5 Key Takeaways
- Perplexity and Google are offering free AI search engine upgrades in India to rapidly grow their user base.
- India is a key battleground for AI firms due to its huge internet population, linguistic diversity, and openness to global tech companies.
- Big Tech sees India as a high-pressure testing ground and a vital source of training data for making AI models more robust.
- India’s domestic AI market is projected to triple to $17 billion by 2027, attracting major investments from global players.
- Heavy reliance on foreign AI platforms may delay India’s goal of technological sovereignty and impact domestic innovation.
India’s AI Search Wars: Freebies, Big Tech, and the Future of How We Find Answers Online
If you’ve noticed your phone buzzing with offers for free AI tools lately, you’re not alone. India is at the center of a fierce battle between tech giants, all trying to win over millions of users with their latest artificial intelligence (AI) search engines.
It started quietly one morning in July, when Airtel, one of India’s biggest telecom companies, sent a push notification to its 360 million subscribers. The offer? A free one-year subscription to Perplexity Pro, an AI-powered search engine that usually costs around $200 a year. All you had to do was tap “Activate.”
Just days before, Google had announced its own giveaway: every college student in India could get a free one-year upgrade to Google’s AI Pro suite, which includes access to its Gemini AI model, a smart notebook tool, and an early coding assistant.
Why all the generosity? India is the world’s most populous country, with over 700 million internet users and a huge appetite for new technology. With China mostly closed off to American tech companies, India has become the go-to place for testing and training AI tools. Experts say that if an AI can handle India’s many languages and real-world challenges, it’s likely to work well anywhere.
The stakes are high. India’s AI market is expected to triple to $17 billion by 2027, and the global market for AI-powered search could reach $109 billion by 2032. Companies like Google, Meta, Microsoft, and newcomers like Perplexity and DeepSeek are all racing to become your go-to search engine.
Google has a head start, since most Indian smartphones run on Android and come with Google apps pre-installed. But Perplexity’s free offer quickly made it the top app on Apple’s App Store in India, even beating ChatGPT in daily downloads.
For many users, the choice is simple: which AI search engine makes life easier? Rufaid Sideeq, a biology student at Delhi University, says Google’s Gemini AI saves him time by giving direct answers and even helps with coding and math. He knows Google wants students to get hooked on its AI, and he might even pay for it once the free plan ends.
As India’s tech scene heats up, these freebies are more than just marketing—they’re shaping the future of how millions of people search, learn, and connect online. The only question is: which AI will win your attention?
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