OpenAI has introduced a new subscription tier in India called ChatGPT Go, priced at ₹399 ($4.60) per month, marking a steep drop from the existing ₹1,999 ($23) Plus Plan. The lower-priced option is aimed at widening access to advanced AI features in one of the company’s fastest-growing markets.
Highlights
- Affordable Subscription: New ChatGPT Go plan priced at ₹399 ($4.60) per month—significantly lower than the ₹1,999 Plus Plan.
- Enhanced Features: Offers 10× more usage than free tier, including messages, image generations, and file uploads, plus 2× memory retention.
- Localized Payments: Supports billing in INR and UPI payments, simplifying purchases in a mobile-first market.
- Market Adoption: India has 29M+ app installs in 90 days but only $3.6M revenue, highlighting monetization challenges OpenAI aims to fix.
- Competitive Landscape: Rivals like Perplexity and Google offer free Pro access; OpenAI is betting on affordability instead of giveaways.
- Strategic Importance: India, with 850M+ internet users, is seen as a key AI testbed that could influence OpenAI’s global pricing strategy.
- Global Context: ChatGPT has surged to 700M weekly users worldwide, up from 500M in March, with India driving strong growth.
The Go plan offers ten times more messages, image generations, and file uploads than the free tier, along with double the memory retention for more personalized responses.
Nick Turley, vice president at OpenAI and head of ChatGPT, said affordability has been one of the most requested features. India is the first country to receive the plan, with expansion to other regions expected later.
Closing the Monetization Gap
OpenAI has enabled local currency billing and support for the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), which handles about 85% of India’s digital payments and nearly half of global real-time transactions.
The move is expected to make subscriptions easier to purchase in a market where widespread app adoption has not translated into proportional revenue.
India has led globally in ChatGPT adoption, with more than 29 million app installs in the past 90 days, according to analytics firm AppFigures.
Yet revenue from the country was only about $3.6 million in the same period, highlighting the gap between downloads and paid subscriptions. By lowering the entry price, OpenAI is betting that it can convert more of its large user base into paying customers.
AI Market in India
The timing comes amid intensifying competition in the Indian AI market. Perplexity has partnered with Airtel to offer free Pro subscriptions, while Google has rolled out free AI Pro access for students.
OpenAI, by contrast, is pursuing affordability rather than giveaways as its strategy to grow paid adoption.
India is among OpenAI’s most active markets. Turley said ChatGPT has grown to 700 million weekly users globally, up from 500 million in March, with India seeing a surge since the release of its updated image generator.
Analysts, including JPMorgan, view the country as a key testbed for AI services given its large, mobile-first population and delayed monetization potential.
With more than 850 million internet users, India offers a critical opportunity for AI adoption. By introducing a sub-$5 subscription, OpenAI is signaling both the importance of the market and its willingness to experiment with localized pricing models that could shape its global strategy.
