Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio is making its cloud PC service available to every internet user across India, pitching it as a solution to transform older computers into AI-capable machines without requiring any hardware upgrades. On Wednesday, the company expanded JioPC—first introduced in July 2025—beyond its own broadband customer base, now offering it as a standalone subscription to anyone with an internet connection, irrespective of their telecom or broadband provider.

The service streams a virtual desktop from Jio’s cloud infrastructure directly to a user’s existing computer, with subscription tiers providing up to eight virtual CPUs, 16GB of RAM, and 1TB of storage. According to Jio, even machines that are eight years old can tap into the processing power needed for contemporary AI applications, eliminating the need to purchase new devices or install additional components.

Pricing starts at ₹1,000 (roughly $11) for a two-month plan, while a 12-month subscription costs ₹4,000 (around $42) for 8GB of RAM and 500GB of storage. For the higher-tier configuration with 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage, the annual price is ₹5,000 (about $53).

India’s PC installed base exceeded 65 million units in 2025, comprising approximately 34 million consumer machines and 31 million commercial devices, according to IDC estimates. The research firm projects this figure will approach 69 million by the close of 2026.

Ambani’s initiative arrives as device replacement cycles continue to lengthen. Enterprises are also holding onto their hardware longer, with refresh intervals extending to roughly four years, up from the previous three-year cycle. Jio is wagering that cloud computing can push these lifecycles even further. By relocating much of the processing and storage burden from local devices to its own data centers, India’s most valuable company can continually expand computing capacity without forcing users to swap out the machines on their desks.

Prabhu Ram, vice president of the industry research group at Gurugram-based market analyst firm CyberMedia Research, suggested that JioPC could foster a market where consumers pay for computing capability as a service, rather than repeatedly investing in hardware upgrades. Still, he does not foresee this model displacing traditional PCs altogether. Instead, Ram noted, JioPC could carve out a parallel, price-conscious segment for households, students, and others “for whom buying a new AI-capable PC was never really on the table to begin with.”

Historically, Indian consumers have favored owning their hardware outright over subscribing to PCs as a service, according to Shenoy. Jio will need to persuade users that a recurring subscription justifies sacrificing some benefits of a conventional PC—such as the ability to operate without an internet connection. This dependency could be especially pronounced in smaller cities and towns, where affordable computing has the greatest growth potential. JioPC relies on a stable internet connection, and any service disruption can degrade the user experience in ways that a standalone computer would not face.

Competition also exists at the budget end of the market from refurbished PCs, which Shenoy pointed out give consumers the chance to own inexpensive hardware without being tethered to connectivity. Jio’s branding of JioPC as an “AI-ready” machine further challenges conventional notions of what constitutes an AI PC. The company has revealed little about the underlying hardware powering its cloud service, and the specifications it has published make no mention of dedicated AI accelerators for on-device generative AI tasks—a hallmark feature of the latest generation of AI-enabled PCs.

Ultimately, Ram said, the true test for Jio is whether consumers begin viewing cloud computing as a “daily utility” rather than an “opportunistic workaround”—and whether they are willing to pay for processing power on an ongoing basis instead of purchasing new hardware.