India’s artificial intelligence market is entering a pivotal phase as tech giants shift from free access models to strategies aimed at converting its massive user base into paying subscribers.

In 2025, India led the world in generative AI app downloads, surpassing the U.S. with a 207% year-over-year increase, according to Sensor Tower.

To drive adoption, companies like OpenAI, Google, and Perplexity offered extended free premium access, often bundled with Indian telecom providers.

These efforts coincided with India’s ambition to establish itself as a global AI hub, highlighted by a major AI summit in New Delhi featuring figures such as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai.

However, the era of free access is ending.

Perplexity ended its Airtel Pro offer in January, while OpenAI’s ChatGPT Go is no longer freely available.

This shift is expected to provide clearer insights into conversion rates from free users to paying subscribers, a crucial metric for monetization strategies.

Despite robust downloads, monetization remains a challenge. India accounts for 20% of global generative AI downloads but only about 1% of in-app revenue.

In late 2025, in-app revenue declined month-over-month—22% in November and 18% in December—with ChatGPT seeing even steeper drops after its free ChatGPT Go rollout.

ChatGPT still dominates the market, commanding over 60% of generative AI in-app revenue in India, making pricing adjustments highly impactful.

Sensor Tower attributes India’s growth to promotional campaigns, new app launches such as DeepSeek, Grok, and Meta AI, and updates to existing platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity.

Viral interest in AI-generated content also contributed, with seven of the top twenty downloaded GenAI apps in India focused on content creation and editing.

India’s user base is massive:in 2025, the country accounted for 19% of global AI assistant users, surpassing the U.S.

ChatGPT led monthly active users, followed by Google Gemini and Perplexity.

OpenAI reported that ChatGPT now serves over 100 million weekly active users in India.

However, engagement per user lags behind mature markets.

U.S. users spend about 21% more time per week and log 17% more sessions than their Indian counterparts.

Analysts suggest that while in-app revenue may improve gradually, sustaining high engagement is critical.

Pricing pressure remains high due to India’s value-conscious population, emphasizing the importance of lower-cost tiers, telecom bundles, and microtransactions for long-term retention.

Entering 2026, ChatGPT retained market leadership in India with 180 million monthly active users, followed by Google Gemini (118 million), Perplexity (19 million), and Meta AI (12 million).

These figures illustrate India’s immense AI opportunity while highlighting the ongoing challenge of converting rapid adoption into sustainable revenue.