Perplexity’s free AI offer left it with millions more users in India
Perplexity's free AI offer to Airtel customers in India led to 5.9 million app downloads in July 2025, a 625% increase from the previous month. The offer resulted in 56 million downloads during the seven months it was available, more than nine times the preceding seven-mo…
Intelligence analysis by Llama
Perplexity's free AI offer to Airtel customers in India led to a significant increase in app downloads, with 56 million downloads during the seven months the offer was available. The offer resulted in a peak of 22 million monthly active users in October, down 37% by July. Despite a decline in downloads, Perplexity's in-app purchase and subscription revenue in India rose about 60% from…
Imagine you have a super-smart AI assistant that can help you with lots of things. Perplexity, a company that makes such assistants, gave its service for free to millions of people in India who use a telecom company called Airtel. This led to a huge increase in people downloading the app and using it. Even though the free offer ended, many people continued to use the service and pay for it, showing that the experiment was a success.
Analysis
A Massive Market for Downloads in India
India has long been a massive market for downloads for global technology companies, thanks to its vast population, more than a billion internet subscribers, and relatively low mobile data costs. The country is the world's second-largest smartphone market after China, with over 700 million users, and has similarly emerged as a major source of users for generative AI services.
That scale has, however, proved considerably harder to translate into revenue. Specifically for AI companies willing to subsidize access in pursuit of scale, India's market dynamics have made it an attractive testing ground. Anthropic, Google, OpenAI, and others have increasingly chased Indian consumers with India-specific, lower-cost plans, free access, and distribution partnerships, aiming to eventually translate them into paying customers.
A Promising Test of the AI Growth Experiment
Perplexity's free AI offer to Airtel customers in India has provided an early test of whether bundling paid AI services can create lasting users and revenue after the giveaway ends. The offer resulted in 5.9 million app downloads in July 2025, a 625% increase from the previous month, and 56 million downloads during the seven months it was available, more than nine times the preceding seven-month period.
A Resilient User Base
The users Perplexity had acquired did not disappear quite so quickly. Monthly active users, which peaked at about 22 million in October, stood at nearly 14 million in July, down 37% from that high but still more than five times the about 2.6 million monthly users Perplexity averaged in the first half of 2025.
A Rise in Spending
Despite a decline in downloads, Perplexity's in-app purchase and subscription revenue in India rose about 60% from the period when the Airtel offer was available to new users, despite the decline in downloads. This trend has continued even as the earliest Airtel subscribers have started losing their free Perplexity Pro access.
Key points
- Perplexity's free AI offer to Airtel customers in India led to 5.9 million app downloads in July 2025, a 625% increase from the previous month.
- The offer resulted in 56 million downloads during the seven months it was available, more than nine times the preceding seven-month period.
- Monthly active users peaked at about 22 million in October and stood at nearly 14 million in July, down 37% from that high.
- Perplexity's in-app purchase and subscription revenue in India rose about 60% from the period when the Airtel offer was available to new users.
- The experiment has shown promising results, with a significant increase in app downloads and revenue.
Perplexity's experiment with offering free AI services to Airtel customers in India has shown promising results, with a significant increase in app downloads and revenue. If this trend continues, it could lead to a rise in paying customers and a more sustainable business model for Perplexity.
However, it's also possible that the decline in downloads after the free offer ended could continue, leading to a decrease in revenue and a less successful business model for Perplexity.
