OpenAI launches India pricing for ChatGPT, with UPI support

young young delhi: OpenAI on mon launched a new tier up of its generative artificial intelligence (AI) application, ChatGPT. Priced at a fifth of its former price, the plan also adds support for accepting Unified Payments Interface (UPI) from subscribers, as the company seeks to double down on the Indian market.

Called ChatGPT ‘Go’, the plan will cost ₹399 per month—as opposed to ₹1,999 per month for the ChatGPT ‘Plus’ tier. In a press statement by Nick Hurley, global head of ChatGPT, the company said that the pricing plan will give users access to a 10 times higher volume of queries and image generation per day. However, access to the platform in peak usage hours, as well as priority access to new features, remains reserved only for Plus and Pro tiers.

The move comes as India emerges as an increasingly important market for OpenAI. On 7 August, OpenAI cofounder and chief executive Sam Altman said that the company expects India to become its top market by volume in the near future.

Also read | Sam Altman says OpenAI has better AI models than GPT-5, but it can’t release them yet. Here’s why

OpenAI is working with the ministry of electronics & IT (Meity) for AI education initiatives. It also works with many independent developers for awareness and proliferation of their services in the country.

“We’re keen on bringing our products to the market with a special focus. Indian users are incredible in the way they are integrating AI into their lives, as well as businesses. Now, we’re working with local partners in India to make AI work-ready for everyone, and we are also exploring ways to make AI more affordable for all,” Altman told Mint.

Priced at parity

Most AI subscription plans so far have been priced at parity. With the launch of OpenAI’s latest foundational model, GPT-5, the company also offered it to its free tier. Now, a basic subscription tier comes as Google charges ₹1,950 per month for its ‘AI Pro’ subscription plan, and Microsoft charges Copilot Pro at ₹2,000 per month.

The move marks OpenAI’s third major announcement within a month, after it introduced ChatGPT for students and its GPT-5 foundational model. Industry stakeholders maintain that the company’s ChatGPT continues to retain a lofty consumer reputation, which gives it the primary edge over competitors.

Also read |  ChatGPT-5 is now ‘warmer and friendlier’ with latest update: here's what changed

“OpenAI is already leading in conversational and reasoning models,” said Anushree Verma, senior director-analyst, emerging technologies at Gartner. “Among the general public, the reputational advantage of ChatGPT is unmatched, and we expect OpenAI to be the bellwether in AI.”

The new pricing could contribute further to the growth of its user base in the country. OpenAI said it currently has 700 million users, with India being the second-largest consumer base for it worldwide. Going forward, the company is likely to cross the threshold of 1 billion active monthly users, with India leading its volume of consumers.

For most Big Tech firms, India comprises the largest user base due to its population advantage. With China being a siloed market, Instagram and YouTube both had 2 billion active monthly users, of which India has the largest share. With consumer-facing AI applications—such as Perplexity and OpenAI’s ChatGPT itself—on the rise, India is likely to show up as the biggest market for Big Tech’s AI race, too.

Also read | OpenAI could buy Google Chrome, says Sam Altman — but only if this happens

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