OpenAI has extended access to ChatGPT’s paid subscription for free in India. In a bid to expand its user base in one of the world’s largest AI markets, OpenAI is offering free access to its ChatGPT Go plan – the company’s most affordable AI plan aimed at students and education. The free offer will be available from November 4, and OpenAI expects a lot of people to give it a try.
The move comes following Perplexity’s landmark deal with Bharti Airtel, which extended the Perplexity Pro membership to all Airtel customers for a whole year. The offer saw Perplexity becoming a household name in India, with the official app becoming the topmost downloaded app in India on both Android and iOS. With ChatGPT Go, OpenAI expects the same.
The new offer will be released at OpenAI’s first-ever DevDay Exchange event in Bengaluru on November 4, thus making the company’s India-centric future plans more obvious.
ChatGPT Go: What features you get over the free variant
Launched in India in August at a price of Rs 399 per month, ChatGPT Go was designed to offer an affordable upgrade from the free tier. The subscription offers access to OpenAI’s latest GPT-5 model, including:
– Higher message limits compared to the free version.
– Increased daily image generation capabilities.
– Extended access to advanced data analysis and file uploads.
– Longer memory for more personalised and context-aware conversations.
With the India-specific free offer, users will be able to access all these benefits for free for an entire year.
Nick Turley, Vice President and Head of ChatGPT, stated that OpenAI was inspired by the adoption and creativity seen since the plan’s initial launch. “Ahead of our first DevDay Exchange event in India, we’re making ChatGPT Go freely available for a year to help more people across India easily access and benefit from advanced AI,” he said.
Note that existing subscribers of ChatGPT Go will also get 12 months of subscription for free. OpenAI will share more details on this account later.
How to get free ChatGPT Go for a year?
OpenAI has yet to reveal the details regarding the activation of ChatGPT Go for free. It should be noted that the free ChatGPT Go offer will be made available from November 4. Users should keep an eye on their ChatGPT web and app interface for the offer banner detailing the free access to ChatGPT Go.
The AI wars in India: Will ChatGPT emerge victorious?
OpenAI has revealed that ever since ChatGPT Go was released for India, the company saw an increase in new subscribers of the paid plan – OpenAI says paid subscriptions almost doubled. With free access to the Go plan, OpenAI hopes to make its consumers accustomed to the better-equipped plan of ChatGPT, thus encouraging them to subscribe on a monthly basis, or even upgrade to the higher tier. The Go plan is usually favoured by students and young professionals who need a little more oomph with their ChatGPT bot.
Prior to OpenAI, it was Google that recently made its Gemini AI Pro membership free for Indian students for a year. Perplexity also partnered with Airtel to offer its premium Pro plan to all of the telecom operator’s user base.
