Perplexity finds free rollout can drive paying users, Indian data shows

Perplexity ran one of the most ambitious growth experiments last year: a free one-year Pro subscription for Airtel customers, India’s second-largest mobile operator. The redemption window closed in January, and the first users reached the end of the free period in July, allowing the first view of whether users who joined via the incentive stay and pay once the free window ends.

In July 2025, the app recorded 5.9 million downloads in India, a jump of 625 % versus the previous month, and more than all the downloads Perplexity had accumulated in the first half of the year combined (5.4 million). Over the seven months the incentive was open to new redemptions, about 56 million downloads were logged, nine times the comparable period. Monthly active users (MAU) more than doubled to 8.9 million in July and peaked at 22 million in October. After the redemption window closed in January, downloads collapsed: only 3.3 million between February and July, a decline of more than 90 % compared with the preceding six months.

Usage did not fall at the same rate. In July, monthly active users were about 14 million, down 37 % from the peak but still five times the average of about 2.6 million in the first half of 2025. “The limited-time nature of the promotion naturally leads to a drop in adoption after the period, but the ongoing usage remains resilient,” said Abe Yousef, senior insights analyst at Sensor Tower. Perplexity added that it now “holds significantly more users” in India than before the promotion. More strikingly, revenue from in-app purchases and subscriptions in India between February and mid-August rose by about 60 % compared with the period when the incentive was open, despite the steep drop in downloads.

The data point to a pattern worth noting: mass distribution through a large telecom partner creates a broad user base, and a non-trivial share of that base is willing to pay once the free tier ends. For AI firms seeking revenue paths in price-sensitive markets, the partnership with Airtel, which has 360 million subscribers, provided immediate access to an audience that otherwise would have remained outside the funnel. India, with more than 700 million smartphones and a billion internet subscriptions, is a huge download market but historically difficult to monetize; Anthropic, Google and OpenAI already offer discounted programs and free access there in an attempt to crack the same challenge.

The experiment remains ongoing: the earliest subscribers only began losing free access in mid-July, and the upward revenue trend continued at least until mid-August. The real test will be in the coming months—whether the conversion rate from free to paying subscription holds as more users reach the decision point, or whether revenue declines alongside downloads. For now, the numbers show that free distribution at this scale can generate a user base that continues to engage and pay after the promotion ends.