Athira Sethu
Kochi, 9 September 2025
OpenAI, the parent firm of ChatGPT, is expanding rapidly in India. India has now become one of the largest and most significant markets for the firm. India’s large and young population that enjoys using new tech makes it a magnet for large technology firms like Google, Meta (Facebook), and even OpenAI.
OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, visited India in February and met with the country’s IT Minister. He said that India is now the second-largest market for ChatGPT in terms of user numbers. He also praised how quickly people in India are using AI, calling it “amazing to watch” and saying that “India is outpacing the world” in creativity.
ChatGPT downloads are growing fast:
ChatGPT is gaining popularity at a rapid pace in India. In August 2025, the app was downloaded 10.2 million times, while last year it saw only 2.5 million downloads in the same month.
ChatGPT has been downloaded 111 million times in India so far — higher than in the United States, where it has 80 million downloads. Although downloads don’t translate to people using it daily, it still indicates that increasingly Indians are experimenting with ChatGPT. Google’s other AI apps such as Gemini or Claude by Anthropic are much behind in India. Perplexity alone is relatively close with 6.4 million downloads in August.
Affordable plan for India
Although there are a lot of Indian people who use ChatGPT, not many are spending a lot of money on it. Indian users have spent roughly $21.3 million, whereas US users have spent $784 million. To correct this, OpenAI introduced a less expensive plan named ChatGPT Go in August. It is priced at Rs 399 a month (around $4.53), which makes it more affordable for more Indians to use.
Investing in India
OpenAI is going to establish a data center in India and also employing personnel. They have even introduced a new education initiative that provides 500,000 free ChatGPT licenses for students and teachers. The firm is establishing a local office and also employing people in sales in India.
Challenges in India
Although OpenAI is expanding, it has some issues. Indian startups such as Sarvam AI and Krutrim are also developing AI products. OpenAI is also fighting a legal case against a news agency in India on the usage of copyrighted material. Experts opine that although India is a large market, OpenAI has to contend with legal regulations, indigenous languages, and political matters to thrive in the long term.
