Perplexity.ai has refuted allegations circulating on social media that Airtel's free Perplexity Pro offer delivers a reduced or "Pro-Lite" experience compared to its standard paid subscription. The clarification follows a widely discussed post on the Reddit forum, where a user alleged that the bundled plan underperformed against both the paid Pro and free versions of the AI tool. In response to a Reddit thread spreading misinformation about the Airtel and Perplexity partnership, Perplexity.ai reportedly clarified that the claims are entirely inaccurate.
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Perplexity.ai Issues Clarification
"Having worked personally with the Airtel team throughout this partnership, and also being familiar with the specific terms of this deal, I can assure you that it is absolutely false that Airtel customers get a different version of Perplexity Pro than our Pro subscribers. We are accustomed to misinformation about Perplexity online, and how some people on Reddit and X use misinformation about Perplexity in order to boost their follower counts, but India is very dear to us as a company and we would hope to be able to correct this misunderstanding for Indian readers," Jesse Dwyer from Perplexity.ai told Financial Express.
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Misinformation Post Sparks Controversy
According to the report dated August 7, 2025, the Reddit post, which drew hundreds of upvotes, claimed the Airtel-linked account delivered slower responses, lacked visual outputs such as charts, omitted citations, and at times produced less insightful results than the free version. The author concluded that the offer did not match the performance of a regular Pro subscription.
Airtel, in partnership with Perplexity.ai, provides its subscribers complimentary access to Perplexity Pro — a plan valued at Rs 17,000 annually — including advanced model access, file uploads, image generation, and other premium features.
