Google brings free Gemini access to India’s largest carrier

Google’s AI ambitions are global in scale, so much so that it has just agreed to give Gemini away for free in India to people using the country’s biggest mobile provider. Thanks to a deal with Reliance Intelligence, an AI-focused subsidiary of Reliance Industries, people signed up to Jio’s Unlimited 5G plan will be offered Google AI Pro at no extra cost for 18 months.

That means that qualifying users will have access to Gemini 2.5 Pro, Google’s most AI model. They will also benefit from higher limits for the Nano Banana and Veo 3.1 AI image and video generators, plus expanded access to NotebookLM. The plan also includes 2TB of cloud storage across Google’s apps, for a total combined worth of around 35,100 rupees ($396) per user.

The offer will initially be exclusive to Jio customers between the age of 18 and 25, but will eventually extend to all people on an eligible plan via the MyJio app. Jio is India’s largest mobile network operator, and a company in which Google a 7.7 percent stake worth $4.5 million in 2020.

India is fast becoming a key battleground for AI expansion. Back in July, Perplexity AI with Bharti Airtel, Jio’s rival carrier, to offer a year-long Perplexity Pro subscription worth $200 to all of Airtel’s 360 million customers. OpenAI is also adopting an aggressive strategy in the country, recently its cheapest ChatGPT subscription to date, at 390 rupee ($4.60), in India first. ChatGPT Go offers users 10 times more message limits, image generation and file uploads than the free version.