The race for India’s artificial intelligence market just hit top gear.
After OpenAI and Perplexity rolled out access to their premium services earlier this month, Google on Thursday announced a partnership with Reliance Jio to offer 18 months of free access to its premium “Google AI Pro” plan — a package valued at Rs 35,100 per user.
“We are excited to expand access to our most powerful AI models to more people across India,” Google said in a statement, adding that the partnership reflects its commitment to deliver “powerful benefits in people’s everyday lives.”
The offer, aimed at “democratising AI access”, will be available to Jio Unlimited 5G plan users aged 18 to 25, and will later expand nationwide. Eligible customers can activate it through the MyJio app.
The free tier includes Gemini 2.5 Pro, Google’s most advanced large language model, along with image and video generation tools powered by Nano Banana and Veo 3.1, expanded NotebookLM access for students and researchers, and 2TB of cloud storage across Gmail, Drive, Photos and WhatsApp backups.
The freebie wave: OpenAI and Perplexity set the tone
Google’s offer follows OpenAI’s move earlier this week to make its ChatGPT Go plan free in India for one year starting November 4 — its most affordable subscription, otherwise priced at Rs 399 a month.
India is already OpenAI’s second-largest market by user base after the United States, and CEO Sam Altman has hinted it could soon become its biggest.
The company hopes the free plan will accelerate adoption just as India prepares to introduce tighter rules around AI transparency and labelling of deepfake content.
In July, Airtel announced its partnership with Perplexity AI, the San Francisco-based search and answer engine with roots in India, offering a 12-month free subscription to Perplexity Pro, worth around Rs 17,000.
The plan unlocks multiple AI models such as GPT-4.1, Claude, and Gemini, daily Pro searches, and image and file analysis features. Airtel users can claim the offer directly via the Airtel Thanks app.
These announcements cements India’s position as a battleground for AI majors, who see the country’s 700-million-plus smartphone users and expanding digital ecosystem as an irresistible opportunity.
The country has one of the world’s largest developer communities, a thriving startup ecosystem, and a government that’s pushing the IndiaAI Mission to make the nation a global AI powerhouse.
Add to that India’s price-sensitive market, where partnerships like Google–Jio and Perplexity–Airtel allow companies to penetrate while building loyalty.
The diversity of languages and user behaviour also helps these firms train and fine-tune their models for multilingual and multicultural contexts, which can serve as a goldmine for global AI refinement.
