OpenAI shared its first set of Capability Gap findings for India, showing that India ranks among the world’s most advanced AI markets, particularly in coding, data analysis, and complex reasoning. At the same time, adoption remains limited across much of the country, highlighting a significant opportunity to expand access beyond early adopters in the top few cities.
India ranks among the top five nations globally in thinking capability usage per person (measured via reasoning tokens used by ChatGPT Plus users), with users regularly solving complex problems and interacting with AI at an advanced level. In fact, India is one of the fastest-growing AI builder ecosystems globally, with 4× growth in Codex users in just two weeks after the launch of our Codex app in Feb 2026, as well as strong rankings in both coding and data analysis usage.
But this capability is not evenly distributed. AI usage in India remains highly concentrated in a handful of cities, with advanced use even more unevenly spread.
“The central question now is how quickly the benefits of AI can extend beyond early adopters and leading cities to the wider population. Closing this gap will require expanding access, building skills, and enabling more meaningful use across the country, an effort shaped in large part by India’s young, fast-adopting population,” said Mr. Oliver Jay, Managing Director – International, OpenAI.
The top 10 cities in India account for ~50% of all AI users, led by Delhi NCR, which has the highest population penetration of ChatGPT in the country. Together, these cities represent less than 10% of the population, making AI adoption ~3× more concentrated in India than in comparable countries like the US, UK, Brazil, and Germany.
In advanced use cases, the gap widens significantly – data analysis usage is up to 30× higher in leading vs. lagging cities, coding usage is 4× higher, and AI developer (Codex) usage shows a 9× gap. This indicates that while India has competitive AI capability, its deepest advantages are clustering in a small number of urban hubs, including Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Delhi, and Chennai.
The Capability Gap findings highlight that beyond the top cities, some of the most meaningful use cases are emerging in areas like education and health, indicating how AI is already being used in everyday contexts.
● In education & learning, eastern states are seeing particularly strong engagement.
● In Assam, 22% of all messages relate to education and learning, around 20% higher than the national average.
● Odisha, Manipur, Tripura, and Chhattisgarh show similar patterns.
● In health and wellness, higher engagement is visible in regions such as Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh, and Kerala.
● In Jammu & Kashmir, nearly 1 in 10 messages relate to health, about 32% higher than the national average.
The capability gap is not just between countries – it exists within them. India’s data shows strong early pockets of advanced usage, alongside a large opportunity to broaden access so AI benefits are shared more evenly. The next phase of India’s AI journey will depend on how widely this capability spreads through democratization (language, affordability, infrastructure) of the technology.
To support broader and more inclusive AI adoption, OpenAI has been expanding its presence and partnerships across India. Recent efforts include:
● Deepening developer ecosystem support with regular Codex-centric education and engagement events hosted by OpenAI, its local partners, and Codex ambassadors in India.
● Collaborations with companies such as TCS to scale AI-native software development.
● Partnerships with fintechs such as Razorpay to enable developers to build and monetize directly through Codex.
● ChatGPT edu deals with leading universities in the country to ensure student engagement programs to build AI skills early.
● Continued focus on localized use cases in education, healthcare, farming, and beyond.
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