When I first saw the headlines, I thought Airtel had done something wild — offering a ₹17,000 worth Perplexity Pro subscription for free to every single customer. Yup, no joke. Mobile, broadband, and even DTH users — all 360 million of them — got a full year of access to Perplexity’s premium AI tools, just like that.
No credit card needed. Just hop onto the Airtel Thanks app, redeem it under “Rewards & OTT,” and boom — welcome to the world of GPT‑4.1, Claude, Grok, image generation, file uploads, and whatnot.
It sounded too good to be true.
Turns out… it might be.
So What’s the Catch?
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Paid Pro
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Free (limited to 3 queries/day)
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Airtel-bundled “Pro” account
All of them were given the same prompt using Research Mode, and the results were pretty shocking.
The Airtel one performed the worst.
Not just worse than the paid version (which is expected) — but worse than the free tier.
What Was Missing?
According to the post, the Airtel version:
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Was noticeably slower
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Skipped out on citations and sources
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Didn’t include charts, visuals, or any advanced formatting
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Gave shallow insights, compared to the rich responses from paid Pro
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And overall… felt like a stripped-down version of what Perplexity Pro is supposed to be
“Even the Free one did better,” the Redditor said bluntly.
But Wait — Perplexity Says It’s the Real Deal
After the backlash gained some attention, Perplexity themselves responded, saying that all Airtel users are indeed getting the same full version of Pro that paying users do.
According to them, there’s no “Pro Lite,” no watered-down version. Just misinformation and confusion floating around Reddit.
Fair enough… but the experience from real users still raises eyebrows.
Why This Matters
Let’s be honest — this wasn’t just some small tech collab. This was Airtel’s power move to become the first telecom in the world to bundle AI tools at such a massive scale. And for Perplexity, it was their big break into the Indian market — where they’re now riding high as the #1 free app on the App Store, even ahead of ChatGPT.
It’s a win-win — in theory.
But if users feel they’re getting a “fake Pro” with missing features, the trust takes a hit. Imagine telling your friends you got GPT-4.1 access for free, only to have it choke on a basic research prompt with no sources.
Not a great look.
So, What’s Going On?
Honestly, I think it comes down to expectations. When you say “Pro,” people expect the full experience — rich formatting, visual charts, multiple citations, deep insight — not just a fancy badge.
If the Airtel-linked version is somehow throttled or missing features (even temporarily), it should have been clearly mentioned. Something like “Pro (Airtel Edition)” would’ve saved a lot of confusion.
Because when something is labeled “₹17,000 worth” — people are going to test it, and they’re going to talk if it falls short.
My Take
I still think what Airtel is doing is smart — bringing AI to the masses, for free, is a bold move. And for most casual users, this version of Perplexity will likely be good enough for everyday questions and summaries.
But if you’re a researcher, developer, or power user hoping for the full Pro experience — the kind that gives you neat graphs, multiple source links, and in-depth analysis — you might walk away a little disappointed.
It’s not a scam. But maybe… not exactly what we expected either.
