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

Iran

In Iran, a $20-a-month AI plan is 5.2% of national income per person. There is no recent household survey to set it against what people live on. None of Claude, OpenAI's API or Gemini is officially offered. 85% of people use the internet.

–of the median living standard for a $20 planseveral exchange rates; the official one is far from what people can get

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

0of 3leading services officially offerednone listed

85%of people use the internetworld 74% · 92 m people

The figuresIran

People92 m

Median living standardno estimateseveral exchange rates; the official one is far from what people can get

A $20 plan takes–

For whom it is over a tenth–

GNI per person$4,650plan is 5.2% of it

Claude use per personnot reported

Notable AI models built here1

Officially offered here0 of 3

Run it yourself →

Claude · claude.ai appNot listed

OpenAI · APINot listed

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	Iran	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	5.2%	3.9%	2.9%
People using the internet	85%	76%	74%
Claude use per working-age person	not reported	0.43×	1.00×
Notable AI models built	1	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 foundationsIran against the world

World Bank ↗

People using the internet

85%world 74%

People with electricity

100%world 92%

Mobile subscriptions per 100 people

174world 112

Fixed broadband lines per 100 people

12.1world 20.1

Enrolled in university-level education

59%world 44%

Research spending, share of GDP

0.73%world 2.6%

Researchers per million people

2,240world 1,652

Secure internet servers per million people

7,226world 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 ↗