Perplexity goes after OpenAI's lead with Bharti Airtel India partnership

The search-focused AI startup, Perplexity, partnered with Bharti Airtel to offer 12 months of free Perplexity Pro subscriptions to over 360 million Indian Airtel subscribers. The company uses this strategy as a shortcut to compete against rival OpenAI, which dominates the U.S. market.

The AI firm’s team said the free offer for the Pro version of its AI-powered search engine will be exclusive to Airtel subscribers. The telco’s customers can subscribe via the Airtel Thanks app from July 17, 2025, to January 17, 2026.

Perplexity also confirmed that its Pro version will provide subscribers with up to 300 daily AI-powered searches. The free version offers only a limited number of daily searches.

The AI startup disclosed that Pro subscribers will, depending on their needs, access advanced language models like Gemini 2.5 Pro, GPT-4.1, and Claude 4.0 Sonnet. Services will include the capabilities to upload and analyze files and DALL-E-powered image generation. Users will also gain access to Perplexity Labs, which helps to create dashboards, spreadsheets, and web applications.  

Vittal says the exclusive partnership brings real-time knowledge to millions

Gopal Vittal, the Vice Chair and Managing Director at Bharti Airtel, said the exclusive collaboration with the AI startup would bring the real-time knowledge tool to the fingertips of millions of Airtel subscribers. He added that cutting-edge AI capabilities would be available at no cost.

According to NDTV Profit, the partnership came amid India’s growing adoption of generative AI tools. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India revealed that Airtel had over 390 million subscribers, making it second only to Reliance Jio.

The Perplexity team said it all came down to numbers, and India is among the most populous countries in the world. The AI firm has partnered with over 25 telcos worldwide, including South Korea’s SK Telecom and Japan’s SoftBank.  

“The partnership aims to make accurate, trustworthy, and professional-grade AI accessible to more people in India—whether a student, working professional, or managing a household.”

–Aravind Srinivas, Co-founder and CEO of Perplexity

Data from Sensor Tower also disclosed that downloads of the AI startup’s tool in India shot up 600% YoY to 2.8 million in Q2. OpenAI’s ChatGPT surged 587%, reaching 46.7 million downloads over the same period. 

India’s Perplexity MAUs (Monthly Active Users) also surged by 640% YoY during the second quarter, compared to ChatGPT’s 350% growth in the same period. Sensor Tower confirmed that India had the largest MAUs for the AI company in Q1. However, ChatGPT remained in the global lead with 19.8 million MAUs against Perplexity’s 3.7 million.

The Perplexity team also said monetizing India’s massive user base is still challenging. The question remains how the average Indian will shell out ₹17K (~$200) for the Pro version when the average monthly income is ~₹32K.

Perplexity partners with Paytm to leverage India’s user base

The AI startup also announced a partnership with India’s fintech firm Paytm, leveraging the country’s large user base. The AI firm extended its AI-powered search tool through the Paytm app, which more than 500 million users have downloaded. The Paytm app is among the top three Unified Payment Interface network apps under the Indian government. It processes over 1.2 transactions worth over $15.6 billion.

Perplexity also expanded in India, announcing plans to hire a local executive to serve in the country. However, the CEO received overwhelming responses, pausing the recruitment exercise. Srinivas announced that he would invest $1 million in an Indian group developing AI and dedicate up to five hours of his time per week.

The AI firm disclosed that it targeted India because of its low number of AI startups, especially in the AI search category. It also acknowledged India’s large number of active tech-savvy users.

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