Athira Sethu
Kochi, 22 August 2025
OpenAI, the parent company of ChatGPT, will establish its first office in India in the coming months. The office will be established in New Delhi, turning India into the company’s second-largest market after the United States. OpenAI is supported by Microsoft and has already registered as a legal entity in India. The company has even begun recruiting individuals for its local team.
India is a vital nation for OpenAI due to its massive internet population. Close to one billion Indians use the internet, and most of them are students. OpenAI has recently introduced its lowest subscription plan in India, with a cost of only $4.60 a month, in order to attract more users. This was done to make ChatGPT cheaper for Indian users.
But the company also has to contend with legal issues in India. Some publishers and media organizations have alleged that OpenAI used their content without permission to train ChatGPT. OpenAI has countered that it has done nothing wrong.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman mentioned that opening an office in India is the first step in a long-term commitment to the nation. He also mentioned that the company aims to make sophisticated AI more accessible in India and also create AI solutions along with the Indian community.
The shift comes at a time when competition in the Indian AI market is intensifying. Competitors such as Google’s Gemini and AI startup Perplexity are already providing stiff competition. Indeed, some of them are providing top-of-the-line plans for free in order to attract Indian users. This leaves the market highly competitive for OpenAI.
OpenAI grows in India despite this. New market data released by the company indicates that four times the number of weekly active ChatGPT users in India has grown in the last year. Students represent the biggest user base in the country, indicating how popular the tool has become for research and learning.
By opening its office in New Delhi, OpenAI aims to establish a stronger foothold in the nation. By recruiting local talent and closely collaborating with Indian users, the firm wants to make AI solutions more useful and India-centric.
