Indians top ChatGPT usage charts in Asia with over 100 million weekly active users

India’s appetite for AI has crossed a new milestone. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says ChatGPT has now reached a whopping 100 million weekly active users in the country as of February 2026, making India its second-largest market after the United States.

Altman shared the figure ahead of his appearance at the government-backed AI Impact Summit 2026, which kicks off this week in New Delhi. The five-day event brings together policymakers, founders and global tech executives to discuss how artificial intelligence is shaping business, education and infrastructure.

For OpenAI, this signals that India is not just a fast-growing digital market; it is now central to the company’s global user base.

A student-led surge

According to Altman, India has the largest number of students using ChatGPT anywhere in the world. He described it as evidence that young people are treating AI as a tool to “learn faster and get ahead”, rather than simply for novelty trends like the recent caricature one.

He also noted that India ranks fourth globally in usage of Prism, OpenAI’s free AI tool aimed at scientific research and collaboration. That places the country among the more active experimentation hubs for OpenAI’s newer offerings.

The growth comes after a steady push from OpenAI to localise its presence. In August 2025, the company introduced a lower-cost ChatGPT Go subscription tier in India before later offering it for free. Around the same time, it began hiring for its first Indian office in New Delhi, listing senior sales roles focused on digital-native companies and large enterprises.

Building deeper roots

Altman’s visit to Delhi underlines the company’s intent to embed itself more firmly in the Indian tech ecosystem. OpenAI has already signalled plans to establish multiple data centres in the country, a move that would support lower latency and potentially address data residency concerns for enterprise clients.

The AI Impact Summit will also feature other heavyweight attendees, including Google CEO Sundar Pichai, reflecting India’s growing importance in the global AI conversation.

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For now, the headline figure stands out: 100 million weekly active users. In practical terms, that means a significant slice of India’s internet population is interacting with ChatGPT every week.

For OpenAI, it is validation that its product has moved beyond early adopters and into everyday use at scale. Do you use ChatGPT everyday? Let us know in the comments section below.