Like ChatGPT and Gemini, Perplexity offers an AI chatbot with a slew of tools that you can use to get answers to your questions, spanning from education and sports to politics and world knowledge. While its Standard plan offers unlimited basic searches, it's limiting in many ways.
Fortunately, there's a Perplexity Pro plan that offers Pro search, image generation and access to advanced AI models, and the good thing is users in India can avail this plan for free. In this guide, we'll help you learn how to get Perplexity Pro for free in India.
In India, there are currently two ways to access Perplexity Pro for free – one using an active Airtel subscription and the other via Perplexity's Student Referral Program. We'll explain the process of activating Perplexity's Pro plan with step-by-step instructions below.
How to get Perplexity Pro for free in India with an Airtel connection
Among its recent perks, Airtel is offering access to 12 months of Perplexity Pro usage to all of active users including prepaid, postpaid, DTH and Wi-Fi subscribers. This offer can be any time availed between July 17, 2025 and January 17, 2025, and it will be valid for 12 months from the date you claim it.
You can claim this offer from the Airtel Thanks app on both Android and iOS. So, if you're an Airtel subscriber, here's how you can access Perplexity Pro for free.
- To get started, download the Airtel Thanks app from the Play Store on Android or the App Store on iPhone. Once downloaded, open the app.
- Inside the Airtel Thanks app, sign in with your registered mobile number for your prepaid, postpaid, DTH or Wi-Fi subscription and provide the OTP you receive on the next screen.
- After you sign in, scroll down on the app's home screen until you reach the "Manage services" section and tap on Claim OTTs & More.
- On the next screen, you should see the Perplexity Pro offer. Here, tap on Claim Now.
- The app will now display the benefits of this offer on the subsequent screen. Hit Proceed to claim this offer.
- As soon as you do, the app will open a webpage (either within the app or on an external browser) redirecting you to the Perplexity.ai website, and it will apply the promo code for the offer automatically.
- Now, you can sign in to your existing Perplexity account or create a new one using your Google or Apple account or with an email address.
- Once you're signed in, the page will prompt you to install the Perplexity app on your phone. Tap on the Get the app option.
- You'll now be taken to Perplexity's landing page on the Play Store or App Store, depending on your phone. From here, you can download the app and open it.
- Inside Perplexity, sign in with the same account or email address you provided when you claimed the Airtel offer above.
- When you're logged in, you should see the Airtel | Perplexity Pro banner at the top. This confirms that you have successfully availed the free Perplexity Pro offer with Airtel.
You can now start using all of Perplexity Pro's perks from any device as long as you're logged in to the same account.
How to get Perplexity Pro for free in India with Student Referral Program
Besides Airtel, Perplexity Pro can also be availed for free via Perplexity's global Student Referral Program. This offer is accessible for students in India with verified student status on SheerID, and it allows access to up to 24 months of Perplexity Pro subscription via referrals. This way, students can get 1 month of Pro for each friend they invite using their unique referral link.
If you're a student enrolled at select universities that are listed inside SheerID, you can get on the Perplexity Student Referral Program by following the steps below:
- Visible the Perplexity Referrals page on a web browser and click on Verify student status.
- This will open the SheerID page where you'll need to furnish your details like name, country, university/school, birthdate and your student email address.
- Once you're done, scroll down and click on Verify My Student Status.
- When your student status is verified by SheerID, you'll receive an email from where you can create a new Perplexity account and get 1 month of Perplexity Pro for free.
- To earn more free usage, you can go to your Perplexity account page and click on Refer inside the "Promotions" section.
- Here, you'll see a Referral Link that you can copy and share with your friends to earn 1 month of Perplexity Pro for every user who creates a Perplexity account using your link. You can also share this link directly to their email address from here.
And that's pretty much it. Perplexity Pro is your best chance to leverage AI to for research and improving your workflow for no charge. With this free access, you get unlimited Pro Searches, any number of file uploads for analysis, image generation, exclusive access to support channels.
Additionally, the Pro subscription also lets you choose from any of the available advanced models including GPT-4.1, Claude 4.0 Sonnet, Sonar Large, Gemini 2.5 Pro, OpenAI's o3/pro and Grok 4.
