OpenAI, Google and **Perplexity have launched an unprecedented competition in India by offering free and heavily subsidised AI services to attract users and gather valuable multilingual training data, according to Reuters. India’s vast smartphone base — with about 730 million devices — and low data costs make it a key market for global AI companies seeking both scale and diverse language inputs.
To lure price-sensitive users, Google started giving its $400-value Gemini AI Pro subscription free for 18 months to around 500 million Reliance Jio customers and also added India to its list of countries with a discounted “AI Plus” package. OpenAI made its ChatGPT Go plan free for a year in India — a service that is paid in most other countries — while Perplexity is offering its Pro tools free for Airtel users.
Early usage data shows a significant surge in engagement following these promotions. OpenAI’s ChatGPT daily active users in India jumped about 607 % year-on-year to 73 million, making India the platform’s largest market by daily users, while Gemini’s Indian daily users climbed to about 17 million since the Jio offer launched. Perplexity also reported that India now accounts for over one-third of its global daily user base.
Analysts say the freebies strategy is not just about user acquisition but also about leveraging India’s linguistic diversity for AI training, filling gaps in multilingual data that current models lack. India’s mix of languages and dialects offers valuable real-world conversational data that can improve AI language capabilities.
The aggressive push reflects the strategic importance of the Indian market for AI development, but it also raises questions about data privacy and how user information collected through free plans will be used or protected. Some users have already expressed concerns about data sharing even as they take advantage of the free tools.
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