ChatGPT adoption in India skyrockets, but monetization is still lagging

April 5, 2025

Image credits:Jagmeet Sing / TechCrunch 8:05 PM PDT April 4, 2025 (19659004)

Since years, U.S. tech companies have used India’s growing internet user base to grow. OpenAI is not an exception. OpenAI is no exception. SensorTower, an analytics firm, reports that users in India spent $8 million on ChatGPT through in-app purchases between 2023 and 2019. This does not include purchases made via the ChatGPT website app. It’s also a fraction of what SensorTower estimates U.S. ChatGPT users have spent in-app.

The lack of local pricing in India is likely to be a factor. OpenAI’s ChatGPT plan costs $20 per month (more than Rs1,700), which is expensive for a digital subscription.

OpenAI, when contacted, did not provide specific details about the growth of its India business but pointed us to an Brad Lightcap’s COO posted a recent article on X claiming that India was ChatGPT’s fastest-growing country.

India, despite its low revenue at the moment, may end up being an important growth driver for OpenAI. Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, recently expressed his desire to see OpenAI become a major player in the AI industry. A platform with a multi-billion user baseTapping into India’s Over 950 million Internet users can help to boost this effort. OpenAI seems to think so. The company is Reliance Jio, one of India’s largest mobile carriers, is reportedly looking to form an alliance with ChatGPT so that it can reach more users. ChatGPT is growing organically in India.

Image Credits:Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch

According to data from app tracker Appfigures, more than 20% of ChatGPT Android app downloads this year so far have been in India. At least a portion of that growth was fueled by the recently released revamped image generator in ChatGPT, which went viral for its ability to create realistic Ghibli-style art.

For context, ChatGPT has more than 500 million weekly users globally.

Jagmeet covers startups, tech policy-related updates, and all other major tech-centric developments from India for TechCrunch. He previously worked as a principal correspondent at NDTV. You can reach out to him at mail[at]journalistjagmeet[dot]com.

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Ivan is responsible for global consumer tech developments. He is based in India and has worked for publications such as The Next Web and Huffington Post. You can reach him at im[at]Ivanmehta[dot]Com

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