It is one of the four "Phase-IV" All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) announced in July 2014.

[2] In July 2014,[3] in the budget speech for 2014–15, the Minister of Finance Arun Jaitley announced a budget of ₹500 crore (equivalent to ₹799 crore or US$92 million in 2023) for setting up four new AIIMS, in Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra and the Purvanchal region in Uttar Pradesh,[3] the so-called "Phase-IV" institutes.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of AIIMS Gorakhpur on 22 July 2016.

The executive director of AIIMS Gorakhpur, Dr Surekha Kishore was alleged to have forced medical students to show her their private messages and files on their mobile phones.

It was also alleged she directed guards of the institutes to confine students in their rooms.