Global AI giants OpenAI, Google, and Perplexity are battling for India’s vast market by offering free AI service plans. India, with 730 million smartphones and low data costs, is ideal for this push. Google gave its $400 Gemini AI Pro subscription free for 18 months to 500 million Reliance Jio users starting November. It also launched a discounted 'AI Plus' package in India. OpenAI made its ChatGPT Go plan free for a year in India. Previously priced at $54 here, this plan offers extended AI use but is paid in over 100 other countries. Early data shows huge uptake: ChatGPT daily users in India jumped 607% to 73 million, more than double the US. Gemini daily users rose 15% to 17 million, compared to 3 million in the US. Perplexity offers its $200-a-year Pro tool free for one year to Airtel users. India now makes up over a third of its daily users, up from 7% last year. These numbers make India the biggest daily user base for all three AI chatbots. OpenAI India executive Pragya Misra stated the free ChatGPT Go plan reflects a “continued India-first commitment” to broaden access. Analysts say freebies help companies gather diverse Indian language data, vital for improving AI. Sagar Vishnoi from Future Shift Labs said, "Free plans fill gaps in AI training data sets that currently lack information on user behaviour patterns in the region." Reliance has a history of using low prices to grow its user base, boasting over 500 million telecom users. ChatGPT leads in daily engagement with 46% of monthly Indian users opening the app daily, compared to 20% for Perplexity and 14% for Gemini. Users like Hyderabad-based PhD student Anees Hassan use the free plans for research and presentations but worry about data privacy. "The free plan was not good enough as I used to hit chat limit caps faster," he said. He also used the opt-out feature to stop sharing his data for AI training. This race for free AI access in India not only boosts users but also helps companies gather invaluable multilingual data from one of the world’s most complex linguistic markets.