ChatGPT Go's free year turns Indian markets into its biggest test bed

OpenAI rockets to No. 1 on Play Store, but slipping revenue ranks reveal a tougher question: will Indians pay once the free ride ends?

Sam Altman’s OpenAI has taken an aggressive swing at the Indian market by rolling out its ChatGPT Go plan free for one year starting November 4.  The move has captivated users and pushed the app to the No. 1 slot across all categories on the Google Play Store for more than a month. ChatGPT has stayed on top from October 26 through November 24, according to Sensor Tower trends. 

But giving away its latest AI tier for free has had a side-effect: ChatGPT has slipped in the “top grossing” charts — rankings based on users who actually pay for apps or make in-app purchases on Google Play Store. It dropped from No. 5 on November 4 to No.11 by November 24. That slide raises a question the industry has avoided for months: will Indian users really pay for AI productivity tools once the freebies run out? 

ChatGPT’s move has also pushed Perplexity down the ladder. And China’s DeepSeek, once pitched as the rising star, appears to be losing its shine in India. In the productivity category, it slid from rank 84 on November 4 to 92 on November 24.  This contrasts sharply with ChatGPT’s dominance at No. 1, followed by Google Gemini at No. 2, Perplexity at No. 15, and even Grok at 33 as of November 24. India, one of the fastest-growing markets for AI apps, has become a battleground.  OpenAI, Musk’s Grok, and Perplexity  — one of whose founders is Indian — are all racing to win users by dangling free access upfront and hoping habit does the rest. 

In September, Perplexity offered its Pro subscription free for a year to all Airtel customers — prepaid, postpaid, broadband, and direct-to-home — saving them the $200-a-year price charged in the US.  Before that, in February, Elon Musk opened up premium Grok 3 in India for free, though usage is still capped by daily quotas. 

OpenAI’s latest salvo came in November with its ChatGPT Go plan, built on the GPT-5 model and offering faster responses, more usage, advanced features, and — crucially — no ~399 monthly fee for the first year. Users will have to start paying only after the free period ends. 

With ChatGPT Go on a roll, Perplexity’s overall Play Store rank has dropped from 112 on November 4 to 166 on November 24, despite Airtel’s 600-million-strong customer base. 

One app that has held its ground is Google Gemini, which has in fact climbed. It moved from No. 4 on November 4 to No. 5 on November 15, then rose to No. 3 on November 24, even with ChatGPT Go dominating the field.