OpenAI has introduced a new low-cost subscription tier, ChatGPT Go, priced at 399 Indian rupees (about US$4.60) a month. The plan, available initially only in India, lifts the message and image-generation limits of the free service and gives users faster responses powered by the company’s latest GPT-5 model. It sits well below OpenAI’s existing ChatGPT Plus tier, which costs 1,999 rupees, and excludes higher-end features such as video generation that remain reserved for Pro-level customers. The launch intensifies an emerging price war among generative-AI providers targeting cost-sensitive users in the world’s most populous nation. Google’s Gemini Pro is offered at 1,950 rupees, Anthropic’s Claude Pro and Perplexity’s Pro service both cost 1,999 rupees, while Elon Musk’s xAI charges 700 rupees for its SuperGrok tier. All of these plans bundle access to the vendors’ newest large language models and expanded usage quotas. Analysts say a sub-500-rupee entry point could accelerate paid adoption of AI chatbots in India, where smartphone penetration is high but discretionary spending on software remains modest. OpenAI has not given a timetable for rolling the Go plan out to other countries, but the company has signalled that broader expansion is likely if the Indian pilot succeeds. The growing focus on price coincides with sharper scrutiny of model performance and labour impact. Technology reviews published at the weekend found Anthropic’s latest Claude Sonnet 4 to outperform GPT-5 on several real-world coding tasks, even as opinion pieces in U.S. media flagged faster-than-expected displacement of entry-level office jobs by generative AI. The competitive pressure is expected to keep subscription prices under strain while vendors race to prove the everyday value of their tools.