The drive by major technology companies to expand artificial intelligence adoption in India appears to be approaching a pivotal moment. Firms are concluding their free promotional campaigns with the aim of transforming the world's fourth-largest economy into a significant source of paid subscriptions.

India emerged as the top global market for generative AI application downloads in 2025, according to data from market intelligence firm Sensor Tower. The country widened its lead over the United States as installations surged by 207% compared to the previous year. To accelerate user growth in this price-sensitive market, companies like OpenAI, Google, and Perplexity introduced extended free premium offers. These leading AI firms have also expressed support for India's ambition to become a global hub for artificial intelligence. The country's increasing influence was highlighted at a major AI summit in New Delhi last week, which featured prominent leaders such as OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai.

Now, several of these initial promotional efforts are being scaled back. Perplexity discontinued its bundled Pro offer with Indian telecom operator Airtel in January, and OpenAI’s free ChatGPT Go access in India is no longer available. These changes may set the stage for a clearer assessment of how many newly acquired users will transition to paying subscribers.

Adoption of generative AI apps in India accelerated dramatically throughout 2025. Downloads peaked in September and October with year-over-year growth rates of approximately 320% and 260%, respectively, based on the data. However, this surge in usage did not completely translate into increased revenue. In November and December 2025, in-app purchase revenue from AI applications in India declined by 22% and 18% month-over-month. Revenue for ChatGPT fell even more sharply, dropping 33% and 32% during the same period following the November launch of its free, sub-$5 ChatGPT Go tier, reflecting the short-term impact of aggressive promotional strategies.

ChatGPT continues to command over 60% of generative AI in-app revenue in India, meaning changes to its pricing strategy can significantly affect overall market performance. Alongside promotional campaigns, Sensor Tower attributed last year's surge in AI app adoption in India to a combination of new product launches—including platforms like DeepSeek, Grok, and Meta AI—as well as upgrades to major chatbots such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity. Viral interest in AI-generated content also fueled adoption, with content creation and editing tools representing seven of the twenty most downloaded generative AI apps in India during 2025.

The growth in users has been equally striking. India accounted for roughly 19% of the global user base for leading AI assistant apps in 2025, ahead of the United States at 10%. ChatGPT continues to dominate the Indian market in terms of monthly active users, though competitors like Google’s Gemini and Perplexity have also experienced rapid growth following promotional offers. Earlier Sensor Tower data indicated that ChatGPT was the most downloaded generative AI app both in India and globally for 2025. Earlier this month, OpenAI’s CEO announced that the chatbot now boasts over 100 million weekly active users in India.

According to Sneha Pandey, an insights analyst at Sensor Tower, the promotional push in India reflects a broader strategy by AI firms to reduce pricing barriers in a highly value-conscious market. The bet is that early user adoption and engagement will lead to stronger long-term retention once free access periods conclude. India's appeal is rooted in its enormous digital population, with over a billion internet users and approximately 700 million smartphone owners. This makes it one of the largest potential markets for AI services worldwide and a critical arena for user growth.

Nevertheless, user engagement in India still lags behind more mature markets. In 2025, users of leading AI chatbot apps in the United States spent about 21% more time per week on the applications than their counterparts in India and logged 17% more sessions on average. Pandey added that pricing pressure in India is likely to remain high due to the country's young and value-conscious user base, making lower-cost tiers, telecom bundles, and micro-transaction models crucial for long-term retention.

Entering 2026, ChatGPT remained the clear market leader in India with 180 million monthly active users in January, per Sensor Tower. It was followed by Google’s Gemini with 118 million, Perplexity with 19 million, and Meta AI with 12 million. These figures underscore both the immense scale of India's AI opportunity and the growing challenge for companies to convert rapid user adoption into sustained revenue. Google, OpenAI, and Perplexity did not respond to requests for comment.