Perplexity’s year-long distribution partnership with Bharti Airtel has left the AI search company with a substantially larger Indian user base, even as the promotional surge in downloads has receded and the earliest free subscriptions begin converting to paid access or expiring.
The partnership, launched in July 2025, offered Airtel’s approximately 360 million customers a complimentary 12-month subscription to Perplexity Pro, then priced at about $200 annually. New redemptions closed on January 16, 2026, but subscribers retained premium access for a year from activation. The first cohort consequently reached the end of its promotional period in July, creating an early test of whether large-scale AI bundling can produce durable usage and subscription revenue in India.
The initial acquisition effect was substantial. Perplexity recorded an estimated 5.9 million Indian app downloads in July 2025, an increase of 625% from the previous month. That single-month figure exceeded the 5.4 million downloads accumulated during the entire first half of 2025. During the seven months in which Airtel customers could activate the offer, the app generated an estimated 56 million downloads, more than nine times the preceding seven-month period.
Monthly active users rose from an average of roughly 2.6 million during the first half of 2025 to 8.9 million in July, before peaking at around 22 million in October. Usage subsequently moderated, but Perplexity still had nearly 14 million monthly active users in India in July 2026, more than five times its pre-promotion average.
New downloads fell more sharply after redemptions ended, declining by more than 90% to approximately 3.3 million between February and July compared with the preceding six months. Revenue, however, moved in the opposite direction. Estimated Indian in-app purchase and subscription revenue increased about 60% between February and mid-August compared with the offer period. Average daily revenue from July 18 through August 12 was 9% higher than during the preceding 30 days and 27% above the first-half 2026 average.
Separate estimates place Perplexity’s monthly net mobile revenue in India at approximately $156,000 in July, up from $34,000 in January 2025. It generated an estimated $878,000 during the first seven months of 2026, 16% more than during all of 2025.
The data cannot distinguish deliberate conversions by former Airtel beneficiaries from accidental auto-renewals or subscriptions purchased by users who were never part of the promotion. Later activation cohorts also remain on complimentary access. The full conversion profile will therefore emerge progressively as more subscriptions reach their renewal dates.
