India’s AI boom pushes firms to trade near-term revenue for users

Tech giants’ efforts to ramp up AI adoption successful India whitethorn beryllium astir to deed a turning point, arsenic companies extremity escaped promotions with hopes to person the world’s fourth-largest system into a windfall of paid subscribers.

India became the world’s largest marketplace for generative AI app downloads successful 2025, according to marketplace quality steadfast Sensor Tower, widening its pb implicit the U.S. arsenic installs jumped 207% year-over-year.

Companies including OpenAI, Google, and Perplexity rolled retired extended escaped premium offers to accelerate idiosyncratic maturation successful the terms delicate market. Leading AI firms person besides backed India successful its propulsion to go a planetary artificial quality hub. A major AI acme successful New Delhi past week was attended by leaders including OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai — a motion of the country’s increasing value successful the planetary AI race.

Now, immoderate of those aboriginal promotional pushes are winding down. Perplexity ended its bundled Pro connection with Indian telco Airtel successful January, portion OpenAI’s escaped ChatGPT Go entree successful India is no longer available, perchance mounting the signifier for a clearer trial of however galore recently acquired users person to paying subscribers.

Despite beardown download growth, India inactive generates a disproportionately tiny stock of AI app revenue, accounting for astir 1% of in-app purchases adjacent arsenic it drives astir 20% of planetary GenAI app downloads, according to the Sensor Tower information shared with TechCrunch, highlighting the monetization situation successful 1 of the industry’s fastest-growing markets.

GenAI app adoption successful India accelerated sharply done 2025, with downloads peaking successful September and October astatine year-over-year maturation rates of astir 320% and 260%, respectively, according to the data. Yet the surge successful usage did not afloat construe into gross gains. In November and December 2025, AI app in-app acquisition gross successful India fell 22% and 18% period implicit month, respectively. ChatGPT’s gross dropped adjacent much sharply — down 33% and 32% implicit the aforesaid play pursuing the November motorboat of escaped sub-$5 ChatGPT Go entree — reflecting the near-term interaction of assertive promotional pushes.

Image Credits:Sensor Tower

ChatGPT inactive commands much than 60% of GenAI in-app gross successful India, meaning shifts successful its pricing strategy tin importantly power wide marketplace performance.

Alongside promotional pushes, Sensor Tower attributed the surge successful GenAI app adoption successful India past twelvemonth to a premix of caller merchandise launches, including the debut of platforms specified arsenic DeepSeek, Grok, and Meta AI, arsenic good arsenic upgrades to large chatbots similar ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity. Viral involvement successful AI-generated contented besides helped substance adoption, with contented instauration and editing tools accounting for 7 of the 20 astir downloaded GenAI apps successful India successful 2025.

The idiosyncratic surge has been arsenic pronounced. India accounted for astir 19% of the planetary idiosyncratic basal of starring AI adjunct apps successful 2025, up of the U.S. astatine 10%, Sensor Tower said. ChatGPT continues to predominate the Indian marketplace by monthly progressive users, though rivals including Google’s Gemini and Perplexity person besides seen accelerated maturation pursuing promotional offers. ChatGPT was the most downloaded GenAI app successful India and globally successful 2025, according to earlier Sensor Tower data. Earlier this month, OpenAI’s CEO said that the chatbot present has more than 100 cardinal play progressive users successful India.

The promotional propulsion successful India reflects a broader strategy by AI firms to trim pricing friction successful a highly value-conscious market, betting that aboriginal idiosyncratic adoption and engagement volition construe into stronger semipermanent retention erstwhile escaped entree periods expire, said Sneha Pandey, insights expert astatine Sensor Tower.

India’s entreaty lies successful its monolithic integer base. The state has much than a cardinal net users and astir 700 cardinal smartphone owners, making it 1 of the largest imaginable markets for AI services globally and a captious battleground for idiosyncratic growth.

Nonetheless, idiosyncratic engagement successful India inactive trails much mature markets. In 2025, users of starring AI chatbot apps successful the U.S. spent astir 21% much clip per week connected the apps than their counterparts successful India and logged 17% much sessions connected average, per Sensor Tower.

“AI in-app revenues volition apt spot meaningful but gradual betterment arsenic users go much profoundly integrated into these platforms, making sustained engagement paramount,” Pandey told TechCrunch.

She added that pricing unit successful India is apt to stay elevated fixed the country’s young and value-conscious idiosyncratic base, making lower-cost tiers, telecom bundles, and micro-transaction models important for semipermanent retention.

ChatGPT remained the wide marketplace person successful India entering 2026, with 180 cardinal monthly progressive users successful January, per Sensor Tower, followed by Google’s Gemini with 118 million, Perplexity with 19 million, and Meta AI with 12 million. The figures underline some the standard of India’s AI accidental and the increasing situation for firms to person accelerated idiosyncratic adoption into sustained revenue.

Google, OpenAI, and Perplexity did not respond to requests for comments.