Perplexity's Airtel promo drove 56M India downloads — then fell 90% when it ended

Perplexity bundled free Pro access with Bharti Airtel, generating 56 million app downloads in India over seven months. After redemptions closed on January 16, 2026, downloads dropped to 3.3 million over the next six months — a 90% decline. Perplexity has not disclosed retention, conversion, or churn figures for those users.