Reliance Jio subscribers will get 18 months of free access to Google’s AI pro platform, the two companies announced on Thursday, a tie-up that follows similar freebies from rivals such as OpenAI and Perplexity AI to boost adoption in the world’s most populous nation.
The move also comes weeks after Google committed to invest $15 billion in AI infrastructure capacity in India, its biggest yet in the country.
The development signals an escalating race among AI model builders to harvest users and valuable human-generated data from India’s crores of English speakers. Earlier OpenAI Inc said it would offer 12 months of free ChatGPT Go service in India from November, and Perplexity AI Inc has partnered with Jio’s rival Bharti Airtel for free premium access.
This 18-month offer from Jio-Google is worth ₹35,100 and will be rolled out first for the 18- to 25-year-old Jio users and then expanded to include every Jio customer nationwide "in the shortest time possible", Reliance said in a statement. Google already offers Gemini AI Pro free for a year for students in India.
“This expanded collaboration also establishes Reliance Intelligence as a strategic go-to-market partner for Google Cloud, driving the adoption of Gemini Enterprise across Indian organisations,” Reliance said.
The Gemini offer will give 50.5 crore Jio users free access to the advanced model of the AI app, two terabytes of cloud storage and its image and video generation models. The companies also announced AI partnerships that target Indian businesses.
Such moves mirror the early playbook of streaming firms to boost adoption in India, when the likes of Netflix and Amazon Prime partnered telecom players to bundle their paid offerings with monthly data plans.
Commenting on the pact, RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani said, “Through our collaboration with strategic and long-term partners like Google, we aim to make India not just AI-enabled but AI-empowered — where every citizen and enterprise can harness intelligent tools to create, innovate and grow.”
Describing RIL as a longstanding partner, Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet, added, "Today's announcement will put Google's AI tools in the hands of consumers and businesses and India’s vibrant developer community... I'm excited for how this partnership will help expand access to AI across India.”
