OpenAI launches a sub $5 ChatGPT plan in India

OpenAI today launched a new, cheaper ChatGPT paid subscription plan in India called ChatGPT GO, priced at ₹399 per month ($4.60), which is more affordable than the ₹1,999 (about $23) per month Plus Plan.

The company had turned on local currency pricing for all its plans a few days ago, and with this launch, it will also allow users to pay through UPI (Unified Payment Interface), India’s payment framework.

Nick Turley, VP at OpenAI and head of ChatGPT, said that this plan will increase the message, image generation, and file uploads by 10 times over the free tier. The ChatGPT Go plan will also enable better memory retention for more personalized responses, Turely said.

“Making ChatGPT more affordable has been a key ask from users! We’re rolling out Go in India first and will learn from feedback before expanding to other countries,” Turley said.

From a currency conversion standpoint, the Plus plan was higher than $20 for Indian users when offered in local currency. The new Go plan offers a more affordable alternative to people who are looking to use ChatGPT primarily for chat, image generation, and file processing.

Tibor Blaho, a software engineer with a reputation for accurately leaking upcoming AI products, had previously teased this plan and its details.

While the company is geo-restricting this plan to India, the company said on its support page that it is working to expand this plan to more regions.

Last month, Turley noted that ChatGPT now has more than 700 million weekly users worldwide — up from 500 million in March. OpenAI launched its updated image generator feature for ChatGPT in March, and since then, it has seen an uptick in usage in India. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in a recent podcast that India is the company’s second biggest market. With the Go plan, it wants to cash in on that.

According to app analytics firm AppFigures, India has been the leading country in terms of ChatGPT app downloads across platforms, with over 29 million downloads coming from the country in the last 90 days. However, the app only made $3.6 million in this period from users in the country.

This move will likely nudge more consumers to subscribe to using ChatGPT more, given its pricing. Other AI companies have also made moves to attract users from the country’s internet user base of over 850 million. Last month, Perplexity partnered with network provider Airtel to offer free Perplexity Pro subscriptions. Google also dished up a free AI Pro plan for India-based students for one year.

While OpenAI’s move is not giving out any freebies, local and affordable pricing will likely result in a better subscription conversion rate for ChatGPT in India.