India users generate 1 billion images with ChatGPT Images 2.0

Users in India have created more than one billion images using OpenAI's ChatGPT Images 2.0 feature in less than a month, the company's CEO, Sam Altman, announced on May 18. The tool was launched in India on April 21.

Altman marked the milestone in a post on social media platform X. According to OpenAI, India is now the highest-usage market globally for this feature, surpassing the United States. The company stated the trend shows AI image generation in India is increasingly intersecting with creator culture, fashion, fandoms, and digital identity, rather than being limited to traditional productivity tasks.

The feature allows users to generate detailed images from short text instructions and can handle multilingual prompts. OpenAI shared examples of popular prompts, which include creating cinematic portrait collages, "mini-me" worlds, underwater portraits, anime transformations, chibi sticker packs, and fashion studio portraits. Other common uses are for enhancing old photographs, fixing lighting in images, and designing items like wedding invitations or festival posters.

Analysts note the rapid adoption is driven by several factors: a large smartphone user base, a strong...