AI access, cost and use · Southern Asia · Asia · data read 1 Oct 2026

Afghanistan

In Afghanistan, a $20-a-month AI plan is 62% of national income per person. There is no recent household survey to set it against what people live on. OpenAI is officially offered; Claude and Gemini are not. 16% of people use the internet.

–of the median living standard for a $20 planno recent household survey

–of people for whom the plan is over a tenth of their living standard

1of 3leading services officially offeredOpenAI

16%of people use the internetworld 74% · 44 m people

The figuresAfghanistan

People44 m

Median living standardno estimateno national survey

A $20 plan takes–

For whom it is over a tenth–

GNI per person$390plan is 62% of it

Claude use per personnot reported

Notable AI models built here0

Officially offered here1 of 3

Run it yourself →

Claude · claude.ai appNot listed

OpenAI · APIYes

Gemini · web appNot listed

From each lab's own published list: Anthropic's Claude.ai countries, OpenAI's API countries and Google's Gemini web app countries. Not listed means not officially served; open-weight models can be run anywhere.

Against Asia and the worldregional figures are medians or population-weighted

Measure	Afghanistan	Asia	World
A $20 plan ÷ median living standard	–	13%	9.9%
People for whom it is over a tenth	–	72%	63%
Plan price ÷ GNI per person	62%	3.9%	2.9%
People using the internet	16%	76%	74%
Claude use per working-age person	not reported	0.43×	1.00×
Notable AI models built	0	283	1,256

NeighboursSouthern Asia · lightest burden first

Country	People	Online	$20 plan ÷ median living standard	Over a tenth	Claude use per person	Official lists
Maldives	530k	85%	5.9%	14%	not reported	3 of 3
Bhutan	797k	91%	14%	75%	not reported	3 of 3
Sri Lanka	22 m	55%	27%	92%	0.56×	3 of 3
Nepal	30 m	46%	27%	96%	0.41×	3 of 3
Bangladesh	176 m	53%	31%	97%	0.11×	3 of 3
India	1.46 bn	70%	41%	99%+	0.30×	3 of 3
Pakistan	255 m	57%	55%	99%	0.31×	3 of 3
Iran	92 m	85%	no estimate	–	not reported	0 of 3
Afghanistan	44 m	16%	no estimate	–	not reported	1 of 3

All countries →

The foundationsAfghanistan against the world

World Bank ↗

People using the internet

16%world 74%

People with electricity

88%world 92%

Mobile subscriptions per 100 people

60world 112

Fixed broadband lines per 100 people

0.1world 20.1

Enrolled in university-level education

11%world 44%

Research spending, share of GDP

–world 2.6%

Researchers per million people

–world 1,652

Secure internet servers per million people

41world 16,381

The latest World Bank figure for each measure. The tick marks the world figure.

A $20-a-month plan ($240 a year, US list price) against the median household living standard per person in each country. The median is from the latest national household survey (World Bank Poverty and Inequality Platform), revalued from 2021 purchasing-power dollars into US dollars at recent prices and official exchange rates, assuming real living standards have not changed since the survey. Some surveys measure income and others consumption, which includes food people grow and housing they own, so this is a living standard, not cash to spare. Countries with no survey since 2015 or no defensible exchange rate are left blank.

World Bank household surveys ↗Anthropic countries ↗OpenAI countries ↗Gemini countries ↗Anthropic Economic Index ↗Epoch AI notable models ↗