India has 100 million weekly active ChatGPT users, making the country one of OpenAI’s largest markets globally. CEO Sam Altman shared this ahead of a government-hosted AI summit.
In an article published in the Times of India, Altman outlined ChatGPT’s growing adoption in India. This comes as OpenAI prepares to formally participate in the five-day India AI Impact Summit in New Delhi. Altman is attending the event alongside senior executives from several of the world’s leading AI companies.
This growth aligns with OpenAI’s strategy to look to India’s young population and its more than a billion internet users to fuel global expansion. The ChatGPT maker opened a New Delhi office in August 2025 after months of groundwork. It has adjusted its approach for India’s price-sensitive market, including rolling out a sub-$5 ChatGPT Go tier that was later made free for a year for Indian users.
Altman stated that India is ChatGPT’s second-largest user base after the United States, highlighting the nation’s growing weight in OpenAI’s global strategy. This disclosure comes as ChatGPT’s overall usage has surged worldwide, with the platform reaching 800 million weekly active users as of October 2025 and reportedly approaching 900 million.
Altman also highlighted the role of students in driving adoption, noting India has the largest number of student users of ChatGPT globally. Indian students have become a key growth segment for leading AI companies more broadly, as rivals race to embed their tools in classrooms. Google has similarly targeted the market, offering Indian students a free one-year subscription to its AI Pro plan in September 2025. Separately, India accounts for the highest global usage of Gemini for learning, according to a Google vice president.
“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.
ChatGPT’s rapid growth also highlights a broader challenge for AI companies in India: translating widespread adoption into sustained economic impact. Government initiatives such as the IndiaAI Mission seek to address those gaps by expanding computing capacity, supporting startups, and accelerating AI adoption in public services. However, the country’s price-sensitive market and infrastructure constraints have made monetization and large-scale deployment more complex.
“Given India’s size, it also risks forfeiting a vital opportunity to advance democratic AI in emerging markets around the world,” Altman wrote, warning that uneven access could concentrate AI’s economic gains in too few hands.
Altman also signaled that OpenAI plans to deepen its engagement with the Indian government, writing that the company would soon announce new partnerships aimed at expanding access to AI across the country. He said the focus would be on widening reach and enabling more people to put AI tools to practical use.
The India AI Impact Summit is expected to draw a wide cross-section of global technology and political leaders, including Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, Sundar Pichai of Google, and senior Indian business figures. Several international political leaders are also expected to attend, spotlighting India’s ambition to position itself as a central player in global AI debates.
For global AI firms, including OpenAI, the summit underscores how India’s vast user base is translating into growing influence over how the technology evolves.