Airtel’s Users Get Perplexity Pro Free for a Year – Here’s What You Need to Know Before You Sign up

We all have heard about the groundbreaking collaboration that has made Perplexity Pro, the new AI force, all set to storm India. Perplexity Pro, from Perplexity AI, is a premium AI research and productivity platform (normally priced at ₹17,000 per year), available at no cost to all 360 million Airtel mobile, broadband, and DTH subscribers across India.

On the face of it, for any heavy user of GenAI, it’s a steal deal. It gives the opportunity to go beyond OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google Gemini. With Perplexity Pro, users can significantly uplevel their GenAI outcomes.

Over the weekend, I signed up for Perplexity Pro and have been using it for a wide range of tasks, right from deep research to as basic as grammar and proofreading. It is indeed refreshing, a welcome change from being rooted in ChatGPT. But remember, OpenAI’s ChatGPT does have an edge as it’s an early mover. And if you are a heavy user (that too using the ChatGPT paid Plus plan), getting a hang of Perplexity might take a bit of warming up, depending on how you prompt and how different GenAI tools behave.

What is Perplexity Pro and What It Can Do

Going by Perplexity’s official blog, it says, “Perplexity Pro is our premium subscription plan, designed to enhance your search experience with advanced features and capabilities.”

Giving a deep dive, Daniela Gomez writes in the official Perplexity blog post about the various models available within Perplexity Pro. Let’s look at it:

Pro Search Models: When you need detailed answers with extensive sources, choose from Sonar (in-house model), GPT-4.1, Claude 4.0 Sonnet, or Gemini 2.5 Pro. These models deliver comprehensive responses with multiple references.

Reasoning Search Models: For complex analytical questions, select from R1 (Perplexity's fine-tuned, uncensored model hosted in the US), o3 (or o3-Pro for Max users), Claude 4.0 Sonnet Thinking (Claude 4.0 Opus Thinking for Max users), or Grok4. These models excel at breaking down complicated queries that require multiple search steps.

Best Mode: For quick searches, this default mode intelligently selects the most appropriate model based on your query type.

Research Mode: This mode automatically selects the optimal combination of models for in-depth research on complex topics, generating comprehensive reports without manual model selection.

Labs: Tackles complex projects on your behalf. Labs has access to the most advanced tools and can craft everything from reports and spreadsheets to dashboards and simple web applications.

That’s a combination of powerful models that can handle most demands, from complex to basic tasks.

If you are an Airtel customer and still undecided on signing up or not sure how to go about it, here is what you need to do:

Getting access is straightforward:

1. Open your Airtel Thanks app

2. Head to Rewards & OTTs

3. Find the Perplexity Pro offer in ‘Collect Rewards’

4. Tap Claim Now and follow the steps

Why This Move Matters to Perplexity and Airtel

We live in an age where we need to embrace AI. The reading on the wall is: AI will not replace the jobs, but you will be replaced by someone who knows how to use AI. That said, the key here is you cannot fully depend on AI, and you need to know how to apply human oversight to every outcome AI generates.

Indeed, a Perplexing Move by Perplexity and Airtel

Now, one may ask, why would any GenAI company do this? Let’s look at what the leadership has to say. Airtel CEO Gopal Vittal said, “We’re thrilled to bring cutting-edge AI to every Airtel user at no extra cost, helping our customers embrace the digital future with confidence.”

Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas added, “This partnership makes professional-grade AI accessible to anyone – students, professionals, or homemakers. With Perplexity Pro, users get a smarter, easier way to learn and get things done.”

Both companies believe that this offer of giving a powerful tool into the hands of a diverse set of user personas is a step in democratising AI. But the real question is how many of those 360 million customers will really sign up. To start with, it will be a small proposition, and among those who have signed up, how many will actually renew for the second year once the free offer ends?

These are larger questions. But one of the biggest deliverables for Perplexity would be to perfect its models as it gains more footfall from India via the Airtel customer base and puts its models to the ultimate test. It will help its algorithms grow by leveraging millions of queries it will receive from India. That’s a great win it has secured from this free offer.

For Airtel, it adds a distinct value proposition and helps challenge Reliance Jio’s aggressive posturing. We need to see how many users will shift to Airtel post this Perplexity offer.

But for now, one must say, it’s a strategic win for Airtel, Perplexity, and Indian customers at large.