Efforts by tech giants to boost AI adoption in India could mark a turning point as companies end free promotions in hopes of converting the world’s fourth-largest economy to windfall paid subscribers.
India will become the world’s largest download market for generative AI apps in 2025, according to market intelligence firm Sensor Tower, extending its lead over the US as installs grew 207% year-on-year.
Companies including OpenAI, Google and Perplexity have introduced expanded free premium offerings to accelerate user growth in a price-sensitive market. Leading AI companies have also supported India in its efforts to become a global AI hub. Leaders including OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Anthropic’s Dario Amodei and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai attended a major AI summit in New Delhi last week — a sign of the country’s growing weight in the global AI race.
Now some of those early promotional pushes are winding down. Perplexity ended its bundled Pro offering with Indian telco Airtel in January, while free access to OpenAI’s ChatGPT Go is no longer available in India, potentially setting the stage for a clearer test of how many newly acquired users will convert to paying subscribers.
Despite strong growth in downloads, India still generates a disproportionately small share of revenue from AI apps, accounting for about 1% of in-app purchases, even though it drives roughly 20% of global GenAI app downloads, according to Sensor Tower data shared with TechCrunch, highlighting the challenge of monetization in one of the industry’s fastest-growing markets.
Adoption of GenAI apps in India has accelerated sharply through 2025, with downloads peaking in September and October at year-on-year growth rates of about 320% and 260%, respectively, according to the data. However, the increase in usage did not fully translate into profits. In November and December 2025, revenue from AI app purchases in India fell 22% and 18% month-on-month, respectively. ChatGPT’s revenue fell even more sharply — down 33% and 32% over the same period after the November launch of free access to ChatGPT Go under $5 — reflecting the short-term impact of aggressive promotions.
ChatGPT still commands more than 60% of GenAI app revenue in India, which means changes in its pricing strategy can significantly impact overall market performance.
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In addition to promotions, Sensor Tower attributed the spike in GenAI adoption in India last year to a mix of new products to market, including the debut of platforms like DeepSeek, Grok and Meta AI, as well as upgrades to major chatbots like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity. Viral interest in AI-generated content also helped drive adoption, with content creation and editing tools accounting for seven of the top 20 downloaded GenAI apps in India in 2025.
The increase in users was equally significant. India accounted for about 19% of the global user base of leading AI assistance apps in 2025, ahead of the US at 10%, Sensor Tower said. ChatGPT continues to dominate the Indian market in terms of monthly active users, although competitors including Google’s Gemini and Perplexity have also seen rapid growth following promotional offers. ChatGPT was the most downloaded GenAI app in India and globally in 2025, according to earlier Sensor Tower data. Earlier this month, OpenAI’s CEO said the chatbot now has more than 100 million weekly active users in India.
The promotional push in India reflects a broader strategy by AI companies to reduce price friction in a value-heavy market, betting that early adoption and user engagement will translate into stronger long-term retention once the free access period ends, said Sneha Pandey, an analyst at Sensor Tower.
India’s appeal lies in its massive digital base. The country has more than one billion internet users and around 700 million smartphone owners, making it one of the largest potential markets for AI services worldwide and a critical battleground for user growth.
However, user engagement in India still lags behind more mature markets. In 2025, US users of leading AI chatbot apps spent approximately 21% more time per week in apps than their counterparts in India and logged 17% more Sensor Tower sessions on average.
“In-app AI revenue is likely to see meaningful but incremental improvement as users integrate more deeply into these platforms, so sustained engagement will be paramount,” Pandey told TechCrunch.
She added that pricing pressure in India is likely to remain elevated given the country’s young and value-oriented user base, making cheaper tiers, telecom bundles and micro-transaction models important for long-term retention.
ChatGPT remained the clear market leader in India entering 2026, with 180 million monthly active users in January at Sensor Tower, followed by Google’s Gemini with 118 million, Perplexity with 19 million and Meta AI with 12 million. The numbers highlight both the scale of India’s AI opportunity and the growing challenge for companies to turn rapid user adoption into sustained revenue.
Google, OpenAI and Perplexity did not respond to requests for comment.