India saw 16 per cent of total global downloads of 3.8 billion generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) applications in 2025, according to a report State of Mobile for 2026 released on Wednesday by Sensor Tower.
Indian users downloaded 0.6 billion AI apps last year.
The numbers represent a sharp increase in India's share of total downloads across the globe, which was pegged at 11.31 per cent in 2024 and only 10 per cent in 2023.
However, India accounted for a mere less than 1 per cent of the total in-app purchase (IAP) revenues generated by AI apps globally. This reflects that most users and app companies have been offering the service free to users.
AI app companies globally generated revenues of $5 billion last year. India's share of General AI app revenues even in 2024 was less than 1 per cent.
The huge growth is reflected in the fact that the number of downloads by users in India in 2025 went up by a staggering 204 per cent over the previous year.
Even the revenues earned by apps went up in 2025 in India by 240 per cent in the same period -- but the base is still very small.
In terms of time spent, Generative AI app users in India spent a substantial 6 billion hours last year on these, accounting for 12.6 per cent of the total time spent globally on these apps -- the total being 48 billion hours.
-- Surajeet Das Gupta, Business Standard
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