India emerges as leading market for Google’s AI image generator

India has become the leading market for Google’s AI image-generation model Nano Banana, officially known as Gemini 2.5 Flash Image, according to David Sharon, multimodal generation lead for Gemini Apps at Google DeepMind.

He said at a media session this week that the country ranks first in usage globally.

The popularity of the model has propelled the AI app to the top of the free app charts on both the App Store and Google Play in India, while also climbing global rankings, according to Appfigures.

India, the world’s second-largest smartphone market, has seen millions of users adopting the tool in distinctly local and creative ways. Among the most popular trends are retro Bollywood-style portraits inspired by the 1990s, AI sarees that depict users in vintage attire, and selfies re-created against global landmarks. Sharon noted that such retro-inspired creations were unique to Indian users.

Other trends gaining traction in India include time-travel effects, postage-stamp portraits, and figurine-style images that later spread globally. Indian users have also experimented with Google’s Veo 3 video-generation model to animate old family photographs.

Appfigures data shows the AI app recorded an average of 1.9 million monthly downloads in India between January and August, 55% higher than in the U.S. and accounting for 16.6% of global downloads. By August, India’s downloads had reached 15.2 million, compared to 9.8 million in the U.S.

Following the image generation model update on September 1, downloads in India spiked from 55,000 daily installs to a peak of 414,000 on September 13, a 667% increase. The AI chatbot has held the top overall position on the iOS App Store since September 10 and on Google Play since September 12, across all categories.

While India leads in downloads, it contributes a smaller share of consumer spending. Since launch, the AI chatbot app has generated $6.4 million in global iOS spending. The U.S. accounts for $2.3 million (35%), while India stands at $95,000 (1.5%). However, India saw an 18% rise in spending between September 1 and 16, outpacing the global average of 11% and far ahead of the U.S., which recorded growth of less than 1%.

The surge has raised questions about privacy and safety, given that many users upload personal images for transformations. Sharon told reporters that Google aims to fulfil user queries without making assumptions about intent, but acknowledged ongoing work on safety. He said Google has placed visible watermarks and hidden markers on images generated by Nano Banana using its SynthID tool.

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