMS configuration. An individual paid plan is managed by you and may provide different usage limits or access to features that UMS has not enabled.
UMS ChatGPT Edu also provides an important benefit for university work: it operates within the institution's managed ChatGPT environment rather than your personal ChatGPT workspace.
Because individual OpenAI plans and features can change, compare the capabilities you rely on today with the UMS Edu features described above before deciding whether you still need your individual paid subscription.
What about my existing paid subscription?
Your three options are covered in the UMS ChatGPT Edu Migration Overview: change the email address to keep your personal account, transfer supported content into ChatGPT Edu, or export a copy and start fresh. Review it before you request access, because requesting access starts the process that claims your @maine.edu address.
Changing the email address is the only option that keeps your existing account. Transfer and export both end with that account deleted, and there is no undo.
What happens to the subscription itself depends on which you choose. If you change the email address on the account, the subscription stays active under the new address and no action is needed. If you transfer or export instead, subscriptions purchased directly through ChatGPT are canceled and refunded on a prorated basis, with eligibility and timing determined by OpenAI, and subscriptions purchased through the Apple App Store or Google Play must be canceled separately by you.
All of this applies to personal Free, Plus, and Pro accounts registered to an @maine.edu address, meaning accounts you signed up for yourself. A ChatGPT Business workspace is different. Business workspaces and their content do not move into UMS ChatGPT Edu, and the three options above do not apply to them. You can continue using a Business workspace through its current renewal date and use UMS ChatGPT Edu at the same time. More than one situation may apply to you: you might have both a personal Plus account and access to a Business workspace, and each is handled separately.
How do usage limits work in the UMS Edu workspace?
Your UMS role determines the features you can access, while your UMS group determines your monthly credit allocation.
For example, standard faculty and staff both use the Advanced role and therefore receive the same core capabilities. Staff currently receive 225 monthly credits, while faculty receive 350.
Not every ChatGPT interaction necessarily has the same resource requirements. Your available usage will therefore depend on the features and models you use.
UMS will review credit allocation and actual usage after launch. The rollout plan calls for reviews at approximately 30, 60, and 90 days, allowing UMS to evaluate whether the initial allocations appropriately support university needs.
What if the included usage does not meet my work needs?
The initial credit allocations are intended to provide a starting point while UMS gathers actual usage information.
If you consistently need more capacity to perform your university work, you will be able to request an increased allocation through the UMS process.
Request Additional ChatGPT Edu Usage
Higher-use groups are planned for employees with demonstrated needs, including Power User and Technical tiers. These tiers provide higher monthly allocations and are intended for specialized or sustained use cases.
The detailed approval, billing, and request process for additional credits is still being finalized. The deployment recommendations specifically identify additional-credit requests as an item to be addressed as part of the 30-day review.
Before making a decision
If you currently pay for ChatGPT using an account associated with your @maine.edu address:
- Review the features included with UMS ChatGPT Edu.
- Identify any paid-plan capabilities you currently depend on.
- Review your existing ChatGPT content and determine what you want to preserve.
- Decide whether UMS ChatGPT Edu meets your university work needs.
- If you want to keep the account and subscription you already pay for, change the email address on it before you request access to ChatGPT Edu.
- Complete the UMS migration process for content you want retained in ChatGPT Edu.
- Verify your important content after migration.
- If your UMS allocation is insufficient for your work, submit an additional-usage request.
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