India has 100M weekly active ChatGPT users, Sam Altman says

Source: TechCrunch

Announcement

Altman outlined ChatGPT’s growing adoption in India in an article published in the Times of India (link). OpenAI is set to formally participate in the five‑day India AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, beginning Monday, and Altman will attend the event (source) alongside senior executives from several leading AI companies.

OpenAI’s Presence in India

• OpenAI opened a New Delhi office in August 2025 after months of groundwork (announcement).
• To suit India’s price‑sensitive market, the company launched a sub‑$5 “ChatGPT Go” tier (details), which was later offered free for a year to Indian users (offer).

Growth Metrics

• India is ChatGPT’s second‑largest user base after the United States.
• Globally, ChatGPT reached 800 million weekly active users in October 2025 (TechCrunch) and was reported to be approaching 900 million (The Information).
• Altman highlighted that Indian students constitute the largest segment of student users worldwide.

Student Adoption

Indian students have become a key growth segment for AI firms. Google, for example, offered Indian students a free one‑year subscription to its AI Pro plan in September 2025 (Google blog), and India accounts for the highest global usage of Gemini for learning (TechCrunch), according to Chris Phillips, Google’s VP and GM for education.

“With its focus on access, practical AI literacy, and the infrastructure that supports widespread adoption, India is well positioned to broaden who benefits from the technology and to help shape how democratic AI is adopted at scale,” Altman wrote.

Challenges and Government Initiatives

ChatGPT’s rapid growth underscores a broader challenge for AI companies in India: converting widespread adoption into sustained economic impact. Government initiatives such as the IndiaAI Mission—a national program aimed at expanding computing capacity, supporting startups, and accelerating AI adoption in public services—seek to address these gaps. However, the country’s price‑sensitive market and infrastructure constraints make monetization and large‑scale deployment more complex than in developed economies.

Altman warned that “Given India’s size, it also risks forfeiting a vital opportunity to advance democratic AI in emerging markets around the world,” emphasizing the risk of uneven access concentrating AI’s economic gains.

India AI Impact Summit

The India AI Impact Summit (impact.indiaai.gov.in) is expected to draw a wide cross‑section of global technology and political leaders, including:

• Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei
• Google CEO Sundar Pichai
• Indian business figures such as Mukesh Ambani and Nandan Nilekani
• Political leaders including Emmanuel Macron, Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva

The summit highlights how India’s vast user base is translating into growing influence over the evolution of AI technology.

OpenAI did not respond to a request for comment.