Codex weekly active users in India surge 27x so far in 2026: OpenAI
New Delhi, May 29
US-based artificial intelligence firm OpenAI on Friday said adoption of its AI coding and productivity tool Codex is accelerating rapidly in India, with weekly active users growing 27-fold since the beginning of 2026 so far as developers, founders and professionals increasingly adopt AI tools to build and execute tasks faster.
Sharing new data on the sidelines of Mumbai Tech Week, the company said India continues to remain among the top five countries globally for Codex adoption and among the top 10 markets worldwide for engagement on the platform.
According to the AI giant, daily interactions with Codex in India had increased by more than 20 times by late April compared to levels seen at the start of the year.
In addition, usage patterns indicate that Codex is increasingly being used beyond traditional software development workflows, with more than one-fourth of requests now related to non-coding activities.
Users are increasingly utilising the platform to synthesise information, draft documents, automate research-related tasks and organise workflows and communications.
The latest data builds on earlier findings shared by OpenAI, which had indicated that coding-related usage of Codex in India was around three times higher than the global average, while coding-related questions from Indian users were nearly three times the global median.
"What's exciting about India is that adoption is not just happening among software engineers. We are seeing founders, operators, researchers, students and business teams increasingly use Codex to turn ideas into working outcomes faster," said Thomas Jeng, Head of Startups - APAC, OpenAI.
He added that while Codex initially emerged as a coding-focused product, people are increasingly using it to move from intent to execution across multiple aspects of work.
The company noted that growing adoption is being supported by India's expanding builder ecosystem and rising enterprise demand.
— IANS
Reader Comments
As a researcher, I'm happy to see Codex being used beyond coding. I use it for literature reviews and summarizing papers - it saves hours! But the pricing is still steep for students like us. OpenAI should introduce student discounts in India if they want to sustain this growth.
Impressive numbers but I'm concerned about data privacy. Indian users are generating massive amounts of code and data on foreign platforms. We need strong data localization laws. Also, what happens when OpenAI decides to restrict access or increase prices? We shouldn't become too dependent.
As someone working in Silicon Valley, I can say India is truly becoming an AI powerhouse. I've seen Indian startups shipping products faster than ever using these tools. The combination of young talent and AI tools is a winning formula for India's tech story.
I'm a college student in Bangalore and my whole class uses Codex for assignments now. Teachers are complaining about plagiarism. We need to update our education system to focus on problem-solving and architecture rather than just writing syntax. The old teaching methods won't work anymore.
Good news but I have a mixed feeling. On one hand, it boosts productivity. On the other hand, I worry about junior developers not learning core concepts. I've interviewed candidates who can't explain basic algorithms but used Codex to build apps. We need to strike a balance, yaar.
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