India has the largest student user base for ChatGPT, with weekly active users quadrupling in the past year.
OpenAI, the parent company of ChatGPT, has reportedly announced plans to open its first India office in New Delhi later this year.
Backed by Microsoft, the company has already registered as a legal entity in India and begun building a local team, it said in a statement shared with Reuters. This will mark a significant step in expanding its presence in its second-largest market by user base.
“Opening our first office and building a local team is an important first step in our commitment to make advanced AI more accessible across the country and to build AI for India, and with India,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in the statement.
Why India Is A Key Market
With nearly one billion internet users, India is a massive growth market for OpenAI. According to new market data, India has the largest student user base for ChatGPT, with weekly active users quadrupling in the past year.
Earlier this week, OpenAI announced its cheapest ChatGPT subscription plan yet, starting with a rollout in India, in a bid to attract more users in India, the world’s most populous country. The new ChatGPT Go plan is priced at 399 rupees ($4.57) a month. That compares to the $20-a-month ChatGPT Plus, the most affordable plan earlier.
Competition Landscape
Despite its rapid growth, ChatGPT faces intense competition from rivals such as Google’s Gemini and AI startup Perplexity, which offer advanced features for free to capture Indian users.
OpenAI also faces copyright issues. Several news outlets and publishers have accused the company of using copyrighted content without authorization to train ChatGPT, a charge it denies.
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