CHIANTI consists of a critically evaluated set of up-to-date atomic data, together with user-friendly programs written in Interactive Data Language (IDL) and Python to calculate the spectra from astrophysical plasmas.

The CHIANTI database was one of the first databases to be included through the VAMDC portal. CHIANTI contains all the atomic data needed to calculate line and continuum emission from optically thin collisionally ionised plasmas.

CHIANTI data are already used for a wide range of astrophysical applications. CHIANTI basic data are routinely used within codes that model collisionally dominated plasma (APEC, ATOMDB) or photoionised plasma (CLOUDY, XSTAR, XSPEC, MOCASSIN).

CHIANTI data have been used to study X-ray spectra from the Chandra and XMM-Newton satellites. They are routinely used to measure abundances, densities and temperatures in all sorts of plasma, from planetary nebulae to H II regions or hot inter-galaxy gas. CHIANTI radiative losses are used to model e.g. protoplanetary disks or study galaxy evolution, just to mention a few examples.