India is starting to pay for apps, not just download them

For years, India was the world’s largest app download marketplace but 1 of its toughest places to marque money. That is opening to alteration arsenic Indian consumers walk much connected AI, entertainment, and different premium apps.

India’s mobile app marketplace generated a grounds $345 cardinal successful user spending during the 2nd 4th of this year, up 35% from a twelvemonth earlier, according to a new report by Sensor Tower. The app-market quality steadfast said the gains were progressively driven by generative AI, streaming, and productivity apps alternatively than gaming, arsenic Indian consumers became much consenting to wage for integer subscriptions.

The grounds 4th builds connected a broader inclination of rising app monetization. India’s gross per download has much than doubled implicit the past three-and-a-half years, portion quarterly app downloads person remained astatine astir 6.3 cardinal since 2023.

“We would picture India contiguous arsenic a rapidly evolving mobile marketplace with a ample idiosyncratic basal and increasing willingness to wage for integer services,” Eve Chen, an insights expert astatine Sensor Tower, told TechCrunch.

Chen attributed the alteration to the wider adoption of integer payments, including India’s Unified Payments Interface (a strategy that lets radical wage straight from their slope accounts) and integer wallets, which person reduced friction for in-app purchases, alongside increasing acceptance of app-based subscriptions and premium integer services.

The inclination besides stands retired globally. India’s app gross saw its fastest maturation successful Q2 among large app markets, generating much than $200 cardinal successful quarterly user spending, per Sensor Tower’s information shared with TechCrunch. In contrast, Mexico grew 30% and Turkey 25%, portion U.S. app gross really declined 3% implicit the aforesaid period.

“These figures suggest that India is nary longer conscionable the world’s largest marketplace by downloads, but is besides emerging arsenic 1 of the fastest-growing markets for app monetization,” Chen told TechCrunch.

India inactive trails much mature app markets by a wide margin. Revenue per download stands astatine astir $4.60 successful the U.S., $3.90 successful South Korea, and $6.10 successful Japan, compared with a tiny fraction of that successful India. Nonetheless, Chen said the trajectory matters much than the implicit level, with India’s steadily improving monetization suggesting important country for semipermanent growth.

Generative AI has emerged arsenic 1 of the fastest-growing segments, with OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude unneurotic accounting for astir 83% of India’s AI app gross successful Q2, according to Sensor Tower’s information shared with TechCrunch.

Much of India’s app gross maturation is besides being driven by non-gaming apps. Non-gaming categories, Sensor Tower said, accounted for 68% of India’s mobile app gross successful the archetypal fractional of 2026, up from 58% 3 years earlier.

The latest information besides suggests planetary subscription apps continue to beryllium among the biggest beneficiaries of rising app spending successful India, with Google One becoming India’s highest-grossing mobile app during the quarter. Streaming platforms specified arsenic Amazon Prime Video, Crunchyroll, Sony LIV, and JioHotstar besides saw increasing user spending. Gaming besides bucked the planetary trend, with gross rising 3.7% from the erstwhile 4th contempt a worldwide decline, per Sensor Tower.

Image Credits:Sensor Tower

App quality steadfast Appfigures besides sees India’s app subscription marketplace continuing to grow, though it says the gait has slowed aft an AI-fueled surge implicit the past 2 years. Subscription gross is inactive rising, but overmuch of the archetypal excitement astir AI has abated, Ariel Michaeli, the company’s laminitis and CEO, told TechCrunch.

“The numbers are inactive staggering,” Michaeli added. Appfigures estimates that ChatGPT generates astir $60,000 a time successful India and attracted astir 1.8 cardinal downloads implicit the past month, though that’s down from astir $80,000 a time past October.