It was created under the name French Institute for Research in Computer Science and Automation (IRIA) (French: Institut de recherche en informatique et en automatique) in 1967 at Rocquencourt near Paris, part of Plan Calcul.

Its first site was the historical premises of SHAPE (central command of NATO military forces), which is still used as Inria's main headquarters.

Inria has nine research centers distributed across France (in Bordeaux, Grenoble-Inovallée, Lille, Lyon, Nancy, Paris-Rocquencourt, Rennes, Saclay, and Sophia Antipolis) and one center abroad in Santiago de Chile, Chile.

Inria Rennes is part of the joint Institut de recherche en informatique et systèmes aléatoires (IRISA) with several other entities.

[8] During the summer of 1988, the INRIA connected its Sophia-Antipolis unit to the NSFNet via Princeton using a satellite link leased to France Telecom and MCI.