Airtel discontinues free Gen AI Perplexity Pro plan for subscribers

Several Airtel customers are claiming that access to the complimentary free Perplexity Pro AI service has been paused for not sharing payment details.

Last year in July, Airtel announced a collaboration with US-based Perplexity to offer a free generative Artificial Intelligence (gen AI) service worth Rs 17,000 for one year.

However, it has come to light that Airtel has discontinued the Perplexity Pro plan for prepaid and postpaid users in India.

Subscribers have taken to social platforms such as X to vent their anger against Airtel. They were able to use the Perplexity Pro AI service for just six months, half of what Airtel had promised.

Some users have noted that those who activated the complimentary one-year access to Perplexity Pro before January 16 can still access the AI service.

But confusion lingers among Airtel customers. Some are claiming that access to the complimentary free Perplexity Pro AI service has been paused.

They are reportedly getting prompts to submit payment details such as debit/credit card numbers even if they don't have any intention of renewing Perplexity Pro's Rs 17,000 annual plan.

As per our sources, Perplexity AI has updated their global user policy that mandates that the subscriber has to share the payment details on its mobile app. And, unfortunately, those who were using the one-year free complimentary access to Perplexity Pro without updating the payment details, are also prohibited from accessing it.

If they need access to Perplexity Pro, they have no choice but to pay the premium fees to use the AI service.

As Airtel discontinued the free Perplexity Pro service in January, new users will have to shell out Rs 17,000 for annual plans. But, they still have access to the Adobe Xpress plan.

It is an annual plan worth Rs 4,786 and will be accessible to all mobile, Wi-Fi and DTH customers of Airtel.

The subscription provides access to thousands of Adobe's professional design templates - including ones tailored for Indian festivals, weddings, and local businesses.

Further, it also offers AI-powered features like instant background removal, custom image generation, and one-tap video editing, premium Adobe Stock assets, and over 30,000 professional fonts.

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