Tech giants are poised for a pivotal shift in their strategy for AI adoption in India, as they begin to phase out free promotional offers. The aim is to transition users in the world's fourth-largest economy into a substantial base of paid subscribers.
India emerged as the global leader in generative AI app downloads in 2025, according to market intelligence firm Sensor Tower. The nation significantly widened its lead over the U.S., experiencing a remarkable 207% year-over-year increase in installs.
To accelerate user acquisition within this price-sensitive market, companies such as OpenAI, Google, and Perplexity had previously launched extensive free premium offers. Leading AI firms have also actively supported India's ambition to establish itself as a global artificial intelligence hub. This commitment was underscored by a major AI summit in New Delhi last week, which saw attendance from prominent leaders including OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, signaling India's increasing influence in the worldwide AI landscape.
However, many of these initial promotional initiatives are now concluding. Perplexity concluded its bundled Pro offer with Indian telecom provider Airtel in January, and OpenAI’s free ChatGPT Go access is no longer available in India. These changes are expected to provide a clearer indication of how many of the newly acquired users will convert into paying subscribers.
Despite robust download growth, India currently contributes a disproportionately small share of AI app revenue. It accounts for approximately 1% of in-app purchases, even as it generates roughly 20% of global GenAI app downloads. This data, shared by Sensor Tower with TechCrunch, highlights the significant monetization challenge in one of the industry's fastest-growing markets.
GenAI app adoption in India saw a sharp acceleration throughout 2025, with downloads peaking in September and October at year-over-year growth rates of about 320% and 260%, respectively. Yet, this surge in usage did not fully translate into revenue gains. In November and December 2025, AI app in-app purchase revenue in India declined by 22% and 18% month-over-month, respectively. ChatGPT’s revenue experienced an even steeper drop—down 33% and 32% over the same period—following the November launch of its free sub-$5 ChatGPT Go access, reflecting the immediate impact of aggressive promotional campaigns.
ChatGPT continues to command over 60% of GenAI in-app revenue in India, indicating that any adjustments to its pricing strategy can significantly influence the overall market performance.
Beyond promotional efforts, Sensor Tower attributed the surge in GenAI app adoption in India last year to a combination of new product launches, including the debut of platforms like DeepSeek, Grok, and Meta AI, alongside significant upgrades to major chatbots such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity. Viral interest in AI-generated content also contributed to the adoption, with content creation and editing tools representing seven of the top 20 most downloaded GenAI apps in India in 2025.
The increase in user numbers has been equally notable. India accounted for approximately 19% of the global user base for leading AI assistant apps in 2025, surpassing the U.S. at 10%, as reported by Sensor Tower. ChatGPT maintains its dominance in the Indian market by monthly active users, though competitors like Google’s Gemini and Perplexity have also experienced rapid growth following their promotional offers. Earlier Sensor Tower data confirmed ChatGPT as the most downloaded GenAI app in both India and globally in 2025. OpenAI’s CEO recently announced that the chatbot now boasts over 100 million weekly active users in India.
Sneha Pandey, an insights analyst at Sensor Tower, explained that the promotional drive in India is part of a broader strategy by AI firms to mitigate pricing friction in a highly value-conscious market. The underlying belief is that early user adoption and engagement will foster stronger long-term retention once free access periods expire.
India’s appeal is deeply rooted in its vast digital infrastructure. With over a billion internet users and approximately 700 million smartphone owners, the country stands as one of the largest potential markets for AI services globally and a crucial arena for user growth.
Nevertheless, user engagement in India still lags behind more established markets. In 2025, users of leading AI chatbot apps in the U.S. spent about 21% more time per week on these applications than their Indian counterparts and logged 17% more sessions on average, according to Sensor Tower.
“AI in-app revenues will likely see meaningful but gradual improvement as users become more deeply integrated into these platforms, making sustained engagement paramount,” Pandey told TechCrunch.
She further noted that pricing pressure in India is expected to remain high due to the country’s youthful and value-conscious user base. This necessitates the implementation of lower-cost tiers, telecom bundles, and micro-transaction models to ensure long-term retention.
Entering 2026, ChatGPT remained the undisputed market leader in India, recording 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 increasing challenge for companies to convert rapid user adoption into sustainable revenue streams.
Google, OpenAI, and Perplexity did not respond to requests for comments regarding these developments.
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