OpenAI in India: Codex adoption jumps 27x as company pledges deeper investment

OpenAI in India Emerges as Top-Five Market for Codex

OpenAI in India has witnessed explosive AI growth, with Codex adoption climbing 27 times since the beginning of 2026, positioning the country among the top-five markets globally for the agentic platform Codex1

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. Thomas Jeng, head of startups - APAC at OpenAI, revealed that the company has deployed more credits in India across the Asia Pacific than any other market, signaling the region's strategic importance1

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. Daily interactions with Codex in India have grown more than 20 times by late April compared to early 2026, while weekly active users have multiplied at an unprecedented pace2

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. India also ranks among the top ten countries globally for overall engagement with OpenAI products2

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Codex Usage in India Expands Beyond Software Development

The surge in Codex usage in India reflects a fundamental shift in how AI tools integration is reshaping professional workflows. More than a quarter of user requests on the platform are now for non-coding tasks, marking a significant departure from traditional software development applications[1](https://economictimes.indiatata_id:ar-140969 mis_dev.com/tech/artificial-intelligence/openai-to-invest-more-in-teams-partnerships-in-india-says-thomas-jeng/articleshow/131456141.cms)3

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. Users are increasingly relying on Codex to synthesize information, draft documents, automate research automation tasks, and manage workflow organization and communication2

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. Pragya Misra, head of strategy and global affairs, India at OpenAI, emphasized that "Codex is democratising building," enabling even non-technical users to create apps and websites through natural language prompts3

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. In February, analytics platform OpenAI Signals found that Codex usage for coding tasks in India was nearly 3 times the global average3

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OpenAI Investment in India Targets Enterprise and Startup Ecosystems

OpenAI is accelerating OpenAI investment in India through expanded local teams and strategic partnerships with major enterprise product providers including TCS, Infosys, and Razorpay1

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. "We are in the process of getting additional help with these things," Jeng said, referring to partnerships with venture capital firms and learning and development communities1

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. The company recognizes that India's startup ecosystem possesses a high degree of technical sophistication, with B2B enterprise software companies and startups applying AI capabilities to target the US and other global markets1

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. India has also emerged as OpenAI's second-largest ChatGPT user market, with increasing enterprise adoption across multiple sectors3

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Competitive Landscape and Future Outlook

The intensified focus on India comes as OpenAI faces mounting competition from rivals like Anthropic, particularly in enterprise markets. According to fintech platform Ramp's recent AI index report, Anthropic's business adoption in the US rose 3.8% to 34.4% in April, while OpenAI's fell 2.9% to 32.3%1

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. However, Jeng noted that Ramp's data represents a specific snapshot of a particular audience, primarily in the Bay Area, and may not reflect global dynamics1

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. On May 11, OpenAI announced the launch of the OpenAI Deployment Company, aimed at helping enterprises adopt AI systems at scale through direct participation in implementation, workflow design, and deployment inside client organizations3

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. This enterprise-focused approach, combined with continued investment in markets like India, signals OpenAI's strategy to bridge the capability gap between what AI is theoretically capable of versus how enterprises can experience it1

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