Key Highlights:
- OpenAI deepens its India push with new offices, partnerships, and local pricing.
- OpenAI says 18–24-year-olds account for nearly 50% of ChatGPT usage in India.
- Users under 30 generate 80% of all ChatGPT messages in the country.
- India shows higher-than-global use of ChatGPT for work and coding.
OpenAI has revealed that 18- to 24-year-olds now account for nearly 50% of ChatGPT usage in India, signaling a strong product-market fit among young users. Users under the age of 30 generate four out of every five messages sent to ChatGPT in the country.
The data highlights India as one of OpenAI’s fastest-growing and most engaged markets globally.
How are Indians using ChatGPT differently?
According to OpenAI, work-related use dominates ChatGPT activity in India. About 35% of all messages from Indian users focus on professional tasks. Globally, that number stands at 30%.
This gap shows how ChatGPT has moved beyond curiosity and experimentation in India. Instead, it is becoming a daily productivity tool for jobs, studies, and skill-building.
Outside work, 35% of queries seek guidance, 20% focus on general knowledge, and another 20% involve writing support, including drafting and editing.
Why is coding such a big use case for OpenAI in India?
OpenAI says India stands out sharply in software-related usage. Its coding assistant, Codex, is used three times more than the global median in the country.
Weekly usage of Codex has also jumped fourfold since the launch of its Mac app two weeks ago. Indian users now ask three times as many coding questions as the global median.
These findings align with recent data from Anthropic, which reported that 45.2% of Claude’s tasks in India relate to software development using Claude.
Why does India matter so much to OpenAI?
India is now OpenAI’s second-largest market, with over 100 million weekly users. To strengthen its presence, the company offers a sub-$5 subscription tier locally and has run targeted adoption campaigns.
This week, OpenAI announced plans to open offices in Mumbai and Bengaluru. It also signed a major partnership with Tata Group to secure 100 megawatts of AI compute and roll out ChatGPT Enterprise via TCS.
Additional partnerships include Pine Labs, Ixigo, MakeMyTrip, and food delivery firm Eternal. OpenAI also plans to distribute its tools to over 100,000 students through academic partnerships.
What does this signal for OpenAI’s future in India?
As OpenAI puts it, AI adoption in India is moving faster than measurement. Still, the data clearly shows one thing. OpenAI’s momentum in India is being driven by young, working-age users who treat ChatGPT as a serious tool, not a novelty.
That trend is now shaping how OpenAI builds, prices, and expands its products in the country.
