Artificial intelligence (AI) is booming globally and India could be at the forefront when it comes to utilizing AI. The country is reportedly going all out ahead of the US when it comes to downloading generative AI apps and using chatbots.
India will become the world’s largest market for downloads of generative AI apps, growing 207% year-on-year in 2025, according to a report by market intelligence firm Sensor Tower. This has reportedly helped India surpass the US in terms of the use of generative AI.
This comes at a time when companies like OpenAI and Google are offering affordable plans and offers to boost adoption in India. AI adoption was also a key topic at last week’s India AI Impact Summit, where OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said India has more than 100 million ChatGPT users every week.
1 in 5 Generation AI downloads come from India
According to the report, around 20% of global generative AI app downloads, or one in five, came from India. However, this large user base does not translate into revenue. By 2025, Indian users would only account for about 1% of in-app purchases.
This monetization gap highlights the challenges faced by companies looking to turn rapid adoption into sustainable revenue. Despite downloads peaking in September and October, with year-over-year growth of 320% and 260%, revenue growth slowed, with in-app purchases down 22% in November and 18% in December.
Promotions and offers drive AI downloads
The surge in downloads has been fueled by increased promotions and the introduction of new AI platforms such as DeepSeek, Grok, and Meta AI.
In India, Google is collaborating with Jio to offer one year of free access to its AI Pro plan, and Perplexity is offering its own Pro plan with Airtel. OpenAI also provided one year of free access to ChatGPT Go for a limited time.
The impact of free offers is visible. After free access to ChatGPT Go was launched in November, revenue from ChatGPT in India fell 33 percent in November and 32 percent in December. However, the OpenAI platform maintained its dominance, accounting for over 60% of the generated AI in-app revenue in India.
The viral trend of AI-generated content has played a major role in this growth, with content creation and editing apps ranking among the top 20 most downloaded AI apps in India in 2025.
US users still spend more time on AI apps
India’s digital infrastructure has significant advantages, with over 1 billion internet users and around 700 million smartphone owners, making it a key battleground for AI growth. According to the report, India will account for about 19% of the world’s major AI assistant app user base in 2025, compared to 10% in the US.
However, the level of engagement remains below that of more mature markets. Users in the US spent 21% more time per week on AI apps and logged 17% more sessions on average compared to users in India.
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