Airtel gives 1-year free Adobe Express Premium worth Rs 4,000 to customers

Bharti Airtel Ltd. has partnered with Adobe Inc. to offer its mobile, Wi-Fi and DTH customers free access to Adobe Express Premium for one year, as India’s second-largest telecom operator steps up efforts to bundle AI-powered digital services with connectivity.

In what Airtel called a “global first,” the company said it will provide Adobe Express Premium, normally priced at about Rs 4,000 annually, at no cost to all users. The subscription can be activated through the Airtel Thanks app.

Airtel said the partnership will help users “express their creative abilities and produce professional-quality content, regardless of their design experience.”

David Wadhwani, President, Creativity and Productivity Business at Adobe, said, “We are excited to partner with Airtel to bring Adobe Express Premium to millions of people across India for free, accelerating the growth of India’s vibrant creator economy and enabling people to easily produce standout content, whether boosting their careers, growing their businesses or promoting their passions.” 

The move follows Airtel’s earlier tie-up with Perplexity AI, under which customers were offered free access to Perplexity Pro. That offer later drew criticism after users were asked to enter card details within six months to continue the service, raising questions about transparency and accountability.

This time, Airtel said Adobe Express, under the new offer, does not require any credit card information, easing concerns around unexpected charges.

With Adobe Express Premium, Airtel users get access to thousands of design templates tailored to Indian use cases such as festivals, weddings and local businesses. The package also includes AI-powered tools like instant background removal, custom image generation and one-tap video editing.

Users will receive premium Adobe Stock assets, more than 30,000 professional fonts, 100GB of cloud storage, auto captions, instant resize, no watermarks and cross-device sync. Adobe Express is available in English, Hindi, Tamil and Bangla.

How to activate Adobe Express Premium

Step 1: Open the Airtel Thanks app

Step 2: Tap the menu icon at the top

Step 3: Go to “Rewards and OTTs”

Step 4: Select the Adobe Express Premium offer

Step 5: Sign in or create an Adobe account to begin using the service

The Adobe partnership underscores Airtel’s strategy of bundling premium digital tools with telecom plans, as competition intensifies among Indian carriers to retain customers through value-added services beyond connectivity.