Published Nov 04, 2026 | 4:58 PM ⚊ Updated Nov 04, 2026 | 4:58 PM
Sam Altman said Indians' energy, their experimentation with technology and practical ways to use it, was driving ChatGPT's use in India.
Synopsis: Sam Altman of OpenAI said India has more ChatGPT users than the US, making it the firm’s biggest market. In a podcast, he said people in India are finding new applications for AI beyond asking questions or generating content, whereas Americans remain sceptical.
India has overtaken the US as the top user base for ChatGPT, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said.
In an interview with podcaster Raj Shamani, Altman said the growth of the user base in India reflected the country’s growing enthusiasm for artificial intelligence. He contrasted the growth with a relatively negative attitude towards AI among Americans.
“I do think the US, at least on expressed preference, is unusually negative on AI relative to the rest of the world, and India is maybe unusually positive,” he said.
OpenAI’s India Head Prabhjeet Singh attributed ChatGPT’s growth in India to deep integration into daily workflows, bolstered by Indian-language support, Android focus, and upcoming UPI payments with Razorpay.
The energy of people experimenting with the technology and finding practical ways to use it was driving ChatGPT’s use in India, Altman said, pointing to users employing ChatGPT to build companies and complete tasks that otherwise required considerable time and effort.
He also cited an example of people finding new applications for AI beyond asking questions or generating content. “I just heard about some Indian kid that needed to do some fundraising for his school and had never done fundraising before and was able to get the full stack of it done with a set of our tools. And it was awesome,” Altman said.
India’s AI market is valued at roughly $8 billion to $10 billion, and is projected to grow at an annual rate of 18% to 25% to over $22 billion to $38 billion by early-to-mid 2030s.
(Edited by Majnu Babu).
