Perplexity’s gamble on free premium AI in India is starting to pay off in cash, even as the download boom it triggered has faded.
The experiment began in July 2025, when the search firm bundled a year of Pro with Airtel, the country’s second-largest carrier. During the seven months the offer stood open, downloads hit 56 million, nine times the prior stretch, and monthly actives crested 22 million by October, Sensor Tower estimates.
The giveaway window shut in January and downloads collapsed by more than 90%. Yet the user base did not vanish: roughly 14 million people still opened the app monthly in July, five times the pre-offer norm.
The surprise is spending. India revenue from in-app purchases and subscriptions ran about 60% higher from February through mid-August than during the promotion, and daily receipts from mid-July onward beat the first-half average by 27%, as the first Airtel cohorts faced renewal.
Auto-renewal muddies the picture: some of that lift likely comes from people who forgot to cancel, and the data firms cannot tell former Airtel users apart from other payers. Appfigures still shows the market’s value: monthly net mobile revenue in India grew from $34,000 in January 2025 to $156,000 in July 2026.
With OpenAI and Google copying the free-tier playbook, Perplexity’s numbers are the first real read on whether subsidized AI converts into durable revenue.
