According to the market intelligence agency Sensor Tower, India became the largest global-generated AI (GenAI) application download market in 2025, with installation increasing by 207 per cent over the same period, further increasing its lead for the United States.
To accelerate user growth in the price-sensitive Indian market, companies such as OpenAI, Google and Perplexity have introduced extended versions of free advanced services. The leading AI company also supports India’s efforts to create a global artificial intelligence centre. At a major AI summit held last week in New Delhi, industry leaders such as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Anthropic CEOario Amody and CEO Sandhar Pichai gathered, reflecting India ‘ s growing importance in the global AI competition. Some enterprises are now winding down with early extension activities. In January, Perplexity terminated its tied Pro membership service with Airtel, an Indian telecommunications company, and OpenAI’s free ChatGPT Go visit in India is no longer available. This may pave the way for a clearer test of how many of the newly acquired users can turn into paid subscribers.
The Sensor Tower data show that, despite strong download growth, India ‘ s share of AI application income is still too low, driving about 20 per cent of the global GenAI application downloads, but only about 1 per cent of the in-house purchase income. It was highlighted that, although India was the fastest growing market, the industry faced commercialization challenges. Data show that in 2025, the rate of penetration of GenAI applications in India accelerated sharply, with downloads peaking in September and October, at about 320 and 260 per cent, respectively. However, the surge in usage has not been fully translated into income growth. In November and December 2025, the ICA ratio decreased by 22 per cent and 18 per cent, respectively. ChatGPT ‘ s income declined even more sharply, with its November and December cycles falling by 33 per cent and 32 per cent, respectively, following a free ChatGPT Go visit in November for sales prices below $5.
ChatGPT still accounts for more than 60 per cent of the income from GenAI application in India, which means that changes in its pricing strategy can significantly affect overall market performance. Sensor Tower attributed the surge in the use of GenAI in India last year to a number of factors: the launch of new platforms such as DeepSeek, Grok and Meta AI, the upgrading of major chat robots such as ChatGPt, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity, and the promotion of outreach activities have accelerated the viral spread of AI-generated content, with seven seats for content creation and editing tools in 20 of the most downloaded GenAI applications in India in 2025. According to Sensor Tower, India accounted for approximately 19 per cent of the world ‘ s leading AAA user base in 2025, leading 10 per cent in the United States. ChatGPT continues to dominate the Indian market in terms of monthly active users, but competitors, including Google Gemini and Perplexity, have also experienced rapid growth after promotional activities. According to Sensor Tower earlier, ChatGPT was the most downloaded GenAI application in India and globally in 2025. Earlier this month, Sam Altman indicated that ChatGPT was now more than 100 million active users in India.
Sensor Tower Insight Analyst Sneha Pandi stated that AI ‘ s outreach strategy in the Indian market reflected their broader strategy to reduce price friction in a highly price-oriented market, in which early user adoption and participation were expected to translate into stronger long-term retention at the end of the free period. India ‘ s attraction lies in its large digital base. The country has more than 1 billion Internet users and about 700 million smartphone users, making it one of the largest potential markets for AI services worldwide and a key battlefield for user growth. Despite this, the participation of Indian users lags behind the more mature markets. The Sensor Tower data show that in 2025, users of the leading AI chat robot application in the United States spent approximately 21 per cent more hours per week than users in India, and the average number of sessions was 17 per cent higher. In an interview with TechCrunch, Sneha Pandi said: “As users become more integrated into these platforms, significant but incremental improvements in revenues within AI applications are likely to be achieved, making continued user engagement essential.” She added that, given the young and value-for-money user base in India, pricing pressures might still be high and that low-cost slots, telecommunications bundling and micro-trade models were therefore important for long-term retention.
According to Sensor Tower data, ChatGPT remained the absolute leader of the Indian market in 2026, with 180 million active users in January, followed by 118 million Google Gemini, 19 million Perplexity and 12 million Meta AI. The above data highlight the size of the Indian AI market and reflect the growing challenge faced by AI companies to spread and translate rapid user access into sustained income.