Introducing Astra for Law

September 17, 2026

OpenAI is introducing Astra for Law: a new foundation for law firms and legal technology companies to build AI products and workflows around their expertise. It combines GPT-6 Astra with settings, tools, and context tailored for professional legal work.

API customers including Harvey and Legora will be able to build on Astra for Law. OpenAI is expanding privacy and governance controls for confidential client work, plus 26 ecosystem plugins connecting ChatGPT to tools like Relativity and Clio.

Legal research

Astra for Law combines GPT-6 Astra with a legal search index and instructions for legal analysis and writing. The index searches U.S. case law, statutes, regulations, court rules, and administrative decisions across more than 230 million URLs. Partnership with Free Law Project brings CourtListener case-law collection covering more than 99.9% of published U.S. precedential case law.

On 200 U.S. legal research questions from Vals AI’s Legal Research Bench private validation set, Astra for Law passed overall correctness on 54.0% of questions at highest reasoning effort, compared with 38.7% for GPT-6 Astra with web search alone — a 40% relative improvement. On case-law questions, it found 24% more reference cases and retrieved up to 54% more relevant passages from correct court opinions.

Trust and controls

Trusted Access Program for eligible law firms includes Zero Data Retention (ZDR) on API and ChatGPT Enterprise excluded from human review by default. OpenAI is working with Latham & Watkins on information permissions, ethical walls, client instructions, and firm oversight.

Firm customizations

Selected firms have built custom tools: Sullivan & Cromwell (agreement analyzer), Ropes & Gray (deal diligence system), Cooley (GO Public IPO preparation). ChatGPT for Word is generally available for drafting.

Plugins

26 partner-built plugins launched covering practice and business of law, including Thomson Reuters HighQ and forthcoming CoCounsel Legal connector. 9 community plugins from LegalQuants, LECG, and Skills.law with 47 custom skills.

Astra for Law appears in model picker as “GPT-6 Astra Law” and in API as gpt-6-astra-law. Initially offered to selected law firms through Trusted Access in ChatGPT and Codex; coming soon to API.