Your Free ChatGPT Go Year Is Ending. How to Cancel Before the ₹399 Starts, and When
OpenAI gave India 12 months of ChatGPT Go free from 4 November 2025. Unless you cancel, it then charges the monthly fee to the card or UPI you added, ₹399 with GST at launch. Your date is a year from your own sign-up, not the one going round WhatsApp. Where to cancel, why to do it in your last free month, and the RBI rule that warns you before the debit.
Rohan took ChatGPT Go free last November, for a whole year. Tonight his bank sends a message: ₹399 will be debited tomorrow by AutoPay.
Rohan is a made-up example, but the year is real. OpenAI gave users in India 12 months of ChatGPT Go free from 4 November 2025, and sign-ups for the offer closed in January 2026. So from November 2026 the free years start running out, one account at a time.
What happens when the year ends
OpenAI's help article on the promotion says that at the end of the 12-month period it will automatically charge your payment method the current monthly ChatGPT Go fee unless you cancel in advance. Go launched in India at ₹399 a month, GST included.
Your date is 12 months from your own sign-up. A date going round on WhatsApp, 16 December, has no OpenAI source behind it. Sign-ups ran from 4 November 2025 to January 2026, so renewals spread over months, not one day.
How to cancel
- In ChatGPT on the web: open your account menu, then Settings, then Billing, then Cancel plan. Do it at least 24 hours before the billing date.
- If you paid through Google Play: cancel in the Play Store's subscriptions. Uninstalling the app doesn't cancel it.
- If you paid through Apple: Settings, your name, Subscriptions, then Cancel Subscription.
- Then the UPI mandate: in Google Pay it's your profile picture, Autopay, the Live tab, then Cancel autopay with your UPI PIN. Other UPI apps call it AutoPay or Mandates.
When to cancel
OpenAI's help article says that if you cancel, you lose access to ChatGPT Go at the end of your current 30-day billing cycle, and the promotion can't be redeemed again on that account. Some reports said access ends at once; OpenAI's own text says the cycle. Either way, cancelling in month three gives up months four to twelve. Cancel in your last free month.
If you forget: the bank has to warn you
An issuer shall send a pre-transaction notification to the customer, at least 24 hours prior to the actual charge / debit.
— RBI, Digital Payments – E-mandate Framework, 2026
The same framework says the bank must offer a way to opt out of any particular transaction or the whole mandate. A debit of ₹399 is well under the ₹15,000 limit for debits that go through without a PIN, so the alert is your chance to stop it.
The US and everyone else
In the US there was no free year: Go is $8 a month. Anywhere else, the rule that works on any free trial: cancel at least a day before it renews, in the store you paid through. Apple asks for 24 hours before a trial ends.
This is the long version of Price Check #01, a reel in Hindi for @buildjayy on Instagram. If you're building an app with subscriptions, send me the word BUILD there, or start with the brief form on the front page.
Sources: OpenAI's help articles on the ChatGPT Go promotion in India and the release notes; TechCrunch, 27 October 2025, on the offer, and TechCrunch, 18 August 2025, on the ₹399 price; Google Play, Apple and Google Pay help pages; the RBI E-mandate Framework, 2026; and Android Authority, 16 January 2026, on the US price.
- 3 Nov 2026
- Published, with the reel.
Product builder from Surat. Ships his own apps, runs live broadcasts, and takes on a few founders a year for product, brand and growth. hey@jaybutani.com