OpenAI and Google battle for Indian users with free AI plans as training data becomes the prize

OpenAI and Google Launch Freebies Strategy in India's Vast Smartphone Market

A fierce competition has erupted among AI giants as OpenAI, Google, and Perplexity roll out free premium AI subscriptions exclusively for Indian users. The unprecedented move targets India's vast smartphone market of 730 million devices, where consumers pay just 9.2 cents per gigabyte—among the world's lowest mobile data rates—while consuming an average of 21 gigabytes monthly1

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Source: ET

Google initiated the battle in November by offering its $400 Gemini AI Pro subscription free for 18 months to 500 million customers of Reliance Jio, India's largest telecom operator. OpenAI followed by making its ChatGPT Go plan—previously priced at $54 in India—free for a year to everyone in the country. Perplexity joined the race by providing its Pro tool, valued at $200 annually worldwide, free for a year to Airtel users2

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Source: Market Screener

Massive Increase in Daily Active Users Signals Market Dominance

The freebies strategy has triggered explosive growth. Daily active users of ChatGPT in India surged 607% year-on-year to reach 73 million as of last week—more than double the number in the U.S., according to market intelligence firm Sensor Tower data compiled for Reuters. Gemini's daily users in India rose 15% since launching the Reliance Jio offer in November, touching 17 million last week compared to just 3 million in the U.S.1

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This adoption has made AI in India the biggest market by daily users for both ChatGPT and Gemini. India now accounts for more than a third of Perplexity's global daily active users, up dramatically from just 7% last year. ChatGPT demonstrates particularly strong engagement, with 46% of its monthly users opening the app daily in India in November, compared to 20% for Perplexity and 14% for Gemini2

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Training Data and Linguistic Diversity Drive AI Development and Data Acquisition

While OpenAI's India executive Pragya Misra described the ChatGPT Go decision as part of the company's "continued India-first commitment" to make tools more accessible, five AI analysts point to a deeper strategic motive. The freebies strategy helps companies gain from India's linguistic diversity to secure crucial data for AI training and attract a large user base simultaneously1

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Analysts view the training data generated by Indian users—characterized by a mix of languages and dialects—as a critical stress test for enhancing AI models. These complex communication patterns are largely absent from existing datasets. "Free plans fill gaps in AI training data sets that currently lack information on user behaviour patterns in the region," explained Sagar Vishnoi, co-founder at AI think tank Future Shift Labs2

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Data Harvesting Concerns Emerge Among Price-Conscious Users

The strategy mirrors successful precedents in India, where billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance used aggressive pricing to build a telecom base exceeding 500 million users after its 2016 launch with months of free data and voice services. However, some users remain cautious about the trade-offs. Anees Hassan, a 33-year-old PhD student in Hyderabad, uses the free ChatGPT and Gemini plans for three hours daily to find citations and refine his writing. "I am concerned about data harvesting, so I have used the opt-out feature to stop sharing my data for AI training," he noted. The battle for Indian users signals a critical phase where access to diverse multilingual training data may determine which AI models master the complex communication patterns essential for global competitiveness.