Synthetic Sciences takes OpenScience out of beta with 30-plus models
The YC W26 startup is adding a redesigned research workspace and paid model access to its open-source science agent.
By Ryan Merket · Published
Primary source: X
Why it matters
Synthetic Sciences is pairing an open-source scientific workbench with paid access to a curated model service. The launch makes that split explicit: the agent is free, while convenience and model access can generate revenue.
Synthetic Sciences said on September 27th that OpenScience had left beta, pairing a redesigned research workspace with OpenScience Ace, a managed service offering access to more than 30 models. The company described the release in a thread on X and listed the project on Product Hunt.
Co-founder and CEO Aayam Bansal (@aayambansal) previously built, patented and sold an AI-powered orthopedic sock, according to Y Combinator's company profile. Co-founder Ishaan Gangwani, Synthetic Sciences' CTO, competed in the 2025 International Olympiad in Artificial Intelligence and is a USACO Platinum programmer, YC says.
The startup says OpenScience's custom harness combines domain-specific skills, scientific database access and remote execution on GPUs and high-performance computing clusters. Its public GitHub repository describes a workbench that can run as a desktop app, browser workspace or command-line tool, and lists integrations with research databases and remote compute. The project is licensed under Apache 2.0.
Synthetic Sciences calls OpenScience the "#1 scientific agent" and says the harness performs at the state of the art on agentic-science benchmarks. Those are company claims in the launch thread. The post also says Ace includes more than 30 selected models, naming GPT-6 Astra, Claude Opus 5.5, Grok 4.7, Kimi K3 and GLM-5.3.
OpenScience is free and open source, while Ace is the paid model-access option. Synthetic Sciences is offering $5 in Ace credit to users who sign up with a .edu email. The arrangement puts a commercial service alongside an open-source tool: researchers can use their own model access with OpenScience, or pay Synthetic Sciences to route work through Ace.