India is ChatGPT's No. 2 market with 100M weekly users
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- India has 100 million weekly active ChatGPT users — the platform's second-largest market after the United States — CEO Sam Altman disclosed in a Times of India article published ahead of the five-day India AI Impact Summit beginning Monday in New Delhi.
- OpenAI opened a New Delhi office in August 2025 and rolled out a sub-$5 ChatGPT Go tier tailored to India's price-sensitive market, later making the plan free for a year to Indian users as the company prioritizes scale over near-term revenue.
- ChatGPT reached 800 million weekly active users globally as of October 2025 and is approaching 900 million, with Altman highlighting that India also hosts the largest share of student users worldwide.
- Google is contesting the same Indian student base, having offered a free one-year AI Pro subscription in September 2025; Google's Chris Phillips said India accounts for the highest global usage of Gemini for learning.
- Altman warned that India "risks forfeiting a vital opportunity to advance democratic AI in emerging markets" if access and adoption remain uneven, and signaled that OpenAI will announce new partnerships with the Indian government focused on widening AI reach.
- The India AI Impact Summit is expected to draw Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Indian business figures Mukesh Ambani and Nandan Nilekani, and political leaders including Emmanuel Macron, Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Why it matters: OpenAI is racing to convert India's 100 million weekly ChatGPT users into a sustainable business, but making its sub-$5 Go tier free for a year signals that price sensitivity — not demand — is the binding constraint. With Google simultaneously giving Indian students a free AI Pro subscription, the next battleground is educational lock-in among the world's largest student population, not raw signups.
