OpenAI is expanding its ChatGPT Go subscription plan, which costs under $5, to 16 countries across Asia including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippines and Thailand.
The expansion comes as the company has seen its weekly active user base in Southeast Asia grow by up to four times, reports TechCrunch. In select countries, including Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines and Pakistan, users can pay in local currencies. In the remaining countries, users must pay in US dollars at approximately $5, with final costs varying based on local taxation.
ChatGPT Go provides higher daily limits for messages, image generation and file or image uploads per day. The plan offers twice as much memory as the free plan, enabling more personalised responses.
The plan launched in India in August, followed by Indonesia in September. OpenAI reports that paid subscribers in India have doubled since the launch.
OpenAI is competing with Google to make affordable AI chatbot subscription plans available in more regions. Google launched its similarly priced Google AI Plus plan in Indonesia in September, followed by expansion to over 40 countries.
At its DevDay 2025 conference in San Francisco, CEO Sam Altman announced that ChatGPT has reached 800 million weekly active users globally, up from 700 million in August. The company also unveiled apps that work directly inside ChatGPT, transforming the chatbot into an ecosystem similar to an app store with partners including Spotify, Zillow and Coursera.
Nick Turley, the head of ChatGPT, said the company is working toward making ChatGPT function as an operating system for applications.
“The evolution we’re trying to make over the next few years is one where ChatGPT itself is more like an operating system where you can come and use applications,” Turley said. “If you want to write, there’s an app for that. If you want to code, there’s an app for that. If you want to interact with goods and services, there are applications for you.”
OpenAI reported a $7.8 billion operating loss in the first half of 2025 as it continues spending heavily on AI infrastructure.
