In an effort to strengthen its position in its second-largest market for ChatGPT, which Sam Altman believes would soon be the biggest market, OpenAI has introduced ChatGPT Go, a new membership plan available only in India and costing 399₹ ($4.57) a month. This is the company’s most economical offering to date (apart from the free plan, of course). Targeting the over one billion internet users in the most populous country in the world, international corporations frequently provide lower-cost subscription plans for India’s price-conscious market. This could also be a way to train the LLMs by getting user feedback in such a large market.
Associate Professor of Organisation and Leadership Studies
S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research
The Indian AI market has become a vibrant battleground where global platforms are deploying highly localised and strategic approaches to capture the vast and diverse audience. Perplexity AI, for instance, achieved explosive growth by forging a game-changing partnership with telecom giant Airtel, offering free Perplexity Pro subscriptions (which otherwise cost ₹17000 ($196)) to its approximately 360 million users. This strategy effectively leverages existing infrastructure to bypass traditional marketing and directly taps into a massive subscriber base, demonstrating a powerful model for rapid user acquisition in India and briefly propelling Perplexity to the top of India’s Apple App Store.
ChatGPT’s aggressive pricing, coupled with the integration of UPI for seamless local payments and support for 12 Indian languages, aims to democratise access to advanced AI for India’s price-sensitive internet users, mirroring the success of low-cost mobile data plans.
Meanwhile, Google’s Gemini is leveraging its deep integration within the pervasive Android ecosystem, pre-installing the app on devices and offering free premium access to Indian college students, thereby cultivating a user base from the ground up and ensuring accessibility even in areas with inconsistent internet connectivity. These tailored strategies underscore the recognition by these AI giants of India’s unique market dynamics and its pivotal role in their global expansion.
Assistant Professor of Organisation and Leadership Studies
S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research
India as a key market for AI usage
OpenAI’s concentrated strategic moves, including the launch of the India-first ChatGPT Go plan, the integration of UPI payments, and CEO Sam Altman’s public statements, firmly establish India as a pivotal market for the company’s global expansion. India is already OpenAI’s second-largest market, evidenced by 29 million ChatGPT app downloads in the last 90 days and a user base that has tripled in a year. The deliberate choice to use India as the initial test market for ChatGPT Go underscores its strategic importance.
Perplexity AI is rapidly emerging as a significant contender in the generative AI space. India serves as Perplexity AI’s second-largest user base, contributing 7.56% of its total traffic, following the United States at 21.77%. The growth in India has been particularly explosive, with Perplexity AI users experiencing an astounding 640% year-over-year increase in Q2 2025. This rapid expansion briefly propelled Perplexity to the number one spot on India’s Apple App Store, demonstrating its sudden and significant impact on the market. The dramatic increase in Perplexity’s Indian user base is directly attributable to its strategic partnership with telecom giant Airtel.
Leveraging existing telecom infrastructure and offering subsidised access allows companies to bypass traditional marketing and app store discovery challenges, directly tapping into a massive existing subscriber base. Success in this diverse and price-sensitive environment provides them a blueprint for global expansion into other emerging markets, demonstrating how to navigate unique challenges related to digital literacy, multiple languages, and local payment preferences.
Overview of key AI tools in the Indian market (features, pricing, localisation)
| AI Tool | Key Features/Strengths | Key Weaknesses/Limitations | India-Specific Pricing/Access Strategy | India-Specific Localization Efforts | Current India Market Footprint |
| OpenAI (ChatGPT) | Strong content creation, multimodal, adaptable, widely used. | Occasional inaccuracies/hallucinations, less detailed source lists. | ChatGPT Go: ₹399/month (10x limits vs. free); Plus: ₹1,999/month; Pro: ₹19,900/month. | GPT-5 supports 12 Indian languages and UPI payments; Planned Reliance Jio partnership. | 2nd largest market globally; 9.42% of global traffic; User base tripled in the last year; 29M app downloads in 90 days. |
| Google (Gemini) | Strong logical/deductive reasoning, ecosystem integration (Google apps), multimodal (Advanced). | Outputs can mimic web content, less original than ChatGPT for creative tasks. | Free AI Pro for students (18+), valued at ₹1,950/month, until Sept 2025. | Supports 12 Indian languages; Collaborations with local developers (Sarvam, Soket AI); Plans for offline capabilities. | Key contributor to 450M global active users; Daily engagement up 50% QoQ. |
| Perplexity AI | Transparency, depth, well-cited reports, deep research mode, and factual content. | Less creative improvisation and limited integrations compared to rivals. | Airtel partnership: Free Pro plan for 360M Airtel users (300 pro searches/day, image gen). | Finance tab for Indian stocks (real-time data, earnings call transcripts). | 2nd largest contributor to global traffic (7.56%); App downloads up 600% YoY in Q2 2025; Most downloaded app on the Apple App Store post-Airtel deal. |
| Microsoft Copilot | Deep integration with Microsoft 365 apps, personalised responses via Microsoft Graph, universal search, and GPT-5. | Adoption challenges in corporations; Perceived as “limited and locked down” by users; Many prefer ChatGPT. | Add-on to Microsoft 365 business plans: ₹2,495.00 user/month (some offerings may not be available). | None specified in the provided data for India beyond general product availability. | 20M global users (vs. ChatGPT’s 800M+); Microsoft’s own workers prefer ChatGPT. |
| Anthropic (Claude AI) | Large context window (up to 150K words), expressive/natural language, strong ethical guardrails, complex reasoning. | Unreliable for accuracy/hallucinations; Struggles with nuanced language/emotional intelligence; Limited real-world knowledge. | Free, Pro ($17-20/month), Max (from $100/month), Team ($25-30/user/month), Enterprise (custom). | None specified in the provided data. | New weekly usage restrictions were introduced in Aug 2025 across paid plans. |
Changing role of open-source AI system
The shift in strategy by the global giants in markets such as India is not just about commerce; it is also about the availability of user feedback to enhance the LLMs. The recent mixed response to GPT-5 is a clear example of the role of the user in the development of an LLM. Open-source models such as Mistral, Gemma, and Qwen had the advantage of more user feedback. OpenAI focuses on Indian languages, adding challenges for Indian startups such as Sarvam AI, which are working towards developing LLMs specific to Indian languages. Even OpenAI’s recent move to provide GPT-OSS is in the same direction to get more user feedback. Thus, the role of the user, not just as a consumer but also as the co-creator, is only heating up
The downside of Increased use of AI
It is fair to say that students across the board are furiously using AI in their daily learning activities. With usage prices falling so rapidly, it may seem like a win-win for Indians for now. But is there a cost to pay in the future? ChatGPT won’t be able to answer that!
Experts, researchers and academicians are worried about the increased ease of use and dependence on AI tools, especially among young learners, as they might simply get so dependent on these instruments that their own skills deteriorate.
A new MIT study claims that using LLMs may potentially hinder learning, particularly for younger users. Another study by experts from Carnegie Mellon University and Microsoft showed that people become less capable of critical thinking as they rely more on AI tools to do their work. This makes it more challenging to use these abilities when they are needed. An analysis of over 650 individuals in the UK who were 17 years of age or older revealed that those who heavily outsourced their memory and problem-solving activities to AI – a practice known as cognitive offloading – had poorer critical thinking abilities. Recently, the MIT Media Lab has invested a lot of money in researching the many effects of generative AI technologies. For instance, research conducted earlier this year revealed that users generally feel more alone the more time they spend interacting with ChatGPT.
When students rely heavily on free AI tools with high processing power, it can accelerate personalised learning by giving instant answers, feedback, and creative support, but it risks shallow understanding and over-dependence if not balanced with effort and reflection. Rather than undermining learning, the solution lies in treating AI as a ‘co-pilot’, augmenting but not replacing human effort and reflective thinking. That remains a current and critical challenge for educators and parents all around the world. Sam Altman has already warned us that a child born in 2025 will grow up in a world where artificial intelligence consistently surpasses human intelligence. Needless to say, human empathy and ethics would remain crucial in the new, dominant age of AI.
Authored by: Vineeta Dwivedi, an Associate Professor of Organisation and Leadership Studies, and Amit Jain, an Assistant Professor of Organisation and Leadership Studies — at the S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJIMR).