Claude Launches Indian Rupee Pricing but Costs More Than in U.S.

Claude, the AI service developed by U.S. startup Anthropic, is expanding overseas. India is its second-largest market globally, accounting for 5.8% of usage and a vast base of free-tier users. Anthropic introduced localized pricing to convert that traffic into revenue and establish a foothold ahead of rival OpenAI, making the move a key part of its strategy to capture global market share.

Anthropic introduced Indian rupee pricing in mid-July 2026, setting Claude Pro at 2,399 rupees a month, or about $28.7, above the U.S. price of $20 largely because it includes an 18% goods and services tax, or GST. However, the service still does not support India’s widely used Unified Payments Interface, or UPI. Its payment experience and pricing competitiveness therefore remain, for now, behind those of OpenAI’s ChatGPT.