OpenAI Opens in Brazil—Its Third-Largest ChatGPT Market Gets a Local Team

On August 27, OpenAI published the launch of commercial operations in Brazil, with a local team based in São Paulo. A same-day Reuters report carried by UOL described Brazil as ChatGPT’s third-largest market and confirmed that the operation includes a São Paulo office.

The August 27 launch changes OpenAI’s presence from product availability alone to direct commercial and institutional work inside the country. The local team is intended to support Brazilian businesses, developers, researchers and public institutions, while coordinating programs in education, law, small business and government.

Scale explains why Brazil gained a local operation

Forbes Brasil’s account of the expansion says people in Brazil send about 215 million ChatGPT messages a day, up 54% from 140 million in November 2025, while the user base nearly doubled. It also places Brazil among the three largest markets by weekly active users and second worldwide by the number of developers using the OpenAI API.

OpenAI’s internal classifications add a work-related dimension to that usage. In June 2026, 35% of classified messages from individual Brazilian accounts concerned work, against 30% globally; 53% of those work-related messages asked ChatGPT to complete a task or produce an output. These are company platform measurements covering classified messages from individual accounts, not an independently audited survey of Brazil’s population or workforce.

Business adoption is growing as well: the number of ChatGPT Enterprise seats in Brazil increased fivefold year over year. Together, the consumer, developer and enterprise figures explain the commercial rationale, but they do not by themselves establish revenue, productivity gains or the success of the new operation.

What the commercial operation changes

The local team gives Brazilian organizations an in-country point of contact for sales, deployment and institutional coordination. In an interview with CNN Brasil, international strategy vice president Oliver Jay said OpenAI had opened the São Paulo office, hired locally and was building a team to bring deployment experience to Brazilian companies and organizations.

That interview was published on August 18, before the August 27 corporate post and Reuters dispatch. The dates indicate that the office and team had already been presented locally; August 27 is the date of OpenAI’s published launch announcement, not necessarily the office’s first operating day.

The move does not create a separate Brazilian edition of ChatGPT, nor does it mean every partnership announced alongside the operation is fully deployed. OpenAI describes the team’s work as identifying useful applications, preparing employees, establishing governance and scaling deployments that prove effective. It has not disclosed the team’s size, a Brazil-specific revenue target or customer-acquisition goals.

Developers and education form the technical track

OpenAI’s August 27 partnership list separates the accompanying initiatives by audience. Its first OpenAI para Devs roadshow brought together 285 developers, startup engineers, founders and other builders in Recife, Rio de Janeiro, Florianópolis and São Paulo. The Portuguese-language program included Codex demonstrations and workshops, followed by a São Paulo hackathon focused on Brazilian needs.

In higher education, the Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica is due to receive ChatGPT Edu accounts for students, faculty and staff, along with credits for reasoning models and Codex. This is institution-wide educational access and training, not a general consumer offer.

The research initiatives have narrower mandates. The Instituto de Matemática Pura e Aplicada will study what research institutions require to turn AI access into scientific progress. The Hospital das Clínicas da Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo will evaluate a clinical-information infrastructure prototype for Brazil’s public health system, with physician judgment and human oversight retained.

Law, small business and government are separate programs

OpenAI and Brazilian legal-technology company ENTER are developing a national AI-literacy program for legal professionals. The proposal combines practical ChatGPT use with critical, safe and effective adoption; it is a training program rather than an announced legal-automation product.

For micro and small businesses, OpenAI and Estímulo are developing free, mobile-first training covering marketing, sales, customer service, finance, productivity and management. No enrollment date, participant target or completion figure accompanied the announcement, so the program should be treated as under development.

The public-sector initiative is earlier still. OpenAI and the city of São Paulo, working through municipal technology company Prodam, signed a memorandum of understanding to explore making AI available to São Paulo and other Brazilian public administrations. The memorandum establishes a cooperation framework; it does not demonstrate that a citywide system has been deployed.

A projection is not an outcome of the new office

A company-funded economic forecast should be kept separate from measured ChatGPT activity. The RegLab study of Brazil’s economy estimates that AI could add up to R$986.7 billion to national GDP by 2030, equivalent to about 7.6% of estimated 2026 GDP. Its model covers 2027–2030 and depends on gradual adoption and assumed productivity effects; the figure is potential output, not value already produced by OpenAI or its São Paulo operation.

What is confirmed is narrower: OpenAI has launched a Brazil-focused commercial operation with local staff and named initiatives spanning developers, education, research, law, small business and public administration. Still undisclosed are the team’s scale and commercial performance, while several programs lack delivery dates and measured results. Those details will show whether a large usage market becomes durable institutional adoption.

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