Somewhere between a free year of ChatGPT Go and 18 months of Gemini AI Pro, India has suddenly become the world’s favourite proving ground for AI. Along with a very large-scale experiment in customer acquisition.
In case you have been living under a rock, what started with Perplexity AI has found more takers with OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini double quick. Silicon valley AI upstarts and big tech alike are rolling out the AI carpet for Indian users like nobody’s business.
Earlier in October 2025, Google announced a partnership with Reliance Jio for a free Gemini AI Pro tier for all Jio subscribers. OpenAI’s ChatGPT Go offer, rolling out free for a year from November 4, 2025, essentially puts India on an express lane to its newest model, GPT-5. It’s 100% free, with no credit card needed, no billing worries, and therefore absolutely no friction. Not to forget Perplexity AI that teamed up with Airtel to offer its Perplexity Pro plan to mobile users, which started this free AI handouts trend in India.
Telecom bundles meet AI subscriptions, because it offers the holy trinity of convenience, access, and data capture. When OpenAI, Google, and Perplexity all announced that their paid AI subscriptions would be free for Indian users, it was amply clear that this isn’t charity, but courtship. Perplexity, OpenAI and Google aren’t just looking for users for ChatGPT or Gemini, but ultimately some form of lasting loyalty – and in India, that comes with unrivalled scale.
Also read: How to get ChatGPT Go for free in India starting Nov 4: Eligibility, benefits and more
Let’s start with simple math, shall we? India today counts over 934 million smartphone internet users, according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, with the average monthly mobile data cost at roughly ₹10 per GB, which is among the lowest in the world. More importantly, nearly 65% of India’s population is under 35, a demographic that lives, learns, and increasingly works online.
For every American paying $20 a month for a chatbot subscription, there are a thousand Indian users happy to test it for free – and perhaps become the next billion-dollar market once they’re hooked. And that’s what this generous gesture from Silicon Valley tech is all about. Habit formation at national scale.
Of course, we’ve seen this playbook before. Let me try and explain with an example: When Spotify launched in India, its global executives spoke about “discoverability” and “listening habits,” but beneath the marketing poetry was the same logic. Get users addicted to premium experiences before charging them. And it worked, too. Today, Spotify’s India audience is among its fastest-growing, with millions of playlists spanning every regional language imaginable.
AI companies are doing the same, except faster and with far higher stakes. Their product isn’t just entertainment – it’s productivity, education, even creative output. And if that’s the new frontier, you want to own every last inch of it as fast as you can.
Of course, there’s also a lot of hidden anxiety among the ranks of OpenAI, Google and Perplexity, when it comes to their AI generosity being offered to Indian users. After all, the AI race has become a global arms sprint. OpenAI faces pressure from Anthropic and xAI, Google is scrambling to regain its aura of inevitability, and Perplexity is punching above its weight with a hybrid search-chat model that threatens to erode Google’s dominance. It makes India not just another market for measured expansion, but a make-or-break growth chapter in their quarterly earnings story in 2026 and beyond.
And yet, one can’t help but admire the timing. With 5G expanding fast across India’s length and breadth, and rural digitization programs connecting millions, India’s AI moment feels imminent. Forget about millennials or GenZ, even boomers and older Indians are spending a record number of hours glued to their smartphones – at least 5 hours in a day minimum, according to one report. The average Indian user is curious, cost-sensitive, and chronically online – which makes India a dream test audience for any Silicon Valley product manager.
So yes, it’s a little desperate. But it’s also inevitable. For Silicon Valley, the first AI platform to become the default in India could very well define the next decade of global consumer AI. For now, though, the average Indian user isn’t complaining. They’re enjoying premium AI access without spending a rupee. As the saying goes, make hay while the sun shines – and judging by the current forecast, there’s no winter coming for India’s AI appetite anytime soon.
Also read: ChatGPT Go vs Perplexity Pro vs Gemini Pro: Features compared, which AI is best?
