OpenAI Launches Small Business Program with ChatGPT

OpenAI launched the ‘ChatGPT for Small Business Program’ on July 21, 2026, a new initiative aimed at helping small businesses adopt artificial intelligence to become more productive and scale their operations.

Four pillars of the program

The initiative is structured around four key components. First, virtual webinars focused on real-world use cases for small businesses. Second, in-person events branded as ‘AI Academy’, to be held in various U.S. cities. Third, an interactive library of guides and customer success stories from businesses already using ChatGPT daily. Fourth, integrations and plugins developed with technology partners specifically for small business workflows, including Dropbox, Shopify, Intuit, Slack, Atlassian, and Wix.

Accelerated growth

The program announcement coincides with another key milestone: ChatGPT Work and Codex, OpenAI’s enterprise and developer tools, reached a combined user base of 10 million, representing a doubling of Codex’s user base since early July. The figure reflects growing interest across businesses of all sizes in integrating generative AI into internal processes.

Powered by the latest model

The small business program operates on GPT-5.6, OpenAI’s most advanced model to date, which the company says enables more precise and tailored responses suited to specific business needs — from customer service to inventory management and sales analysis.

A bet on the SME segment

With this initiative, OpenAI aims to compete more directly for a market segment — small and medium-sized enterprises — that has adopted AI more slowly than large corporations, partly due to a lack of technical resources and training. By offering free educational materials and specialized support, the company hopes to lower these barriers and establish ChatGPT as a standard tool for smaller businesses.

Sources: 9to5Mac.