India has become the biggest market in the world for ChatGPT. OpenAI's India managing director Prabhjeet Singh said this week that India now has more weekly active ChatGPT users than any other country, and that the user base here has doubled since January 2026. "In less than a year, it's doubling," Singh said, in remarks first reported by The Economic Times and widely carried by Indian tech outlets on November 3.
From second place to number one
The milestone did not come out of nowhere. When OpenAI CEO Sam Altman visited India last year, he described it as the company's fastest-growing market and its second-largest by users. In February 2026, OpenAI said India had crossed 100 million weekly ChatGPT users. With the user base doubling since January, India has now moved to the top spot, ahead of the United States.
Singh credited the growth to Indians making ChatGPT part of their everyday routines, from students and office workers to small businesses, and to people steadily finding new uses for it.
What OpenAI plans next in India
Indian languages and Android first
The company says it will deepen support for Indian languages and build with an Android-first mindset, since most Indians outside the big metros come online through budget Android phones. Singh said the immediate priority is widening AI's reach, though he expects paid subscriptions to grow over time.
UPI and payments
OpenAI is expected to announce UPI and payments-related products "in the coming weeks", according to the reports. Details have not been shared yet, but tying ChatGPT to India's most popular payment rail would be a significant step.
Ads inside ChatGPT
OpenAI is also expanding advertising in ChatGPT in India to support free and lower-priced access. Singh said advertisers will not get users' personal information and that ads will not influence ChatGPT's answers. Razorpay's Engage platform will help brands set up product catalogues and run and measure campaigns. Early brands include Tanishq, Fastrack, Tata Neu, Traya, Shaadi.com, Axis Max Life, Palmonas and NMIMS.
Data centres and local presence
OpenAI opened its first India office in Delhi NCR and began hiring locally in August 2025. At the India AI Impact Summit in February 2026, it announced offices in Mumbai and Bengaluru and launched "OpenAI for India". On infrastructure, its partnership with TCS's HyperVault data centre business starts at 100 MW and could scale up to 1 GW, aimed at enterprises that need their data kept in India. OpenAI models are also available through Amazon Bedrock on AWS for local processing.
| Key fact | Details |
|---|---|
| India's position | ChatGPT's largest market by weekly active users |
| Growth | User base doubled since January 2026 |
| February 2026 figure | Over 100 million weekly users |
| Who said it | Prabhjeet Singh, MD, OpenAI India |
| Coming soon | UPI and payments-related products |
| Ads partner | Razorpay Engage |
| Data centre partner | TCS HyperVault, 100 MW scalable to 1 GW |
Developers and businesses
Singh said Indian enterprises, global capability centres and startups are moving from pilot projects to full production use, naming JioHotstar and Cars24 as examples. India is also among the largest and fastest-growing markets for Codex, OpenAI's coding tool, with developer adoption now showing up in tier-II cities. OpenAI says it is also working with government agencies, banks and financial institutions on cybersecurity and on protecting critical infrastructure from misuse of AI agents, and Singh backed clear AI regulation to build trust.
What it means for Indian users
For ordinary users, being OpenAI's biggest market should mean more features built with India in mind: better Hindi and regional language support, smoother performance on low-cost phones and, soon, payment options that work the way Indians already pay. The flip side is that ads are arriving in the free experience, so users will want to watch how clearly sponsored content is labelled.
For Indian businesses, the shift opens a new advertising channel and a local route to deploy AI tools with data stored in the country. The next big signal to watch is the UPI announcement, which could show whether OpenAI plans to let users pay, shop or subscribe directly inside ChatGPT.
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