India has 100 million weekly lively ChatGPT customers, making the nation one in all OpenAI’s largest markets globally, CEO Sam Altman stated forward of a government-hosted AI summit.
On Sunday, Altman outlined ChatGPT’s rising adoption in India in an article published within the Indian English every day Instances of India, as OpenAI prepares to formally take part within the five-day India AI Impression Summit in New Delhi, starting Monday. Altman is attending the occasion alongside senior executives from a number of of the world’s main AI firms.
The expansion comes as OpenAI, like different main AI companies, appears to India’s younger inhabitants and its greater than a billion web customers to gasoline international growth. The ChatGPT maker opened a New Delhi workplace in August 2025 after months of groundwork within the nation, and has adjusted its strategy for India’s price-sensitive market, together with rolling out a sub-$5 ChatGPT Go tier that was later made free for a 12 months for Indian customers.
Within the article, Altman stated India is ChatGPT’s second-largest person base after the US, highlighting the South Asian nation’s rising weight in OpenAI’s international technique. The disclosure comes as ChatGPT’s total utilization has surged worldwide, with the platform reaching 800 million weekly lively customers as of October 2025 and reported to be approaching 900 million.
Altman additionally highlighted the position of scholars in driving adoption, saying India has the biggest variety of scholar customers of ChatGPT globally.
Indian college students have turn out to be a key progress phase for main AI firms extra broadly, as rivals race to embed their instruments in lecture rooms and studying workflows. Google has equally focused the market, providing Indian college students a free one-year subscription to its AI Pro plan in September 2025. Individually, India accounts for the best international utilization of Gemini for studying, Chris Phillips, Google’s vp and basic supervisor for training, stated final month.
“With its concentrate on entry, sensible Al literacy, and the infrastructure that helps widespread adoption, India is effectively positioned to broaden who advantages from the expertise and to assist form how democratic AI is adopted at scale,” Altman wrote.
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ChatGPT’s fast progress additionally highlights a broader problem for AI firms in India: translating widespread adoption into sustained financial impression. Indian authorities initiatives such because the IndiaAI Mission — a nationwide program geared toward increasing computing capability, supporting startups and accelerating AI adoption in public companies — search to handle these gaps. Nevertheless, the nation’s price-sensitive market and infrastructure constraints have made monetization and large-scale deployment extra complicated than in developed economies.
“Given India’s dimension, it additionally dangers forfeiting an important alternative to advance democratic AI in rising markets all over the world,” Altman wrote, warning that uneven entry and adoption might focus AI’s financial positive aspects in too few arms.
Altman additionally signaled that OpenAI plans to deepen its engagement with the Indian authorities, writing that the corporate would quickly announce new partnerships geared toward increasing entry to AI throughout the nation. He didn’t present particulars, however stated the main target could be on widening attain and enabling extra individuals to place AI instruments to sensible use.
The India AI Impact Summit is predicted to attract a large cross-section of world expertise and political leaders, together with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, Sundar Pichai of Google, and senior Indian enterprise figures similar to Mukesh Ambani and Nandan Nilekani. Political leaders including Emmanuel Macron, Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva are additionally anticipated to attend, spotlighting India’s ambition to place itself as a central participant in international AI debates.
For international AI companies, together with OpenAI, the summit underscores how India’s huge person base is translating into rising affect over how the expertise evolves.
OpenAI didn’t reply to a request for remark.
