OpenAI on 12 November 2026 launched India inference residency for its API, letting eligible businesses and developers run supported requests on its GPT-6 Luna model entirely inside the country. Both the processing of each API call and the model computation that produces the answer now happen in India, and customer content is stored locally.

The move targets a barrier that has kept many regulated Indian enterprises at the pilot stage: rules or contracts that require sensitive data to be processed in India. It arrives weeks after OpenAI said India is now ChatGPT’s biggest market.

What OpenAI India inference residency covers

According to OpenAI’s platform data controls documentation, India now appears alongside Australia and Japan as a region where in-country processing, not just storage, is available.

• Model: GPT-6 Luna, which OpenAI describes as its most efficient model for focused, high-volume tasks.
• APIs: the Responses and Chat Completions APIs, with text and image inputs and text output.
• Endpoint: customers create a new API project with India selected for both storage and processing, and call the India regional endpoint, in.api.openai.com.
• Use cases: OpenAI points to document summarisation, drafting responses and analysing information.

“Some Indian businesses have not fully deployed AI for important work because they need the information involved to be processed within the country,” said Nitin Bawankule, Head of Enterprise, India, at OpenAI. “Local inference gives them more control over where supported workloads run and helps address a practical barrier to adoption.”

Conditions enterprises should check

The documentation sets clear limits. Regional processing in India requires active Zero Data Retention; Modified Abuse Monitoring alone is not enough. Only Standard pay-as-you-go processing is supported, and hosted tools are not available for in-region processing. Image inputs need separate approval for enhanced retention controls.

Access runs through OpenAI’s sales team and a Modified Retention amendment. Data residency endpoints also carry a 10% price uplift for eligible models released on or after 5 March 2026. OpenAI notes that residency covers customer content, not system data, which may still be processed or stored outside the selected region.

Why it matters for Indian enterprise AI

Until now, Indian teams that needed OpenAI models to run in-country had to go through cloud partners. In August 2026, Amazon Web Services added an India geographic inference profile on Amazon Bedrock for GPT-5.6 Terra and Luna, and Bedrock has since extended similar routing to other models, as with Kimi K3’s India-only inference. The new option brings a current-generation OpenAI model to customers who buy directly from OpenAI.

Competition for local AI workloads is also rising from Indian providers such as E2E Networks, which recently launched pay-per-token AI inference hosted in India. The launch builds on OpenAI’s wider India push, including its strategic partnership with Tata Group to develop domestic AI data centre capacity.

India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 does not ban cross-border transfers by default, but sector regulators and many enterprise contracts demand in-country processing. For banks, insurers, hospitals and public sector bodies, in-region inference can support compliance, though it does not guarantee it on its own.

Key takeaways

• OpenAI launched India API inference residency for GPT-6 Luna on 12 November 2026.
• Requests are processed, computed and stored in India via the in.api.openai.com endpoint.
• Access needs Zero Data Retention approval and carries a 10% price uplift.

FAQ

Which OpenAI model can run inside India?

Only GPT-6 Luna, through the Responses and Chat Completions APIs. Other models offer India data storage but not in-country processing.

Does it cost more?

Yes. OpenAI applies a 10% uplift on data residency endpoints for eligible models released on or after 5 March 2026.

Who can use it?

Eligible API customers with active Zero Data Retention, approved through OpenAI’s sales team, using a project set to India for storage and processing.

Featured image: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi, 20 February 2026. Photo: Prime Minister’s Office (GODL-India)

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