New Delhi: Perplexity’s decision to give millions of Airtel customers in India free access to its premium AI service has delivered a dramatic boost to the company’s user base — and the effects are still visible even after the promotional period ended.
The AI search company partnered with Airtel in 2025 to offer eligible customers 12 months of Perplexity Pro, a subscription valued at about ₹17,000 ($200). The promotion remained open for new redemptions until January 16, 2026.
The experiment has now produced an interesting result: downloads have collapsed after the offer ended, but millions of users have continued using the service.
Downloads Surged During the Free Offer
According to data from app-intelligence firms Sensor Tower and Appfigures, Perplexity’s India downloads jumped dramatically after the Airtel promotion began.
Perplexity averaged roughly 11,200 downloads per day in India before the offer. That figure jumped to nearly 223,000 daily downloads during the first week of the promotion and later climbed to around 305,000 downloads a day during its peak period.
The growth was particularly notable because downloads of competing AI applications such as ChatGPT and Claude did not experience a comparable surge during the same period.
This suggests that the increase was largely driven by Perplexity’s Airtel partnership rather than simply reflecting a broader rise in interest in AI applications.
56 Million Downloads During the Promotion
Sensor Tower estimates that Perplexity recorded approximately 56 million downloads in India during the seven months when the promotional offer was available.
After the redemption period ended in January 2026, downloads fell sharply. Between February and July, the company recorded only about 3.3 million downloads, representing a decline of more than 90 percent from the preceding promotional period.
At first glance, that might appear to indicate that the promotion had lost its impact.
However, the user numbers tell a different story.
Nearly 14 Million Monthly Users Remained
Despite the dramatic decline in new downloads, Perplexity still had nearly 14 million monthly active users in India in July 2026.
That was down from the promotional peak, but it remained more than five times the average monthly user base recorded during the first half of 2025, before the Airtel partnership.
Sensor Tower described the continued usage as evidence that Perplexity now has significantly more users in India than it did before the promotion.
In other words, the free offer did not simply create a temporary download spike. A substantial portion of users appear to have continued using the product after discovering it through the promotion.
Revenue Increased Despite Fewer Downloads
Perhaps the most surprising part of the experiment is what happened to Perplexity’s revenue.
According to Sensor Tower estimates cited by TechCrunch, Perplexity’s in-app purchase and subscription revenue in India increased by around 60% after the promotional period compared with the period when the Airtel offer was available for new users.
Between July 18 and August 12, the company’s average daily in-app purchase revenue in India was reportedly 9% higher than during the previous 30 days and 27% higher than the average for the first half of 2026.
The figures suggest that at least some users who initially entered through the free promotion may have become paying customers.
Why India Matters to Perplexity
India represents one of the world’s biggest opportunities for AI companies because of its enormous internet population, widespread smartphone adoption and rapidly increasing interest in generative AI.
But India is also a challenging market for subscription businesses because consumers are generally more price-sensitive than users in wealthier markets.
That makes the Airtel experiment particularly important.
Instead of asking users to immediately pay for an AI subscription, Perplexity effectively allowed millions of people to experience its premium product first and potentially develop a habit around it.
The company’s strategy was essentially to turn free distribution into long-term user acquisition.
The Competition Is Also Offering Free AI
Perplexity’s experiment is taking place amid an increasingly aggressive battle for Indian AI users.
Other technology companies have also launched major promotional campaigns.
Google, for example, has partnered with Reliance Jio to offer eligible users 18 months of Google AI Pro at no cost. The current Jio offer is available to eligible users on qualifying unlimited 5G plans.
OpenAI has also used India as an important market for expanding access to its AI services.
The result is an unusual situation in which Indian consumers can access premium versions of several leading AI products through telecom or promotional partnerships.
The Real Test Has Just Begun
The biggest question for Perplexity is whether the millions of users acquired through Airtel will eventually translate into sustainable paying customers.
The first numbers are encouraging: monthly usage remains significantly above pre-promotion levels, while revenue has increased even as downloads declined.
But the company still has to determine how many users are willing to pay once their complimentary subscriptions expire.
The timing is particularly important because the earliest Airtel users began reaching the end of their free 12-month period in July 2026.
As more users reach that point, Perplexity will get a clearer picture of how many customers are prepared to continue with a paid subscription.
A New Model for AI Growth?
The Airtel-Perplexity experiment could become an important case study for the wider AI industry.
Instead of spending heavily on traditional advertising, AI companies can partner with telecom operators to distribute premium products to hundreds of millions of consumers at once.
For Perplexity, the strategy appears to have worked in one important respect: India now has millions more active users of its service than before the promotion.
The next challenge is converting that enormous audience into a sustainable business.
If even a small percentage of those users become paying subscribers, the free-AI strategy could prove to be one of Perplexity’s most effective growth experiments yet. If users leave once the free period ends, however, the company may discover that acquiring millions of users is considerably easier than retaining them as paying customers.
