- India is the second largest market for OpenAI's ChatGPT with 100 million weekly users
- India ranks first worldwide for student usage of ChatGPT, highlighting education adoption
- OpenAI opened an office in New Delhi in August 2025 and offers affordable AI plans
India is emerging as a hub of rapid artificial intelligence (AI) adoption, becoming one of the largest markets for the US-based OpenAI. According to the founder of the leading AI research firm, Sam Altman, India has now become the second biggest market for its chatbot ChatGPT after the United States, with an active user base of 100 million (10 crore) per week.
Altman disclosed about the rapid adoption of the popular generative AI platform ChatGPT by Indian users in a Times of India article that he wrote ahead of his participation in the India AI Impact Summit 2026 in New Delhi.
According to Altman, India is ranked first in terms of students using ChatGPT across the world. India has also seen a surge in the usage of Prism, OpenAI's free new tool for scientific research and collaboration, and ranks fourth worldwide in terms of user base.
The statistics indicate India's growing importance in OpenAI's global strategy. The AI company opened an office in New Delhi in August 2025, according to a TechCrunch report. OpenAI has also adjusted its approach for the price-sensitive nature of Indian consumers. Its initiatives include a sub-$5 ChatGPT Go tier, which was later made free for a year for Indian users.
Also Read https://www.ndtvprofit.com/technology/who-is-peter-steinberger-the-openclaw-founder-set-to-join-openai-11008747
It also highlights how students have become a critical growth segment for major AI companies.
“With its focus on access, practical Al 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 noted.
ChatGPT's overall usage increased to 800 million weekly active users as of October 2025, the TechCrunch report added.
Altman revealed that OpenAI aims to deepen its engagement with the Indian government and would soon announce new partnerships to expand AI access across the country. He did not provide details about the proposals, but emphasised that the focus would be on helping more people engage with AI tools for practical use.
Meanwhile, Sarvam AI, a Bengaluru-based startup, has emerged as a major rival to OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google Gemini. Established in August 2023 by Vivek Raghavan and Pratyush Kumar, the company has garnered attention for its innovations- Sarvam Vision and Bulbul V3.
In a post, Pratyush claimed that Sarvam Vision has registered a state-of-the-art accuracy of 84.3 per cent on the olmOCR-Bench for the English-only subset, outperforming several models like Gemini 3 Pro and DeepSeek OCR 2.
Apart from Altman, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, Google and Alphabet boss Sundar Pichai and business leaders like Mukesh Ambani and Nandan Nilekani are expected to attend the event that started on Feb. 16. The global AI event will conclude on Feb. 20.
Essential Business Intelligence, Continuous LIVE TV, Sharp Market Insights, Practical Personal Finance Advice and Latest Stories — On NDTV Profit.
