Key facts
- Perplexity offered a free 12-month Perplexity Pro subscription to Airtel customers in India.
- The promotion led to 56 million downloads in seven months, with active users peaking at 22 million.
- Downloads dropped over 90% after the offer period, but active users remained significantly higher than pre-promotion levels.
- Perplexity's in-app revenue in India increased by approximately 60% after the promotional period ended.
- Other AI companies like OpenAI and Google have also introduced subsidized or free plans in India.
Perplexity AI has seen significant user growth in India following a year-long promotion offering its premium service for free to customers of telecom giant Airtel. The partnership, which began in July 2025, provided 360 million Airtel subscribers with a 12-month Perplexity Pro subscription, normally valued at around $200.
Data from Sensor Tower indicates a massive surge in downloads during the promotion, with 5.9 million app downloads in July 2025 alone, a 625% increase from the previous month. Over the seven months the offer was available, Perplexity recorded 56 million downloads in India. Monthly active users more than doubled, peaking at 22 million in October.
Despite a sharp decline in downloads after new redemptions ended in January, Perplexity's user base in India remains substantially larger than before the promotion. Monthly active users in July stood at nearly 14 million, still more than five times the pre-promotion average. This sustained engagement suggests the giveaway successfully created lasting user habits.
More notably, Perplexity's revenue in India has increased since the promotion concluded. Between February and mid-August, in-app purchase and subscription revenue rose approximately 60% compared to the period when the offer was active. This trend continued even as the earliest free subscribers began losing access, with average daily revenue showing a 9% increase in late July and early August compared to the prior 30 days.
Appfigures, another analytics firm, corroborated these findings, noting that Perplexity's growth was specific to the company and not a general trend in AI app adoption. The firm reported a significant increase in Perplexity's monthly net mobile revenue in India, growing from $34,000 in January 2025 to $156,000 in July 2026. While not all growth can be attributed to Airtel users converting to paying customers, the promotion generated substantial visibility.
Perplexity's strategy is part of a broader trend of AI companies, including OpenAI and Google, offering subsidized or free access in India to capture a large, price-sensitive market. The success of Perplexity's experiment will be further tested as more users reach the end of their free subscriptions in the coming months.