Perplexity’s free AI offer left it with millions more users in India

Over the past year, Perplexity has conducted one of the most ambitious growth experiments in the artificial intelligence sector. By offering its premium service at no cost to customers of the Indian telecommunications giant Airtel, the company sought to determine if bundling high-end AI tools could foster long-term loyalty and sustainable revenue once the promotional period concluded. As the first wave of these free subscriptions reaches its expiration date, the data is beginning to paint a compelling, if complex, picture of the future of AI monetization in emerging markets.

The Anatomy of the Giveaway

In July 2025, Perplexity entered a strategic partnership with Airtel, India’s second-largest telecom operator. The deal provided Airtel’s 360 million subscribers with a complimentary 12-month Perplexity Pro subscription—a package typically valued at roughly $200. While the window for new redemptions officially closed on January 16, the nature of the offer meant that users retained access for a full year from their specific activation date. Consequently, the earliest adopters began hitting their expiration milestones last month, forcing a decision: opt out of auto-renewal or transition into a paying subscriber.

The immediate impact of this campaign was nothing short of explosive. According to data provided by Sensor Tower, Perplexity saw 5.9 million app downloads in India during July 2025 alone. This represented a staggering 625% increase over the previous month, surpassing the 5.4 million downloads the company had managed to secure in the entire first half of that year.

This momentum proved to be more than a fleeting launch-day spike. Over the seven-month period that the offer remained open to new users, Perplexity recorded 56 million downloads—a figure more than nine times higher than the preceding seven-month window. Monthly active users (MAUs) followed a similar trajectory, doubling to 8.9 million in July and eventually climbing to a peak of 22 million by October.

India: A High-Scale, High-Difficulty Market

India has long been a primary target for global technology firms. With over a billion internet subscribers and the world’s second-largest smartphone market—boasting more than 700 million users—the country offers unparalleled scale. However, translating that massive user base into consistent revenue has historically been a significant hurdle.

For generative AI companies, India has become a vital testing ground. Industry titans including Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic have aggressively courted Indian consumers through localized pricing, free access tiers, and strategic distribution partnerships. These firms are betting that by subsidizing access today, they can build the habits necessary to convert users into paying customers tomorrow.

Following the closure of the Airtel promotion in January, Perplexity’s download numbers experienced a sharp correction. Sensor Tower estimates that between February and July, the app saw 3.3 million downloads—a decline of over 90% compared to the previous six-month period.

Resilience Beyond the Boom

Despite the drop in new downloads, the users Perplexity acquired during the promotion have shown remarkable stickiness. While monthly active users fell from the October peak of 22 million to roughly 14 million by July, this still represents a 37% decline from the high—yet it remains more than five times the average of 2.6 million monthly users the company maintained in the first half of 2025.

"While the time-sensitive nature of this promotion would naturally lead to a decline in adoption after the offer period, ongoing usage has remained resilient," noted Abe Yousef, a senior insights analyst at Sensor Tower. "Perplexity has significantly more users in India than it did in the six months before the promotion."

Perhaps most importantly, the decline in downloads has not triggered a corresponding drop in revenue. In fact, Sensor Tower estimates that Perplexity’s in-app purchase and subscription revenue in India between February and mid-August actually rose by approximately 60% compared to the period when the Airtel offer was still active for new users.

Key Performance Metrics

• Peak MAUs: 22 million (October 2025)
• Current MAUs: ~14 million (July 2026)
• Revenue Trend: 60% increase in in-app purchase/subscription revenue post-promotion.
• Daily Revenue Growth: Between July 18 and August 12, average daily in-app revenue was 27% higher than the 2026 first-half average.

The Conversion Conundrum

While the revenue growth is promising, it is difficult to isolate the exact cause. Because the free subscriptions were set to auto-renew, it is possible that a portion of the revenue increase stems from users who simply failed to cancel their subscriptions in time, rather than those who made an active, conscious choice to pay for the service.

Appfigures, another app intelligence firm, corroborated the idea that the Airtel deal fundamentally altered Perplexity’s trajectory in the region. Their data suggests that the growth was unique to Perplexity and not merely a reflection of a general surge in interest for AI applications.

"I compared Perplexity’s downloads to ChatGPT and Claude to ensure it wasn’t more appetite for AI, and it wasn’t," said Ariel Michaeli, co-founder and CEO of Appfigures.

According to Appfigures, Perplexity’s daily download average in India jumped twentyfold from roughly 11,200 to 223,000 during the first week of the Airtel launch, eventually hitting 305,000 per day by mid-October. During this same timeframe, downloads for competitors like ChatGPT and Claude remained largely stable. Furthermore, Perplexity’s monthly net mobile revenue in India grew from $34,000 in January 2025 to $156,000 by July 2026.

A Broader Wager on AI Adoption

Perplexity’s experiment has set the stage for a wider industry trend. In August 2025, OpenAI introduced a free one-year offer for its ChatGPT Go plan in India, and Google followed suit by offering its AI Pro subscription free for 18 months to Reliance Jio users.

Perplexity remains the "canary in the coal mine" for this strategy. As the first company to initiate such a large-scale giveaway, its users are the first to face the transition from free premium access to a paid model. Whether this strategy creates a sustainable business or merely a temporary bubble of users remains the central question for the AI industry.

As later cohorts of Airtel users reach their renewal dates over the coming months, the results of this experiment will become clearer. For now, Perplexity has successfully proven that it can capture a massive audience in a price-sensitive market, but the true test—long-term, voluntary monetization—is only just beginning.