Industry-leading software for tomorrow’s optimization specialists
Empowering the academic community with the same professional modeling system used by global companies. AMPL integrates with Python, VS Code, and modern data stacks – making it easy to go from classroom to production without compromises.
AMPL for Academics (A4A) provides students, faculty, and researchers full AMPL functionality with academic access to select commercial solvers – ideal for coursework, thesis projects, and scholarly research.
*For commercial prototyping only, requires valid academic email upon sign up.
AMPL for Courses (A4C) supports educators in course-based teaching. Easily distributed to entire classes through shareable links and activation codes enabling collaborative use for coursework.
*Not applicable for commercial use, must be requested by academic instructor.
AMPL Career Starter (ACS) enables recent graduates to take their optimization skills from the classroom to professional practice, bridging the gap between academic study and real-world optimization.
*For commercial prototyping only, requires valid academic email upon sign up.
AMPL gives students, educators, and researchers full access to the same optimization system used in industry. Build, teach, and experiment with a production-grade modeling system that powers real decision-making in energy, finance, and supply chain.
→ No reduced functionality versions. No artificial limits. Just the real toolkit used by professionals.
Get AMPL running in minutes, whether through Python, VS Code, or Colab.
Free models industry and academic to get you started on projects and real-world applications.
Through Streamlit Apps developed by the AMPL team, see examples of interactive visualizations of real optimization models.
Comprehensive documentation from our technical team of optimization experts.
This repository of notebooks introduces the concepts and tools of mathematical optimization in AMPL and Python with examples from a range of disciplines.
This book was used in the “Optimization and Data Science for Management” course, Master degree in Management Engineering at the University of Florence.
This book is an analysis of optimization models that are routinely used in electricity market operations.
The appendix includes a style guide to be used when writing AMPL models, and illustrates best practices for readable and scalable AMPL models, and also to effective usage of the Python API for AMPL.
AMPL for Academics: Any student, professor, or researcher affiliated with an accredited academic institution worldwide is eligible.
AMPL for Courses: Educators of course-based teaching at accredited academic institutions.
AMPL Career Starter: Recent graduates in the last 24 months.
License duration depends on the program:
AMPL for Academics: No time limits, commercial solvers require renewal every 12 months.
AMPL for Courses: 6-month license with automatic timeout.
AMPL Career Starter: 12-months.
Yes. We offer both individual and course-wide licenses. Professors can request a single activation process for all students in their course through AMPL for Courses for professor-distributed license codes, or students may individually download their own AMPL for Academics license for individual license management.
AMPL for Academics includes full access to Gurobi, CPLEX, Xpress, COPT and Mosek for 12 months (with renewal option) as well as all open source solvers (NVIDIA cuOpt, HiGHS, CBC, Couenne, IPOPT, Bonmin, Gecode, SCIP, GCG). Individuals can trial or purchase other commercial solvers (Knitro, CONOPT, LOQO, MINOS, SNOPT, Baron, LGO, LINDO Global, Octeract) through the AMPL License Portal or contacting sales@ampl.com
AMPL for Courses and AMPL Career Starter includes all solvers (no payments or trials required) for the length the license is active.
AMPL licenses are designed for modern workflows. Most users work directly in VS Code, Python, Jupyter, or Colab. The legacy IDE is not required and not recommended for new users.
Yes. AMPL works seamlessly with Python, Streamlit, modern data connectors (SQL, CSV, Excel, APIs), and cloud environments (Docker, Kubernetes, AWS, Azure, GCP).
If you’re graduating or leaving your institution, you can:
Yes. Your models are yours. AMPL uses plain text modeling files, so your work is fully portable to commercial or community editions.
Yes, our AMPL Career Starter license can be used in commercial settings or internships.
Academic licenses are issued instantly upon verification. You can be running your first model in Jupyter or VS Code in minutes using our starter templates.
Visit the Resources section for:
No. AMPL licenses are lightweight and work on Windows, macOS, and Linux. It can also be run directly in the browser via Colab.
Yes. AMPL is widely used in academic research, including published work in operations research, energy, finance, transportation, and logistics.