OpenAI offers free ChatGPT Go for one year to all users in India (techcrunch.com)

OpenAI will offer its ChatGPT Go plan free for one year to users in India who sign up during a limited promotional window starting November 4; existing Indian subscribers are also eligible. ChatGPT Go, launched in India in August as OpenAI’s most affordable paid tier (under $5/month), provides roughly 10× the usage limits of the free tier for text generation, image creation and file uploads, plus improved memory for more personalized responses. OpenAI didn’t specify how long the promotion will run. The move signals an aggressive growth and retention push in India — OpenAI’s second-largest market — where it opened a New Delhi office and is building a local team. India’s scale (700M+ smartphone users, >1B internet subscribers) makes it strategically important, but monetization has lagged: the app saw ~29M downloads in a recent 90-day span but only ~$3.6M in in‑app purchases. By temporarily removing the paywall, OpenAI can expand active usage, developer adoption ahead of its Bengaluru DevDay Exchange on Nov 4, and compete with rivals (Perplexity, Google) offering free or partner-subsidized pro tiers. The short-term tradeoff is weaker direct revenue but potential long-term gains in user engagement, data, localization and partner opportunities.