Reliance Joins Free AI Race, Ties Up With Google to Offer Gemini Pro Plan
Google strengthens its India play through a partnership with Reliance Jio, offering 18 months of free AI Pro access to accelerate AI adoption at scale.
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Google has partnered with Mukesh Ambani–led Reliance Industries to offer access to its AI Pro subscription for Jio 5G users at no extra cost. The move signals Google’s growing focus on India as a testing ground for large-scale AI adoption and innovation.
Under the deal, eligible Jio users will receive Google’s AI Pro plan free for 18 months — a package valued at ₹35,100 (around $396).Google’s AI Pro plan normally costs ₹1,950 (around $22) per month in India and includes a free one-month trial.
The plan gives users access to Google’s Gemini 2.5 Pro model via the Gemini app, enhanced tools for generating images and videos through Nano Banana and Veo 3.1, extended research features with Notebook LM an AI-research tool and 2 TB of cloud storage across Google Photos, Drive, Gmail, and WhatsApp backups. The offer will first roll out to users aged 18 to 25 before expanding nationwide.
India — home to more than a billion internet users — has become one of the most important markets for global tech companies. While the country has yet to produce a major AI breakthrough of its own, its digital population offers a rich environment for training, testing, and scaling new AI applications.
For Google, partnering with Reliance will aid with deep market reach and provide access to a growing ecosystem of young digital users, allowing it to build more localized and accessible AI tools.
The deal also reflects an intensifying competition among AI companies to capture India’s market.
Just months earlier, Perplexity teamed up with Bharti Airtel to offer its Pro plan to Airtel’s 360 million subscribers, while OpenAI recently announced free access to its ChatGPT Go plan in India. Even Anthropic has plans to set shop in the region while partnering with Reliance.
Beyond the consumer side, the partnership includes a deeper collaboration between Reliance’s AI arm, Reliance Intelligence, and Google Cloud. Reliance will help expand Google’s tensor processing unit (TPU) infrastructure in India and co-develop AI agents and enterprise solutions for Indian businesses.
Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet, said the collaboration will “put Google’s most advanced AI tools in the hands of India’s consumers, businesses, and developers.” Ambani described it as a step toward making India “AI-empowered” — where every citizen and enterprise can use intelligent tools to create and grow.
As AI companies compete for users through free offers and telecom partnerships, India has become one of the world’s most dynamic testing grounds for the next phase of AI adoption. However, the challenge of turning this rapid uptake into lasting economic and technological value continues to persist.
