Google has partnered with Reliance Industries, led by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, to offer free access to its AI Pro subscription for 18 months to millions of Jio 5G users in India. The initiative, announced on Thursday, aims to boost Google’s AI presence in one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing digital markets. Under the deal, eligible Jio users aged 18 to 25 will receive the AI Pro plan at no cost, with a nationwide rollout planned. The offer includes access to Google’s Gemini 2.5 Pro model via the Gemini app, enhanced capabilities for generating AI images and videos using Nano Banana and Veo 3.1, expanded use of Notebook LM for research and study, and 2 TB of cloud storage across Google Photos, Gmail, Drive, and WhatsApp backups. The promotion is valued at approximately ₹35,100 ($396), with the standard AI Pro subscription priced at ₹1,950 ($22) per month in India. This move follows a similar agreement earlier this year between Perplexity and Bharti Airtel, Reliance’s main telecom rival, which offered free access to Perplexity Pro for 360 million Airtel users. The competition highlights the growing strategic importance of India, the world’s most populous nation and second-largest internet market, for global tech giants. Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai hailed the partnership as a way to bring cutting-edge AI tools to Indian consumers, businesses, and developers. The collaboration also includes a deeper integration with Google Cloud, as Reliance’s AI arm, Reliance Intelligence, will become a key go-to-market partner for Google’s Gemini Enterprise offerings. The company will also develop prebuilt AI agents for the platform. The partnership is part of a broader push by Reliance to strengthen its AI infrastructure. At its annual general meeting in August, the company announced a joint venture with Meta, backed by a combined investment of ₹8.55 billion ($100 million), with a 70/30 ownership split. Reliance Intelligence will also work with Google to expand access to Google’s tensor processing units (TPUs) in India. Meanwhile, OpenAI has announced plans to offer free access to its ChatGPT Go plan—priced under $5—for all users in India starting November 4. This follows the launch of a localized version of the service in August, now available in 17 countries across Asia. With Indian users already among the top global adopters of U.S.-led AI tools like Google’s Nano Banana, OpenAI’s ChatGPT, and Anthropic’s Claude, these free access programs are expected to further accelerate adoption. Google previously offered a one-year free AI Pro subscription to Indian students, which ended in September. While the immediate impact is increased user engagement and data collection, the long-term goal for these companies is to build deep market penetration and eventually convert free users into paying customers. As Mukesh Ambani stated, the vision is to make India not just AI-enabled but AI-empowered—where every citizen and enterprise can leverage intelligent tools to innovate and grow.