Krutrim, the artificial intelligence (AI) startup of Ola founder Bhavish Aggarwal, on Thursday, July 18, unveiled the new pricing structure for Ola Maps to provide an alternative to global tech giants such as Google and empower innovation in India.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Aggarwal released his AI startup Krutrim’s new pricing policy, which will be active from July 18, 2024.
As per the pricing policy, Krutrim offers five million free API calls per month for all the startups in India. Its rates are 50 per cent less than that of Google for larger volumes; it’s free for two years for anyone who signs into the platform with a three-year or more commitment, and three years of free usage for all startups and small and midsize businesses on ONDC, according to the post.
“While all main APIs are supported by Ola Maps today, we will be feature complete for all kinds of APIs, SDKs and niche use cases by Dec. Roadmap attached,” said Aggarwal in his post on X.
As promised, here’s our response to @googlemaps ‘belated’ price cuts. It’s time we build world class alternatives to big tech giants and empower Indian innovation! I’m very excited to announce a further reduced pricing structure and our future product roadmap for Ola Maps… pic.twitter.com/zzuC90Qy03
— Bhavish Aggarwal (@bhash) July 18, 2024
Google aims to increase its reach to Indian developers with a price reduction for its Google Maps platform starting August 1.
Aggarwal previously said that Krutrim’s key differentiator will be the cost, which is designed keeping in mind the domestic factors. Krutrim launched the mapping and location-based services for developers through Ola Maps API in May, according to a Moneycontrol report.
Bhavish Aggarwal said that in early July, Ola Cabs exited Google Maps and shifted to its in-house-built Ola Maps, intending to save approximately ₹100 crore a year.
The Ola founder is using social media to encourage developers to use Ola Maps for a one-year free access plan. He posted that as of July 18, more than 10,000 developers have signed up for the platform and the company is optimising the opportunity to gain new customers.