ChatGPT’s low-cost plan fuels subscription boom in India as paying users more than double in a month

[SINGAPORE] The number of paid subscribers to ChatGPT has more than doubled in India in the past month, following the launch of a low-cost subscription plan called ChatGPT Go. (*see amendment note)

The initiative – first introduced in India in August – was on Wednesday (Oct 15) expanded to 89 markets. It is now available in all Asean countries except Singapore.

The growth in subscribers “kind of just validated the thesis that if you can offer something at a price that people are willing to afford, they’re willing to pay for the service”, said Abhi Muchhal, product lead, international, at OpenAI, in an interview with The Business Times.

“That is what gave us the confidence to be launching in many other places,” he added.

Compared with the free version of OpenAI’s flagship GPT-5 model, Go offers 10 times higher usage limits in areas such as image generation and file uploads.

Its cost varies by market. In India, Go launched at 399 Indian rupees (S$5.88) per month, while in the Philippines, it is priced at 300 pesos (S$6.68) a month. Only users in eligible markets can see and subscribe to Go.

Before Go’s launch, the most affordable paid version of ChatGPT for consumers was the Plus subscription, which costs US$20 per month. The company also offers a Pro plan – priced at US$200 monthly with no usage limits – for individual users.

The US$20 monthly fee for Plus is “actually very expensive in many parts of the world”, Muchhal noted.

Based on OpenAI’s own engagement with users, price and affordability also “came up quite often” as a barrier to paid adoption.

That was why over the past year, OpenAI had been developing Go, he said.

The company selects markets for Go based on internal data, user research and surveys that assess whether price is a key barrier to subscriptions.

Go’s feature set – which excludes some tools available to Plus and Pro users, such as video generation – was also designed around what “resonates” most with potential Go users, who mainly rely on ChatGPT for day-to-day tasks.

Another consideration was that advanced features require more computational resources and are therefore costlier to provide.

Go’s rollout coincides with a surge in ChatGPT’s global user base. In October, the tool surpassed 800 million weekly active users, up from 700 million in August and 500 million in March.

Over the past year, weekly active users have increased more than four times in Thailand, tripled in Vietnam and Indonesia, and grown by over two-and-a-half times in Malaysia – all markets where Go is now available.

OpenAI does not publicly disclose paid subscriber figures.

Asked how OpenAI prevents arbitrage by subscribers using virtual private networks to sign up at lower rates, Muchhal said the company has “safeguards” in place.

“I can’t speak publicly to all the safeguards we have, but we do have safeguards in place to make sure that people are not able to do what you just suggested, (and) it’s something we’re iterating on,” he said.

*Amendment note: The article previously stated the number of paid ChatGPT subscribers more than doubled in the past month. OpenAI has clarified that this figure is for India.