Airtel to offer Perplexity Pro subscription worth ₹17,000 for free to 360 million customers

In a landmark move aimed at bringing artificial intelligence tools to the fingertips of millions, Bharti Airtel has announced a strategic partnership with Perplexity, a leading AI-powered search and answer engine. As part of the tie-up, Airtel will offer a free 12-month subscription of Perplexity Pro—worth ₹17,000 annually—to all its 360 million customers across mobile, broadband, and DTH services.

This marks Perplexity’s first collaboration with an Indian telecom provider and is being hailed as a game-changer in the GenAI space for its scale and potential impact.

Perplexity Pro provides users with enhanced AI-driven features including access to advanced models like GPT-4.1 and Claude, deep research capabilities, image generation, file uploads and analysis, and tools from Perplexity Labs. While Perplexity already has a popular free version, the Pro plan is designed for professionals, students, and power users needing more robust AI support.

Airtel customers can activate their complimentary Perplexity Pro subscription through the Airtel Thanks app.

“We’re thrilled to announce a game-changing partnership with Perplexity, bringing their cutting-edge AI capabilities exclusively to Airtel customers,” said Gopal Vittal, Vice Chairman & Managing Director of Bharti Airtel. “This collaboration will bring the powerful and real-time knowledge tool for millions of users at their fingertips, at no extra cost. This first of its kind Gen-AI partnership in India is focused on helping our customers navigate the emerging trends in the digital world with confidence and ease.”

Perplexity CEO and Co-founder Aravind Srinivas added, “This partnership is an exciting way to make accurate, trustworthy, and professional-grade AI accessible to more people in India—whether a student, working professional, or managing a household. With Perplexity Pro, users get a smarter, easier way to find information, learn, and get more done.”

The collaboration promises to democratise access to AI across diverse user segments. “To illustrate the power of this game-changing partnership, take for instance a student from Rajkot. Perplexity Pro can provide processes of legitimate research on the web, learning and collaboration and help organize content logically and easy-to-understand manner, thereby helping him uphold academic standards of excellence,” the Sunil Bharti Mittal-led telecom operator said in a statement.

“For a homemaker residing in Kanyakumari, Perplexity can serve as an assistant delivering quick and precise responses for daily activities, foster creativity and informed decision-making; all through a user-friendly interface. For a busy professional, planning a family vacation to a new destination, Perplexity Pro can build the itinerary based on time, specified budgets and must-cover activities given by the user in a matter of few seconds,” the telco said, adding that the boost in productivity, and elimination of stress for its users is a benefit one can only realise after trying this tool.

By offering Perplexity Pro to its massive user base, Airtel aims to enhance productivity, encourage informed decision-making, and make advanced AI tools mainstream in everyday Indian life.