Anthropic localizes Claude pricing for India, its second-largest market

Anthropic has started localizing Claude's pricing in India, its biggest market outside the U.S., as global AI companies increasingly tailor their offerings to win users in the world's most populous nation. Local pricing has begun to appear for some users in India on Claude's website and mobile apps. However, Anthropic has yet to enable payments via the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), India's widely used instant payments network.

Users still need to pay by card or through Apple and Google's app store billing systems. This is unlike OpenAI, which rolled out Indian rupee pricing for ChatGPT in August with UPI support. Claude users in India have long sought rupee-denominated subscriptions, with dollar pricing and currency conversion adding friction to accessing the service.

The move is particularly significant, as India accounts for 5.8% of global Claude usage, making it the service's second-largest market after the U.S., according to Anthropic. On Claude's website in India, Anthropic is listing Claude Pro at ₹2,000 (about $21) a month when billed annually, compared with $17 a month in the U.S. Claude Max starts at ₹11,999 (around $125) a month in India, versus $100 in the U.S., while Team plans start at ₹2,399 (around $25) per seat a month, compared with $20 in the U.S.

The India prices include local taxes. Prices on Claude's mobile apps vary slightly from those listed on its website. The Indian rupee pricing comes amid Anthropic's growing focus on India.

The Claude maker opened an office in Bengaluru in February, after announcing the move in October, and in January appointed former Microsoft India managing director Irina Ghose to lead its business in the country. Anthropic has also partnered with Indian IT services giants Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services in recent months as it looks to scale enterprise AI deployments. That expansion faced a setback in June when Anthropic abruptly suspended access to its Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models for non-U.S.

entities, prompting some Indian developers and startup founders to consider alternatives to American AI models. The restriction on Fable 5 has since been lifted, though access to Mythos 5 remains limited. India has become an increasingly important market for AI companies, driven by its large base of developers and technology workers.

However, converting widespread usage into paid subscriptions remains a challenge in the price-sensitive market. Anthropic did not respond to a request for comment on the Indian rupee pricing rollout. Why this matters: Anthropic's decision to localize Claude's pricing in India reflects the growing importance of the market for AI companies.