OpenAI says its ChatGPT user base in India has doubled since January 2026, making the country its largest market globally by weekly active users. The development highlights India’s growing importance to the artificial intelligence company as students, professionals, developers, businesses and entrepreneurs increasingly use AI tools in their daily activities. The update was shared by OpenAI India managing director Prabhjeet Singh in an interview with The Economic Times on November 3, 2026.
The announcement follows OpenAI’s February 2026 disclosure that India had more than 100 million weekly active ChatGPT users. However, the company has not released a new absolute user count alongside its latest growth announcement. OpenAI is now focusing on expanding access through Indian-language capabilities, Android-first product development, enterprise partnerships and local computing infrastructure as it looks to deepen adoption beyond major metropolitan areas.
India Becomes ChatGPT’s Largest Market Globally
According to Prabhjeet Singh, India has become ChatGPT’s largest market in terms of weekly active users, overtaking the United States and other countries.
The user base has doubled since January 2026, reflecting growing adoption of generative AI across different sections of the Indian population.
The development is significant because India was previously identified as ChatGPT’s second-largest market by weekly users. In February 2026, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said the platform had more than 100 million weekly active users in India.
The latest announcement suggests that adoption has continued to accelerate.
However, OpenAI has not disclosed the latest weekly active user figure. The company has also not provided a precise numerical breakdown by age group, profession or region.
The growth reflects increasing use of ChatGPT for activities such as:
- Education and learning.
- Software development and coding.
- Writing, research and communication.
- Business planning and productivity.
- Customer support and enterprise workflows.
- Everyday information and problem-solving.
Why Is ChatGPT Growing So Quickly in India?
India’s large internet population, widespread smartphone usage and growing interest in AI tools have created favourable conditions for ChatGPT adoption.
Several factors are contributing to the expansion.
1. Growing Use of AI for Education
Students are increasingly using AI assistants to understand difficult subjects, prepare for examinations, summarise information and learn new skills.
ChatGPT can explain concepts in simpler language, help with practice questions and provide personalised learning assistance.
Its ability to respond to follow-up questions also makes it useful for people who want to learn at their own pace.
2. Increasing Adoption Among Developers
India is one of OpenAI’s important developer markets.
Developers use AI tools for writing code, debugging, understanding unfamiliar programming languages and building applications.
OpenAI has also reported growing adoption of Codex, its coding agent, among Indian developers and businesses.
According to comments from OpenAI’s leadership reported by Communications Today, token usage for coding has increased approximately 17-fold since February 2026.
The company is seeing adoption across startups and larger enterprises, with coding tools increasingly being used for tasks beyond traditional software development.
3. Affordable AI Subscriptions
Pricing has also played a role in expanding access.
OpenAI introduced ChatGPT Go in India in August 2025 at ₹399 per month, offering expanded access to several of ChatGPT’s features at a lower price than its higher subscription tiers.
The plan was initially introduced in India before being expanded to other countries.
Lower-priced subscriptions can help make advanced AI tools accessible to students, freelancers and individual users who may not want to pay for more expensive plans.
OpenAI Expands Indian-Language and Voice Capabilities
OpenAI is working to make ChatGPT more useful for India’s multilingual population.
A significant part of this strategy involves improving voice interactions and supporting conversations in Indian languages.
OpenAI executives have described India as an audio-first market, where many users may find speaking to an AI assistant more convenient than typing long prompts.
The company is therefore investing in voice technology that can better understand pronunciation, mixed-language conversations and regional speech patterns.
Its updated voice capabilities are designed to make conversations more natural and accessible.
Improved language support could also help ChatGPT reach users who are less comfortable communicating in English.
For a country with multiple major languages and substantial linguistic diversity, this could become an important factor in expanding AI adoption beyond urban and English-speaking audiences.
OpenAI Strengthens Its India Infrastructure
The increase in ChatGPT usage is also creating a need for stronger local infrastructure.
OpenAI has announced plans to expand its presence in India through offices, enterprise partnerships and data centre capacity.
One of its major initiatives involves a partnership with Tata Group’s HyperVault data centre business to develop AI-ready infrastructure in India.
The initial plan includes 100 megawatts of capacity, with the potential to scale up to 1 gigawatt.
Local infrastructure could help address several requirements:
- Data residency and compliance needs.
- Computing capacity for enterprise customers.
- Lower-latency access to AI services.
- Support for large-scale AI deployments.
- Greater availability of AI infrastructure within India.
OpenAI is also making its models available through Amazon Bedrock, allowing businesses to access AI capabilities through Amazon Web Services infrastructure.
The company has indicated that it will continue evaluating additional infrastructure investments as demand grows.
OpenAI Looks Beyond Individual Users to Enterprise Adoption
OpenAI’s India strategy is not limited to consumers using ChatGPT.
The company is also working with Indian businesses, startups, banks and global capability centres to expand enterprise AI adoption.
According to Singh, more organisations are moving beyond experimental AI projects and deploying tools in production environments.
Examples cited in the company’s discussions include JioHotstar and Cars24.
Enterprise adoption could create opportunities in several areas:
| Business area | Potential AI application |
|---|---|
| Customer service | Automated support and voice agents |
| Software development | Coding assistance and debugging |
| Finance | Document analysis and workflow automation |
| Legal operations | Research and document processing |
| Marketing | Content creation and campaign analysis |
| Enterprise operations | Internal knowledge management |
For businesses, the main considerations include data security, privacy, regulatory compliance and measurable returns on investment.
OpenAI has said it is engaging with Indian government agencies and financial institutions on AI safety and cybersecurity-related issues.
OpenAI Plans to Expand Advertising in India
OpenAI is also exploring additional ways to monetise its growing user base in India.
The company has started expanding advertising on ChatGPT in the Indian market, with Razorpay playing a role in helping Indian brands prepare and manage advertising campaigns.
The partnership uses Razorpay’s Engage platform to support product catalogues, campaign management and performance measurement.
Early participating brands reported include Tanishq, Fastrack, Traya, Tata Neu, Shaadi.com and Axis Max Life.
Advertising could provide another revenue stream while helping OpenAI support free and lower-priced access to its products.
The company has said that advertisers do not receive access to users’ personal conversations and that advertising does not influence ChatGPT’s answers.
OpenAI is also expected to make announcements related to UPI and payments in India in the coming weeks, according to reporting based on Singh’s interview.
The Bigger Picture
India’s emergence as ChatGPT’s largest market by weekly active users highlights the country’s growing role in the global AI industry.
The opportunity extends beyond consumer chatbot adoption. India has a large developer community, a growing startup ecosystem and businesses increasingly exploring AI-based automation and productivity tools.
For OpenAI, the challenge is converting user growth into deeper engagement, enterprise adoption and sustainable revenue. Local-language support, affordable access and infrastructure investment could help the company reach a wider audience.
The competition is also intensifying. Google, Anthropic, Microsoft and other AI companies are expanding their products and partnerships in India. As more services become available, users and businesses will have additional choices in the rapidly developing AI market.
Looking Ahead
OpenAI is expected to continue investing in Indian-language capabilities, voice technology, local infrastructure and enterprise partnerships. Its focus on Android-first development and affordable subscriptions could help it reach users beyond major cities, while its work with businesses may expand AI adoption into more industries.
The doubling of ChatGPT’s Indian user base since January 2026 marks an important milestone, but the next phase will depend on how effectively OpenAI converts that growth into regular usage and practical applications. India’s position as its largest market will also make the country increasingly important to the company’s product development and global expansion strategy.
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