Sarvam AI App (Indus): Free or Paid, and vs ChatGPT

Sarvam AI is in the news this week: it signed an agreement to build AI for India's armed forces and rolled out its assistant to 2,500 Maharashtra government officials. That has more people looking up the Sarvam AI app, Indus, and asking two questions: is it free, and is it better than ChatGPT for Indian languages?

Here are the answers from Sarvam's own pages, the app-store listings and press reports, checked on 31 October 2026. We haven't run our own tests, so where something is a company claim, we say so.

What is the Sarvam AI app?

Indus is Sarvam's AI chat assistant. Sarvam opened it in beta on 20 February 2026, saying it is "powered by our 105B sovereign model", a model Sarvam built and released openly. It runs on Android, iOS and the web at indus.sarvam.ai.

What it offers, according to Sarvam:

• Indian languages: Sarvam's plans page says you can "chat in English and 22 Indian languages", from Hindi, Tamil and Bengali to Santali, Bodo and Dogri. (The Play Store graphic says "12+ languages", so the count shown varies by page.)
• Voice: "Just tap the mic and ask your question out loud", and the free plan includes read-aloud and voice dictation. Business Today found that questions asked in Hindi, Malayalam or Gujarati were answered in the same language, though numbers were often read out in English.
• Web search: the free plan includes "basic web search". Sarvam notes its web search runs in English and the answer is then given in your language.
• Newer features: the Play listing now shows agents, connectors and "artifacts", and the app has 1 lakh+ downloads with a 4.8 rating from 10.4K reviews on Google Play.

Indus on Google Play (India), 31 October 2026. Screenshot: BestAI.

Is the Sarvam AI app free or paid?

Both. The app itself is free to download and use, with no in-app purchases listed on either store. Heavier use is paid, on per-user plans listed on Sarvam's plans page:

Plan	Price (per user, per month, before GST)	What it adds
Free	₹0	"Baseline usage", basic web search, voice
Essential	₹500	5x Free's usage, file uploads and summaries
Professional	₹2,500	10x Essential, advanced reasoning models, deep research
Builder	₹5,000	Higher tier for builders; see Sarvam's plans page

Two things to know. Sarvam doesn't publish how much "baseline usage" the free plan allows. And file uploads, which press reports described at launch, are now listed from the ₹500 plan, not under Free. Paid plans are bought by contacting Sarvam, not inside the app.

Is Sarvam AI better than ChatGPT in Indian languages?

There's no independent answer yet, and the comparison Sarvam publishes doesn't include ChatGPT.

Sarvam's own model write-up reports that its 105B model "wins on average 90%" of head-to-head comparisons in 22 Indian languages, judged by Google's Gemini. But the models it beat are all open models, such as GPT-OSS-120B and GLM-4.5-Air, not ChatGPT's current models. On general English benchmarks against closed models like Gemini 2.5 Flash and Claude 4 Sonnet, Sarvam's figures show it ahead on some tests and behind on others, such as coding.

The one independent ranking we found, from Artificial Analysis, scored Sarvam 105B at 18 on its intelligence index, behind several open models, and flagged a high rate of confident wrong answers. That test isn't specific to Indian languages, so it doesn't settle the question either way.

	Sarvam Indus (free)	ChatGPT (free)
Price to start	Free	Free; Go ₹399/month
Indian languages	22 plus English, per Sarvam	Many, including Hindi
Voice in Indian languages	Yes, built in	Yes
File uploads on free plan	No (from ₹500)	Limited
Data stored in India	Sarvam says so, but its privacy policy differs (see below)	No

Our judgement: Indus is worth trying if you think and speak in an Indian language and want voice answers in it, especially for everyday questions. For long documents, coding or research, ChatGPT and Gemini remain the safer choice until independent tests show otherwise. Business Today's early verdict was similar: Indus "is not going to unseat ChatGPT for power users anytime soon", but for Hindi or Gujarati speakers "this is a meaningful start". ChatGPT's plans in rupees are compared in our ChatGPT Go vs Plus guide.

Is your data safe on the Sarvam AI app?

Sarvam's own pages disagree, so read them before sharing anything sensitive. Its privacy policy, updated 29 July 2026, says Sarvam uses your content "to train, fine-tune, and/or improve our AI models unless you explicitly opt-out", while its plans page says what you create "is not used to train models". On location, the plans page says data is "stored and processed in India", but the privacy policy says personal data "may be transferred to and processed in countries outside India", naming the US and the EU.

The policy says chats are kept for 30 days after your last access by default, that Sarvam does not sell your data, and that the service is not meant for people under 18. If privacy matters to you, turn off training in your account settings and avoid uploading personal documents.

What is the difference between Indus, Indus Cowork and the Maharashtra rollout?

They are parts of one platform. Indus is the free app for everyone. Indus Cowork is the paid workspace where teams "hire" AI agents into tools like Slack, on the per-seat plans above. The Maharashtra deployment, launched by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on 28 October, is a custom government version; Sarvam says it works "across 22 languages, including Marathi" with infrastructure "located entirely within India".

Who is Sarvam AI?

A Bengaluru AI company and one of India's best-funded. In June 2026 it raised $234 million in the first close of a $300 million round at a $1.5 billion valuation, led by HCLTech. On 27 October it signed a memorandum of understanding with Headquarters Integrated Defence Staff, under the Ministry of Defence, for AI across the Army, Navy and Air Force. Our AI trends in India report covers that deal, and our list of AI startups in India ranks Sarvam among its peers. Sarvam's voice models also power its free Hindi text-to-speech tool, which tops our Hindi AI voice generator comparison.

FAQ

Is the Sarvam AI app free?

Yes. Indus is free to download on Android and iOS and free to use on the web, with "baseline usage". Paid plans start at ₹500 per user a month before GST for more usage and file uploads.

Is the Sarvam AI app better than ChatGPT?

There is no independent test yet. Sarvam's benchmark shows its model beating open models in Indian languages, but it doesn't compare against ChatGPT. Try Indus for Indian-language voice chat; use ChatGPT or Gemini for heavier work.

How many languages does the Sarvam AI app support?

Sarvam's plans page says Indus chats in English and 22 Indian languages, including Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi and Gujarati. The Play Store listing advertises "12+ languages".

Does Sarvam use my chats to train its AI?

Sarvam's privacy policy says it does unless you opt out in your account settings, though its plans page says content is not used to train models. Opt out if you are unsure.

Who owns the Sarvam AI app?

Indus is made by Sarvam AI, a Bengaluru company; its App Store listing names the provider as Axonwise Private Limited. Sarvam raised $234 million in 2026 at a $1.5 billion valuation.

Cover image: a woman on a phone call in Bengaluru. Victorgrigas, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.