Perplexity launched a large-scale AI client test in India last year. In cooperation with the local telecommunications operator Airtel, it provided the latter ' s users with free of charge for 12 months perplexity Pro. As the first free eligibility expired in recent months, this cooperation began to show clearer results: a large number of new users did not quickly lose after the end of the activity.
Free co-op drive download surge
In July 2025, Perplexity entered into cooperation with Airtel, India ' s second largest telecommunications operator, to provide its 360 million users with a Pro subscription of approximately $200. The new user pick-up channel was closed on January 16, 2026, but the active user can still use it for one year from the active date.
According to Sensor Tower estimates, during the seven-month period during which the event was available to new users, Perpexity received 56 million downloads in India, an increase of more than nine times over the previous seven months. Its monthly users rose to 8.9 million in July 2025 and then reached a peak of approximately 22 million in October.
By contrast, the Appfigures data show that the average daily download in India was about 1.12 million in the week before the activity went online; this figure jumped to nearly 223,000 in the first week. By 2025, average daily downloads had increased further to about 305,000 by mid-September to mid-October. During the same period, the downloads of ChatGPT and Claude in India were generally smooth.
Monthly life after activity is still higher than before
The peaks of free extension have since fallen, but the size of the user has not returned to its original destination. Sensor Tower estimates indicate that after reaching its peak in October 2025, Perplexity was still close to 14 million by July 2026, 37 per cent lower than the peak, but still averaged more than five times the average of 2.6 million months in the first half of 2025.
This means that free trial helps Perplexity leave more active users at least in the short term. However, the data at this stage do not provide evidence of how many of these users have actually turned into active pay subscribers.
One reason is that this free subscription is automatically renewed. If the user does not want the fee to be withheld, it needs to be cancelled on its own initiative before the due date. As a result, a part of the increase in income may come from users who have not been able to close their fees in a timely manner, without necessarily representing a clear choice by users to continue to pay. Existing third-party data do not distinguish between the specific contributions of Airtel users and other paid users.
India as AI Subscription Mode Test Field
Despite this, income data still show that Perplexity has expanded its operations in India. Appfigures estimates that its net monthly moving end income in India has increased from about $34 million in January 2025 to about $70 million in December of that year and to $156,000 in July 2026. In the first seven months of 2026, the cumulative revenue of companies in India was approximately $8.78 million, 16 per cent higher than in the whole of 2025.
India has been an important source market for users of global technology companies. Local ownership of more than 1 billion Internet users, lower mobile data costs and more than 700 million smartphone subscribers makes it an important area for generating AI-based competition. However, it has been more difficult to translate user size into stable income.
Cooperation with Perplexity is also seen as part of a wider competition. Following its cooperation with Airtel, OpenAI opened the low-priced ChatGPT Go for one year in India in August 2025; Google also worked with Reliance Jio to provide 18 months of AI Pro subscription free of charge to eligible users. Perplexity was one of the first cases to be tested in the market due to its early launch.
Over the next few months, as more Airtel users arrive at the continuation fee node, it may become clearer to the outside world whether the free distribution of high-level AI services can be translated into a continuous payment operation in India.