India ranks as the second-largest smartphone market with 730 million devices. On average, Indian users consume 21 gigabytes of data monthly, paying just 9.2 cents per gigabyte, making it one of the lowest mobile data rates globally.
In November, Google began providing its $400 Gemini AI Pro subscription for free for 18 months to 500 million customers of Reliance Jio, India’s largest telecom operator. Last week, it included India in a group of countries where it is promoting its significantly discounted “AI Plus” package.
OpenAI has also introduced its ChatGPT Go plan, which offers extended but not unlimited usage compared to existing plans, free for a year. This plan incurred charges in over 100 countries and was priced at $54 in India before being offered for free to all users in November.
Similar to Google’s AI Pro, this free package is available exclusively in India.
Initial download statistics indicate a significant rise in usage due to these free offerings, with daily active users of ChatGPT in India soaring 607% year-on-year to 73 million as of last week—more than double the number in the United States, according to data from market intelligence firm Sensor Tower compiled for Reuters.
Gemini’s daily users in India increased by 15% since launching the Reliance Jio offer in November, reaching 17 million last week, in contrast to 3 million in the U.S., as per the data.
Perplexity has made its Pro tool, which globally costs $200 a year, free for a year for Airtel users in India. The company claims this plan provides unlimited access to its most advanced research tools.
India now represents over a third of Perplexity’s global daily active users, up from just 7% last year, Sensor Tower data revealed.
OpenAI, Perplexity, and Google did not respond to requests for comment from Reuters.
Training fills data gaps
Pragya Misra, OpenAI’s executive in India, stated on social media that the choice to offer ChatGPT Go for free was part of its “India-first commitment,” aimed at making tools more accessible to all users.
However, five AI analysts noted that this freebie strategy would enable companies to leverage India’s linguistic diversity to collect essential data for AI training.
They consider the training data produced by Indian users, rich in varied languages and dialects, a crucial stress test that will enable AI models to understand complex communication patterns often missing from existing datasets.
Free plans “address gaps in AI training data sets that currently lack insight into user behavior patterns in the region,” explained Sagar Vishnoi, co-founder of AI think tank Future Shift Labs.
Freebies work in India, frequently
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance, in partnership with Gemini, has consistently utilized aggressive pricing tactics to expand its user base. The telecom unit now boasts over 500 million users, having attracted customers at its 2016 launch with months of complimentary data and voice services.
Reliance and Disney previously offered free cricket streaming on their Indian platforms before integrating their media operations in the country.
ChatGPT has experienced elevated app usage, with 46% of its monthly users opening the app daily in India this November, compared to 20% for Perplexity and 14% for Gemini, according to Sensor Tower’s data.
Anees Hassan, a PhD student in Hyderabad, utilizes the free ChatGPT and Gemini plans for three hours daily to locate citations, enhance his writing, and generate images for presentations.
“The free plan was insufficient as I often hit chat limits quickly,” said Hassan, 33.
Nevertheless, he remains mindful that freebies may come at a cost.
“I am concerned about data harvesting, so I have opted out of sharing my data for AI training,” he added.
