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OpenAI launches India-exclusive ChatGPT Go Plan at Rs. 399/month.
Five lakh students to get Free ChatGPT Subscription under education push.
Localised features include UPI payments and full GPT-5 access.
OpenAI is honing its India strategy by launching a far-reaching education program. Under its ‘Learning Accelerator’ initiative, the firm has made five lakh free ChatGPT licences available to students and teachers. The licences, available in collaboration with schools, universities, and AICTE-affiliated institutions, are designed to enhance digital literacy and young minds’ adoption of responsible AI.
Parallelly, OpenAI also offers a Rs. 4.5 crore research grant to IIT-Madras for prioritizing AI safety, research in natural language, and practical applications for India. Training modules for students and teachers are also under development for ethical and efficient application of generative AI in schools.
Company executives describe this as a long-term investment in India’s knowledge economy. Leah Belsky, OpenAI’s VP of Education, has said the current priority is access over monetization, signalling that the Indian market will see more free and subsidised offerings before a full-scale commercial push.
In a historic move, OpenAI has introduced a new India-specific subscription plan called ChatGPT Go for Rs. 399 per month. This is the cheapest subscription fee OpenAI has anywhere globally.
The Go plan offers:
The free plan has ten times the number of daily messages, file uploads, and image creations.
Twice the storage capacity for conversations.
Access to the complete latest GPT-5 model.
UPI-based payment and Indian Rupee billing support.
The new offering falls between the free level and the more expensive Plus (Rs. 1,999/month) and Pro (Rs. 19,900/month) options. It has been created to bring sophisticated AI tools to freelancers, small firms, and students without high global pricing.
To anchor its India presence, OpenAI is setting up its first Indian office in New Delhi later this year, its foray into one of the world’s fastest-growing AI markets.
Its Delhi base will be a policy and outreach center, interfacing with government departments, regulators, and academia. Although India does not host a big-scale engineering center, the company will see increased policy, partnerships, and hiring for education.
This is in addition to rivals such as Google’s Gemini and Anthropic, which are also aggressively targeting India, hoping to win the next wave of AI adoption.
Also Read: How to Prevent ChatGPT From Using Your Data?
Apart from paid subscriptions, OpenAI offers a free ChatGPT subscription for Indian users. These include classroom-ready AI modules, multilingual prompts for native languages, and lightweight versions of ChatGPT available on low-bandwidth networks.
ChatGPT’s free tier is still up with restricted daily messages, so there is no entry barrier. What sets India apart is the blend of fully free educational licenses and the lowest-priced paid plan worldwide.
OpenAI also brought its offerings onto the UPI and Indian debit card networks, eliminating the historic payment friction that had restricted international AI tool adoption.
India is the second-largest market for ChatGPT globally, and user engagement has soared over the last year. Industry watchers say the country is now OpenAI’s ‘lighthouse market’, a testing ground for rolling out new products before scaling globally.
Experts point out that the dual-pronged approach, free educational access, and affordable paid tiers align well with India’s demographics, where a vast young population seeks upskilling and low-cost digital tools.
With investment in academia, granting free licenses, opening a Delhi office, and charging prices a fraction of the rest of the world, OpenAI is not only making itself a foreign provider of technology but also a partner in India’s AI quest.
Also Read: OpenAI Adds Parental Controls to ChatGPT After Teen Suicide Sparks Lawsuit
The future phase of OpenAI’s growth in India is set to include more collaborations with state governments and skill development councils. With competitors ramping up their products, affordability, localisation, and trust will continue to be the determining factors.
At the moment, with half a million free student licenses, the lowest-priced global subscription plan, and an office in Delhi on the horizon, OpenAI’s message is clear. India is not simply another market; it is the testing ground for the global future of AI.
1. What is the ChatGPT Go Plan?
The ChatGPT Go Plan is an India-first subscription launched by OpenAI at Rs 399/month, offering expanded access to GPT-5 and more features at an affordable price.
2. How is ChatGPT Go different from the Free ChatGPT Subscription?
While the free plan has usage caps, the Go Plan offers 10× more messages, image generations, file uploads, 2× longer memory, and faster access.
3. Will students get free access to ChatGPT in India?
Yes. OpenAI is distributing five lakh free ChatGPT subscriptions to students and educators across India under its Learning Accelerator programme.
4. What payment options are available for ChatGPT Go in India?
The plan supports UPI payments and INR pricing, removing earlier barriers of international cards and dollar-based billing.
5. What are the other ChatGPT subscription tiers in India?
Alongside the free plan and Go (Rs 399/month), OpenAI offers Plus (Rs 1,999/month) and Pro (Rs 19,900/month) plans for heavier or enterprise users.
