Perplexity partnered with Airtel to offer its premium AI service free to Airtel customers, triggering a surge in adoption. In July 2025 the app recorded 5.9 million downloads in India, a 625 % rise over June and exceeding the total downloads from the first half of the year. Over the seven‑month window of the promotion Perplexity accumulated 56 million downloads, more than nine times the figure for the preceding seven months, and monthly active users grew from ~2.6 million to a peak of 22 million in October.
After the free‑access window closed in January 2026, downloads fell sharply to 3.3 million between February and July, a drop of >90 % compared with the prior six months. Nevertheless, monthly active users remained at ~14 million in July 2026, still more than five times the pre‑promotion average. Sensor Tower also reported a ~60 % increase in in‑app purchase and subscription revenue from February to mid‑August 2026 relative to the period when the Airtel offer was active, indicating that the user base acquired during the giveaway continued to generate spending despite lower new‑install rates.
- Downloads in July 2025: 5.9 M (+625 % MoM)
- Total downloads during promotion (7 mo): 56 M (≈9× prior 7‑mo)
- Peak MAU: 22 M (Oct 2025)
- MAU after promotion (Jul 2026): 14 M (≈5× pre‑promo avg)
- Revenue Feb‑mid‑Aug 2026: +60 % vs. promotion period
Why this matters
The data suggest that a temporary, zero‑price bundling strategy can create a durable user cohort in a price‑sensitive market like India, even when the incentive is removed. While the sharp decline in new installs reflects the expected churn after a time‑limited offer, the sustained MAU and revenue growth imply that a significant fraction of users found ongoing value in the product’s core features, such as its retrieval‑augmented answer engine and citation‑backed responses. This outcome provides empirical evidence for AI firms considering similar subsidy‑driven acquisition tactics, highlighting that long‑term monetization depends less on continuous free access and more on delivering measurable utility that converts a subset of free users into paying subscribers.