OpenAI Launches Affordable ChatGPT Go Plan in India, Aims to Capture Larger Market Share

OpenAI, the leading global AI application company and developer of ChatGPT, has launched an exclusive subscription plan for the Indian market called ChatGPT Go. Priced at 399 Indian Rupees (approximately 4.57 USD) per month, this is the most affordable AI subscription product offered by the company to date. The move is aimed at strengthening OpenAI's presence in India, the world's second-largest market by user base, and capturing a larger share of the market.

Global companies, particularly tech giants from Silicon Valley, often provide more affordable software subscription plans for the price-sensitive emerging market of India, targeting the country with the world's largest population and nearly 1 billion internet users. The new plan allows Indian customers to send up to ten times more messages and generate ten times more AI text and images compared to the standard free version of ChatGPT. It also offers faster response times. As the price of higher-tier AI application subscription plans increases, the message limit and performance of the AI large model, as well as response times, will also increase.

The tech-focused AI startup, backed by significant investment from the US tech giant Microsoft, stated in a release that the India-focused ChatGPT Go is designed for users who want to access advanced AI features of ChatGPT at a more affordable price and in larger quantities. The top-tier version of ChatGPT, ChatGPT Pro, is priced at 19,900 Indian Rupees per month in India, while the mid-tier subscription plan, ChatGPT Plus, is priced at 1,999 Indian Rupees per month.

Earlier this year, the CEO of OpenAI met with the IT minister of the Indian government to discuss plans for creating a lower-cost AI ecosystem in the Indian market. India is OpenAI's second-largest market by user base, after the US market. The CEO of OpenAI recently stated that India could soon become the largest market by scale. The vice president and head of ChatGPT at OpenAI stated that the plan will increase the quota for AI chat messages, image generation, and file uploads by ten times compared to the free usage tier of ChatGPT. The ChatGPT Go plan will also feature improved memory retention to provide more personalized AI responses.

“Making ChatGPT more affordable has been a key demand from users. We are launching the Go subscription plan in India first and will learn from the feedback before expanding to other countries,” the vice president and head of ChatGPT at OpenAI stated. From a currency conversion perspective, when priced in local currency, the Plus plan is significantly more expensive for Indian users than 20 USD. The new Go plan provides a more affordable alternative to the Plus subscription plan for Indian users who want to use ChatGPT for AI chat to generate large documents, AI image generation based on text prompts, and file processing.

Software engineer Tibor Blaho, known for accurately leaking upcoming AI application products, had previously announced this plan and its details. Although the company has geographically limited this plan to India, it has stated on its official support page that it is working to expand the plan to more regions. The company hopes to continue profiting from the Indian market, which is its second-largest market by user base, through the Go plan. The company aims to capture a larger share of the market by offering a more affordable subscription plan.

Other AI application companies have also taken proactive measures to attract users globally, particularly by employing various methods to attract the country's over 850 million internet users. Last month, the leader in AI search applications, Perplexity AI, collaborated with network service provider Airtel to offer free Perplexity Pro subscription services. Google's AI application ecosystem, AI Gemini, also provided a one-year free AI Pro plan for student groups in India. Although OpenAI's latest move does not offer any free gifts, the localized and affordable pricing may result in a larger scale of ChatGPT subscription service conversions in the Indian market.