OpenAI has announced an ambitious partnership with the Ministry of Education and schools in India to bring artificial intelligence into classrooms in a structured manner. As part of this initiative, the company will distribute half a million licences of its ChatGPT service across the education system over the next six months. This marks OpenAI’s first major initiative in India’s education sector and is being positioned as a turning point for how students and teachers engage with learning.
The programme includes a $500,000 research partnership with the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, which will conduct long-term studies on how artificial intelligence can improve teaching methods, strengthen student learning and make classrooms more inclusive. According to OpenAI vice president of education, Leah Belsky, the aim is to ensure that AI tools are not just providing instant answers, but helping students build reasoning and analytical skills.
India’s importance in this experiment is clear. The country has the second-largest number of ChatGPT users in the world, after the United States, and more than half of these users are under the age of 24. This demographic advantage makes India a natural ground for testing how such tools can strengthen the quality of education.
The programme will roll out in partnership with the Ministry of Education, covering schools from classes 1 to 12. Educators will be trained to use ChatGPT for lesson planning and to design exercises that encourage critical thinking. All India Council for Technical Education will also work with OpenAI to create training programmes for engineering students, while IIT Madras will focus on research and curriculum development.
Speaking on the collaboration, Kamakoti Veezhinathan, director of IIT Madras, said the goal was to push the boundaries of pedagogy. “Partnering with OpenAI allows us to prepare the next generation of educators and technologists by rethinking how learning happens in the classroom and beyond,” he said.
T G Sitharam, chairman of AICTE, underlined the importance of linking innovation with workforce needs. “If India wants to maintain its position as a global hub for skilled workers, then advanced tools must be used to accelerate innovation, enhance experiences and prepare a future-ready education ecosystem,” he said.
The initiative is not limited to elite institutions. OpenAI will also provide access to ChatGPT’s study mode, a guided feature that helps students practice reasoning instead of simply copying answers. Schools under state boards will be brought into the fold in collaboration with state governments. Officials said that discussions are underway with several states to decide how training can be scaled and how teachers can adapt their methods.
Government representatives have highlighted the need to carefully balance innovation with accountability. Abhishek Singh, additional secretary at the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, said the country’s focus was to ensure that AI applications are developed responsibly. “We want students to see AI as a tool to think with, not as a substitute for thought,” he said.
The announcement also comes against the backdrop of global debates around the risks of generative tools. Concerns have been raised that students might over-rely on chatbots and neglect deeper forms of study. Belsky said that OpenAI is addressing these worries by designing features that promote engagement and inquiry. “Students must learn to ask better questions and refine their understanding. Our study mode encourages precisely this habit,” she said.
OpenAI’s initiative will be showcased at the upcoming AICTE summit in New Delhi in February, where educators, researchers and policymakers will meet to discuss the future of digital tools in Indian classrooms. The summit is expected to attract leaders from both technology companies and academia.
Raghav Gupta, former managing director of Coursera India, described the partnership as an important milestone. “This is a moment where technology can bridge gaps in access and quality. The fact that the licences are being distributed widely, including in government schools, makes it all the more significant,” he said.
Alongside these institutional tie-ups, OpenAI will also release a subscription plan for Indian users priced at ₹349 per month. This plan is meant to give individual learners access to advanced features at an affordable rate. Analysts see this as a sign that the company is serious about building a long-term presence in the country.
The initiative reflects the government’s broader push to use technology to expand access to quality education. India has already launched a series of digital learning platforms, but experts believe the scale and adaptability of ChatGPT could make a difference. With a student population that is both vast and diverse, India provides a testing ground for how education technology can work in practice rather than theory.
The coming months will reveal how well teachers and students adapt to these new tools. What is certain, however, is that the experiment will be watched closely not only in India but across the world. If successful, it could offer a model for how emerging technologies can strengthen education systems in countries facing similar challenges of scale, diversity and uneven resources.
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