India leads global AI app downloads but lags in revenue

India has emerged as the world’s largest market for generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) app downloads, yet it generates a disproportionately small share of in-app revenue compared to its massive download volume. According to data from market intelligence firm Sensor Tower, India drove roughly 20% of global GenAI app downloads in 2025, with installs growing 207% year-over-year. However, the country accounted for only about 1% of global in-app purchase revenue for these applications.

The rapid adoption peaked in late 2025, with downloads growing about 320% year-over-year in September and 260% in October. However, this surge did not translate into sustained financial gains. As early promotional offers began to wind down—such as Perplexity ending its bundled Pro offer with Indian telecom firm Airtel in January—revenues contracted. In November and December, overall AI in-app purchase revenue in India fell by 22% and 18% month-over-month, respectively. ChatGPT, which commands more than 60% of GenAI in-app revenue in India, saw its own revenue drop by 33% in November and 32% in December following the launch of its low-cost ChatGPT Go tier.

While India’s user base is massive, engagement and monetization metrics lag behind more mature markets like the U.S. Sensor Tower data highlights this gap in user distribution and engagement:

• User Base Share: India accounted for about 19% of the global user base of leading AI assistant apps in 2025, compared to 10% in the U.S.
• Engagement Gap: U.S. users spent 21% more time per week on these apps and logged 17% more sessions on average than users in India.
• Active Users (January): ChatGPT led the Indian market with 180 million monthly active users, followed by Google’s Gemini with 118 million, Perplexity with 19 million, and Meta AI with 12 million.

Earlier this month, OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman stated that ChatGPT has more than 100 million weekly active users in India. Converting this massive audience into paying subscribers remains a long-term challenge. Sneha Pandey, an insights analyst at Sensor Tower, noted that “AI in-app revenues will likely see meaningful but gradual improvement as users become more deeply integrated into these platforms, making sustained engagement paramount.”

Why it matters

India has become the world’s largest market for generative AI app downloads, but firms are struggling to convert this massive user base into revenue, signaling a potential shift in pricing strategies as promotional periods end.