That importance is reflected by this new lower priced entry point to a personal ChatGPT subscription, at a time when most markets around the world have the Plus and Pro tiers as choice. Compared with free ChatGPT access, ChatGPT Go has higher message limits, image generation tokens, file or image uploads and longer memory for context alongside personalisation.

“We just launched ChatGPT Go in India, a new subscription tier that gives users in India more access to our most popular features: 10x higher message limits, 10x more image generations, 10x more file uploads, and 2x longer memory compared with our free tier. All for ₹399,” says Nick Turley, Vice-President and head of the ChatGPT app, at OpenAI.

This move may have long-term global significance, depending on how users respond to the new subscription tier — that means, how many free ChatGPT users decide to pay for a subscription, likely the ChatGPT Go. “Making ChatGPT more affordable has been a key ask from users. We’re rolling out Go in India first and will learn from feedback before expanding to other countries,” explains Turley.

The move stems from something Altman had said in February, underlining the importance of this market for the AI company, and a need to leverage this base into paying subscribers. “India is now OpenAI’s second-largest market by number of users, which have tripled in the past year,” Altman had said at the time. Plainly a big user base, mostly consisting of those accessing the AI chatbot on the free tier, does little to help the company’s finances.

Another looming question — will Go cannibalise Plus? For users who only need moderate but consistent access, the ₹399 tier might appear far better value than the ₹1,999 plan. There is merit in reducing that monthly subscription cost. The three-tiered structure (Go, Plus, Pro) should clarify upgrade paths because there are enough differences in usage limits and features that get unlocked.

The risk though is, while the Go plan has been positioned to convince free users to transition to a paid plan, OpenAI would hope Plus users don’t begin to downgrade (Log into ChatGPT > click on profile icon > Settings > Select Subscription).

Value and localisation define need for AI revenue

The aggressive competition in India’s AI market reflects its strategic importance beyond immediate revenue. OpenAI’s approach differs markedly from competitors’ free-first strategies. While Google and Perplexity are essentially subsidising user acquisition, OpenAI is hoping users will pay for their latest AI models.

But make no mistake, the ChatGPT Go plan certainly materialises from recent competition, which sees Google offering a free AI Pro subscription (worth ₹1,950 per month) for students above the age of 18 years. Perplexity has partnered with mobile service provider Airtel to unlock the Pro plan (this includes 300 pro searches per day and image generation) for its 360 million user base in the country, keeping eligibility open for all mobile, Wi-Fi and DTH subscribers — they claim the value is ₹17,000 per year.

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Days after this was announced, Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas confirmed that the Perplexity app had become the most downloaded app on the Apple App Store in India, surpassing ChatGPT and Google Gemini.

ChatGPT Go’s launch could signal the beginning of maturation in AI market strategy. Global pricing has been replaced by more refined and tailored regional approaches. Would Google, Perplexity, Anthropic and others adopt a localised pricing strategy in the coming days, as a response? It is any success or failure of ChatGPT Go, that will likely influence how other AI companies approach emerging markets.