Perplexity gained millions of users in India after a free Airtel deal

In short: Perplexity’s year-long free subscription offer through Airtel brought in millions of users in India, and spending rose even after the giveaway slowed.

What's going on

Perplexity, an AI search and answer app (like a search engine that replies in full sentences), offered its paid plan, Perplexity Pro, free for 12 months to customers of Airtel, India’s second-largest mobile carrier. The deal started in July 2025 and was marketed to Airtel’s huge customer base. New sign-ups for the free offer ended on January 16, 2026, but people kept access for a year from when they activated it.

The free offer led to a big jump in downloads. Perplexity saw about 5.9 million downloads in India in July 2025, up 625% from the month before, according to Sensor Tower. Across the seven months the offer was open to new users, Sensor Tower estimates Perplexity got 56 million downloads in India, and monthly active users peaked at around 22 million in October.

After the promotion stopped accepting new users, downloads dropped sharply. Sensor Tower estimates Perplexity was downloaded 3.3 million times in India from February through July, down more than 90% from the prior six months. Even so, monthly active users were still nearly 14 million in July.

What to watch

Spending inside the app did not fall with downloads. Sensor Tower estimates Perplexity’s India in-app purchase and subscription revenue rose about 60% after the Airtel offer ended for new users. A key question is how much of that comes from people choosing to pay versus people forgetting to cancel auto-renew (like a free trial that turns into a paid plan).

Source: TechCrunch AI