OpenAI has announced on its official blog that it is launching commercial operations in Brazil[1]. The company is basing its local team in São Paulo, which will work directly with businesses, developers, researchers, and public institutions. Brazil is one of ChatGPT's three largest markets by weekly active users, with roughly 215 million messages sent to the service every day. Partnerships in education, healthcare, research, and public administration were announced alongside the launch.
A Local Team Based in São Paulo
The formal start of commercial operations was announced at an event held in São Paulo on August 18[2]. Until now, Brazilian users simply consumed a global service. Going forward, a local team will handle deployment support for Brazilian companies and collaboration with public institutions.
The scale is worth noting. The number of users in Brazil has nearly doubled over the past year[1]. ChatGPT Enterprise seats have grown fivefold year over year, and Brazil is among OpenAI's ten largest markets by number of business customers. Growth on the developer side is just as steep: Brazil ranks second globally by number of developers using the OpenAI API. For the coding tool Codex, Brazil is the largest market in Latin America, and since the beginning of 2026 weekly Codex users have grown more than elevenfold while daily interactions have risen nearly thirtyfold.
The raw numbers alone suggest a country that simply uses the product heavily. The decision to establish a local entity, however, rests on a shift in how the product is being used.
Work-Related Usage Runs Above the Global Average
In June 2026, 35 percent of classified messages sent from individual ChatGPT accounts in Brazil were work-related[1]. The global average over the same period was 30 percent, putting Brazil above the worldwide figure for professional use.
Of those work-related messages, 53 percent asked ChatGPT to complete a task or produce an output rather than simply answer a question, including drafting proposals, analyzing information, writing code, and creating marketing materials[1]. That points to a move from trying the tool out toward embedding it in daily work.
An independent study by RegLab, funded by OpenAI, estimates that the spread of AI could add nearly 1 trillion reais to Brazil's economy by 2030[1]. The more specific figure is 986.7 billion reais (about 31 trillion yen) over the 2027 to 2030 period[2]. The estimate assumes productivity gains, and the study notes that the outcome depends on how far infrastructure and workforce training progress.
※Exchange rates (as of August 27, 2026): 1 Brazilian real = 31 yen, 1 US dollar = 159 yen
Partnerships Across Education, Healthcare and Government
The initiatives announced alongside the launch lean toward social infrastructure rather than straightforward enterprise sales[1].
| Area | Details |
|---|---|
| Education | ChatGPT Edu accounts for students, faculty, and staff at the Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica (ITA), along with credits for reasoning models and Codex |
| Research | The Instituto de Matemática Pura e Aplicada (IMPA) will study what research institutions need to turn AI access into scientific results |
| Healthcare | Hospital das Clínicas da FMUSP (HCFMUSP) will evaluate a prototype clinical information infrastructure for Brazil's public health system |
| Legal | A national AI literacy program for legal professionals, developed with ENTER, a Brazilian company in the legal sector |
| Small business | Free, mobile-first AI training for micro and small-business owners, together with Estímulo |
| Government | A memorandum of understanding with the city of São Paulo and its IT company Prodam on the use of AI in public administration |
On the research funding side, IMPA and HCFMUSP are among 14 independent projects selected by OpenAI, which together receive 1 million dollars (about 160 million yen) in funding and up to 1 million dollars in API credits[2]. The HCFMUSP study will use synthetic or de-identified data, with results due in 2027. OpenAI states that the design preserves physician judgment and human oversight[1].
The advertising business moved first in Brazil: ChatGPT Ads has been available there since August 11[2]. It shows ads to adult users on the Free and Go plans, and OpenAI says the ads are kept separate from answers and do not influence generated content.
Developer Events and Ties to Local Creators
Ahead of the launch, OpenAI ran a developer roadshow called OpenAI para Devs across four cities: Recife, Rio de Janeiro, Florianópolis, and São Paulo. It drew 285 developers, startup engineers, and founders[1]. Delivered entirely in Portuguese, it included technical sessions, live Codex demonstrations, and hands-on workshops.
At the closing OpenAI Hackathon Brasil, the winning team built a prototype entirely with Codex[1]. Using public data, it lets business owners describe their operations by voice, then matches them against relevant public procurement opportunities and eligibility requirements and maps nearby public-sector demand. Public procurement has long been a barrier for smaller businesses, and the team turned it into a usable tool in a matter of hours.
Usage patterns carry a local flavor too. Brazil has the world's highest rate of ChatGPT Images use and ranks among the five largest markets for voice input and dictation[1]. Weekly voice users in the country doubled over the past year. Against that backdrop, OpenAI held its first-ever Creators Day in São Paulo, beginning a longer-term effort with local creators.
Summary
OpenAI's move into Brazil is not merely an office opening. It places deployment support and partnership channels inside a market that already ranks among its three largest by usage. Given that work-related usage runs above the global average and the country sits second worldwide in API developers, the setup reads as a push for enterprise revenue. At the same time, the near-1-trillion-real economic impact is a conditional projection, and many of the education and government partnerships have yet to disclose scale or timing. Actual results will take time to show.
Source: https://openai.com/index/expanding-our-presence-in-brazil/
Source: https://www.poder360.com.br/poder-tech/openai-inicia-operacao-no-brasil-e-anuncia-parcerias/
