By Anuj Bhatia
Publication Date: 2025-12-07 10:28:00
When I opened the Airtel app on my smartphone over the weekend to recharge my mobile plan, I was surprised to see a Perplexity Pro AI subscription worth Rs 17,000 included with my plan. I double-checked whether I had accidentally subscribed to Perplexity AI.
Before I started to panic about being subscribed to another service, I realised that the Perplexity AI subscription was free with my plan, and that the offer is valid until July 2026. But Perplexity isn’t the only company offering its AI subscription plan for free to millions in India. Reliance Jio, another telecom operator, has an active partnership with Google to provide select users a free Google AI Pro subscription for 18 months.
Meanwhile, OpenAI is offering the annual ‘low-cost’ ChatGPT Go subscription, worth Rs 399 per month, free for one year in the country.
It’s not that AI companies are averse to offering free services to users who buy their products.
Apple, for example, is known for offering free access to Apple TV for three months with new products like the iPhone and iPad. Even my new Pixel 10 Pro Fold and 10 Pro XL come with a free Google AI Pro plan, which includes premium AI features and 2TB of storage for a year. In both cases, you pay a premium for their hardware products, and these tech companies occasionally offer access to new services to increase popularity and lock users into their ecosystems.
However, Google, OpenAI, and Perplexity are offering long-term, free access to premium AI…
