OpenAI’s affordable ChatGPT Go plan launches in 16 new countries across Asia.

OpenAI has flung open the doors to affordable AI by bringing its ChatGPT Go plan to 16 new countries across Asia, with a clear message: rapid AI adoption shouldn’t be a privilege of a select few, but an everyday reality for millions in emerging markets.

AI for the New Asia

Starting today, users in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, East Timor, and Vietnam can access ChatGPT Go for less than $5 per month, often in their own currency, with local payment options now rolling out in Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Pakistan, while the rest pay in USD plus local taxes. OpenAI’s carefully tuned pricing is a direct appeal to cost-sensitive, mobile-first audiences who dominated the region’s digital transformation.

Supercharged Features and Local Growth

ChatGPT Go isn’t just cheaper, it is more powerful, offering users up to ten times the daily message and image-generation limits of the free tier, twice the memory, and expanded upload capacity. This means more room for creative work, translations, tutoring, and productivity tasks powered by OpenAI’s latest model, ChatGPT-5. In Southeast Asia, weekly active users have surged fourfold since the initial launch, with paid subscribers doubling in India and Indonesia, cementing the region as OpenAI’s fastest-growing AI hotspot.

The Big AI Showdown

But OpenAI isn’t alone. Google has rolled out its own affordable Google AI Plus plan, now active in more than 40 countries. Subscribers gain access to the Gemini 2.5 Pro model, creative tools for design and video, plus generous cloud storage. Both titans are racing to lock in loyalty and shape platform ecosystems that blur the line between chatbot and app store, each unveiling tools from partner apps like Spotify, Zillow, and Coursera, turning AI into a productivity hub and not just a clever assistant.

OpenAI’s Ambitious Vision

With 800 million global weekly active users, up 100 million since August, OpenAI’s momentum is undeniable. Announced at DevDay 2025 in San Francisco, the company's strategic pivot is to transform ChatGPT into a broad AI operating system. Users soon will launch specialized in-chat apps to write, code, shop, and learn, all powered by the service’s expanded capabilities.

Betting Big on Asia’s Digital Revolution

While pushing aggressively into Asia, OpenAI juggles huge infrastructure costs. Its $500 billion valuation came with a $7.8 billion operating loss in the first half of 2025. Affordable subscriptions like ChatGPT Go are not only designed to expand reach but also nudge the company toward profitability, as the continent’s digital economies emerge as the latest battleground for global AI supremacy.

OpenAI’s Asian expansion is less about chasing numbers, more about reshaping digital life, unleashing advanced AI for millions, catalyzing new local innovations, and marking the next chapter in the global competition for intelligent, accessible technology.