OpenAI offers free year of ChatGPT access to attract Indian users

OpenAI has announced it will offer Indian users a free one-year subscription to its ChatGPT Go service, targeting the country’s vast market of 1.4 billion people.

The free trial will be available starting November 4, coinciding with OpenAI’s first DevDay Exchange event in India. Users must register in advance to qualify for the offer. By offering ChatGPT Go at no cost, OpenAI is aiming to make AI tools more accessible to a wide range of users, including students, developers, and professionals.

Launched in August as India’s most affordable paid plan, ChatGPT Go costs 399 rupees per year, or less than $5. This new initiative marks a major step in OpenAI’s efforts to engage with the Indian market and support the country’s growing AI ecosystem.

OpenAI recognizes the large market in India for its ChatGPT Go

Since its launch, OpenAI has acknowledged that ChatGPT Go has gained popularity rapidly, helping the company double its paid subscribers in India. This advantage, among others, has led the San Francisco-based startup to position India as its primary focus in the industry, despite extending ChatGPT Go to approximately 90 nations globally.

To stay competitive in the AI race, tech companies developing the technology are eyeing India for expansion to attract more users and collect data from millions of English-speaking Indians. 

Interestingly, sources noted that OpenAI’s move illustrates a growing trend among tech companies offering free trials. To support this claim, reports recently revealed that Perplexity AI Inc. offers free access to its premium plan through a partnership with telecom giant Bharti Airtel Ltd. On the other hand, Google, a subsidiary of Alphabet, provides its Gemini AI Pro membership free for students for one year. 

Meanwhile, analysis from reliable sources has highlighted that ChatGPT Go is attractive to users because it includes several chatbots’ most sought-after capabilities, higher message limits, enhanced image generation, and the ability to upload larger files compared to the regular free version. 

“India is ChatGPT’s second-largest and one of its fastest-growing markets,” OpenAI stated on Tuesday, October 28.

OpenAI intends to design its own AI chips as competition in the industry heats up

Like OpenAI, Airtel collaborated with the AI company Perplexity to offer users a complimentary 12-month Perplexity Pro subscription. Normally, this subscription was priced at 17,000 rupees annually, but it will now be available at no charge to all 360 million Airtel subscribers.

Notably, Perplexity is widely recognized as a rival to OpenAI. This offer is eligible for both Airtel Prepaid and Postpaid customers. Moreover, Airtel Wi-Fi and DTH users can access the Perplexity AI Pro subscription for free for a whole year.

In the meantime, sources have acknowledged that, apart from offering the free trial services to its users in India, OpenAI has recently made significant investments in the tech industry to solidify its position as the leader in AI amid the growing artificial intelligence market. This illustrates the intense competition within the AI ecosystem.

This month, OpenAI partnered with Broadcom to design its own AI chips in-house for the first time. The collaboration is another move for the creators of ChatGPT to gain access to the computing power necessary to keep pace with growing demand for their services.

This partnership was announced after both companies stated that OpenAI would design the chips and Broadcom would develop and release them, starting in the second half of 2026.

They intend to manufacture custom chips with a combined power capacity of 10 gigawatts. Notably, this power capacity is comparable to that of more than 8 million American households, or approximately five times the amount generated by the Hoover Dam. 

Regarding the agreement, several experts have expressed that this deal, the latest in a series of efforts by a tech firm to develop its AI chips, will not threaten Nvidia’s control of the AI accelerators market. According to their explanation, they argued that creating, scaling, and fabricating these chips from scratch is incredibly hard.

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