OpenAI’s latest promotional rollout for ChatGPT Go in India has hit a major setback as users across the country have reported repeated failures in making their payments via UPI.
The issue has also surfaced soon, just after the launch of the ChatGPT Go plan, which was also introduced as an affordable subscription option for all users who are seeking faster responses and even priority access to the AI model.
Many Indian users are also attempting to subscribe through their UPI-based platforms such as Google Pay, Paytm, and PhonePe, which have encountered payment errors stating “transaction failed” or “UPI not supported.”
As a result, transactions were being automatically declined, which was the sole reason behind leaving the users unable to activate their ChatGPT Go plan even though of despite multiple attempts.
Several users took to X (formerly Twitter) and Reddit to complain about the glitch, tagging both OpenAI and local payment platforms.
According to initial reports, the problem appears to be related to the cross-border UPI processing.
Since OpenAI’s billing system is based outside India, many UPI transactions are being blocked due to the limitations that have been imposed in handling international merchant payments.
Some users have also managed to complete all the purchases using the credit or debit cards that would also help to support international transactions, but even the UPIwhich is the most common payment mode in India, remains largely non-functional for this plan.
Experts have also noted that this issue highlights all the ongoing challenges faced by global digital service providers when they try to integrate UPI for seamless payments in India.
Unless OpenAI partners with an Indian payment gateway or even tries to update its billing infrastructure, UPI-based payments may continue to fail.
