India has overtaken the United States to become ChatGPT’s largest market globally by weekly active users. OpenAI India managing director Prabhjeet Singh said the country’s user base has doubled since January 2026.
This marks a major shift in the global AI landscape. India was earlier the second-largest ChatGPT market, behind the United States, and was widely seen as OpenAI’s fastest-growing geography.
Singh said the doubling of users in less than a year reflects a change in how Indians use generative AI. People are no longer treating ChatGPT as a novelty; they are using it for work, study, content creation, coding, and everyday problem-solving.
Earlier estimates placed ChatGPT’s Indian user base at around 100 million weekly active users. OpenAI attributes the growth to ‘relevance and deep use cases.’ Indian users are increasingly applying AI tools to practical tasks rather than limiting themselves to basic queries or experimentation.
This shift matters for the company’s India strategy. Sustained engagement depends on whether users find the product useful in their daily routines, especially in a price-sensitive and highly competitive digital market.
Language support is likely to play a decisive role in the next phase of growth. OpenAI has been working to improve ChatGPT’s ability to serve users across Indian languages, making the platform more accessible beyond English-first urban users.
An Android-first approach also fits India’s smartphone market, where mobile devices remain the primary gateway to the internet for millions of users. The company is also investing in local computing capacity and enterprise partnerships to strengthen its presence.
India’s leadership position will intensify competition among global AI firms. For OpenAI, India is no longer only a high-growth market. It is now the company’s largest user base, making the country central to its global product, monetisation, and infrastructure plans.
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