OpenAI has announced that all users in India will receive one year of free access to its paid plan, ChatGPT Go, during a limited promotional period starting November 4, 2025. While the AI giant has not specified how long the sign-up window will remain open, the company assured that once users activate their free ChatGPT Go plan, it will remain valid for a full year from that date. The company also confirmed that both new and existing Indian users will be eligible to claim the free subscription through the ChatGPT app or website.
According to the ChatGPT maker, the offer is part of its ongoing effort to expand access to advanced AI tools in India, which it has described as one of its most active and fastest-growing markets worldwide. The country is already OpenAI’s second-largest market after the United States. For current ChatGPT Go subscribers, the promotion will automatically extend their existing plan by 12 months at no additional cost, while new users can activate their free subscription through their OpenAI account using an Indian payment region.
Notably, ChatGPT Go was launched in India earlier in August 2025 as a more affordable paid option designed to give users access to premium AI capabilities without the higher costs of ChatGPT Plus and Team plans. Priced at around ₹399 per month, ChatGPT Go offers faster responses, image generation, file uploads, and access to the latest AI model (reportedly including GPT-5 capabilities). It also comes with a memory feature that allows the chatbot to retain more context from past conversations, improving long-term interactions. The plan has already become very popular among students, professionals, and content creators who want advanced features.
Meanwhile, the timing of the announcement becomes significant, as recent reports suggest that the company plans to build a gigawatt-scale data center in India as part of its $500 billion Stargate project. The free-year rollout will also coincide with OpenAI’s first DevDay Exchange event in Bengaluru (Silicon Valley of India) on November 4, which will bring together developers, startups, and creators from across India. The event will focus on AI innovation, local developer tools, and opportunities to integrate OpenAI’s models into various products and services.
The latest offer comes amid rising competition from other global AI companies. In recent months, OpenAI’s prominent rivals like Google and Perplexity AI have also launched similar free-access initiatives in India. For example, in July 2025, Google made its AI Pro plan available free for one year to Indian university students. In the same month, Perplexity partnered with India’s second-largest telecom operator, Bharti Airtel, to offer the Pro version of its service (normally priced at about ₹17,000 per year) free for a year to the operator’s 360 million users. The Sam Altman-led company is also facing legal challenges in the country. The AI trendsetter is dealing with lawsuits from publishers like Penguin Random House, Cambridge University Press, and S. Chand & Co., who allege that their content was used without permission to train OpenAI’s models.
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