OpenAI is intensifying its efforts to engage India’s 27 million developers by expanding partnerships and offering localized support for its coding platform, Codex. The company has deployed key personnel to the region, including APAC head of startups Thomas Jeng and solutions architect Sun Weiran, to better understand local market needs and provide technical resources. OpenAI is also actively hiring for go-to-market and AI deployment roles in India to support this expansion. The company’s strategy involves community outreach, including hackathons in Bengaluru and collaborations with venture capital firms like Lightspeed, Accel, Elevation Capital, and Antler. These partnerships provide developers with early access to frontier models, technical support, and usage credits.

OpenAI’s push comes as it faces significant competition in the Indian market from platforms like Anthropic’s Claude, which has established a strong enterprise presence. A February survey by Activate AI of 244 developers indicated that 42% were using Claude Code, compared to 7% for Codex. However, industry observers note that the gap is narrowing as OpenAI releases more capable models, such as GPT-5.4 and GPT-5.5, and improves its computer use (a feature allowing AI to control mouse and keyboard actions). Technical constraints regarding latency, availability, and rate limits have also influenced developer platform preferences as workflows become more intensive.

The company reports that India has seen 4X growth in Codex adoption in the two weeks following its February launch. To further increase market fit, OpenAI is expanding Codex to Windows, a platform extensively used in India. While the current momentum is positive, some startup founders remain cautious, noting that in the current AI landscape, model loyalty is low. Developers frequently switch platforms based on performance, making continuous capability releases essential for maintaining the developer ecosystem's trust and engagement.

OpenAI is intensifying its efforts to engage India’s 27 million developers by expanding partnerships and offering localized support for its coding platform, Codex. The company has deployed key personnel to the region, including APAC head of startups Thomas Jeng and solutions architect Sun Weiran, to better understand local market needs and provide technical resources. OpenAI is also actively hiring for go-to-market and AI deployment roles in India to support this expansion. The company’s strategy involves community outreach, including hackathons in Bengaluru and collaborations with venture capital firms like Lightspeed, Accel, Elevation Capital, and Antler. These partnerships provide developers with early access to frontier models, technical support, and usage credits.

OpenAI’s push comes as it faces significant competition in the Indian market from platforms like Anthropic’s Claude, which has established a strong enterprise presence. A February survey by Activate AI of 244 developers indicated that 42% were using Claude Code, compared to 7% for Codex. However, industry observers note that the gap is narrowing as OpenAI releases more capable models, such as GPT-5.4 and GPT-5.5, and improves its computer use (a feature allowing AI to control mouse and keyboard actions). Technical constraints regarding latency, availability, and rate limits have also influenced developer platform preferences as workflows become more intensive.

The company reports that India has seen 4X growth in Codex adoption in the two weeks following its February launch. To further increase market fit, OpenAI is expanding Codex to Windows, a platform extensively used in India. While the current momentum is positive, some startup founders remain cautious, noting that in the current AI landscape, model loyalty is low. Developers frequently switch platforms based on performance, making continuous capability releases essential for maintaining the developer ecosystem's trust and engagement.