Google Launches Sub-$5 AI Plus Plan in India to Compete with ChatGPT Go

Google launched a more affordable AI Plus plan in India on Wednesday, aiming to compete with other low-cost AI offerings such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT Go subscription.

New users in India will pay just ₹199 (approximately $2.21) per month for the first six months, after which the price increases to ₹399 (around $4.44) monthly.

The AI Plus plan offers higher usage limits for Gemini 3 Pro and the image-editing model Nano Banana Pro, access to video generation features in the Gemini and Flow apps, expanded deep research capabilities in NotebookLM, and 200GB of storage across Photos, Drive, and Gmail. Subscribers can also share access with family members.

Previously, Google’s most budget-friendly AI subscription in India was AI Pro, priced at ₹1,950 (about $21.69) per month.

However, Google has been relatively slow in tailoring pricing specifically for the Indian market. The AI Plus plan was first introduced in Indonesia in September and rolled out to other countries later that month. In contrast, OpenAI launched its sub-$5 ChatGPT Go plan in India in August and subsequently expanded it globally. That plan grants users ten times the usage limits of the free tier for messaging, image generation, and file uploads.

AI companies have been actively offering free services in India to tap into its vast population. For instance, Perplexity partnered with telecom provider Airtel to give all Airtel customers one year of free access to its Pro plan. Similarly, OpenAI is offering one year of free ChatGPT Go to both new and existing Go subscribers.

Meanwhile, Google has teamed up with telecom giant Reliance Jio to provide 18 months of complimentary AI Pro access to users on select mobile plans.