India's youth drives ChatGPT usage, but profits lag
India is crushing it in the global AI app scene—downloads shot up 207% by 2025, and the country now makes up a fifth of all generative AI app installs worldwide.
But here's the catch: India brings in just 1% of the revenue.
OpenAI's free ChatGPT Go access in India is no longer available, and Perplexity ended its bundled Pro offer with Indian telco Airtel in January, showing how tough it is to turn all that hype into real profits.
Youth bulge and unique usage patterns
India is ChatGPT's second-biggest market after the US, with young people leading the charge—almost half of messages come from users aged 18-24, and 80% from those under 30.
They use ChatGPT for work more than most countries and ask three times as many coding-related questions as the global median.
Still, US users spent about 21% more time per week on leading AI chatbot apps than Indian users.
With a billion potential users, India's youth could shape future AI trends—but for now, turning popularity into profit remains tricky.