What launched
Amazon has launched Alexa+, the generative AI version of its voice assistant, in India. Customers can start using it from Wednesday through an Early Access programme, Amazon said. The assistant speaks English, Hindi and Hinglish, can switch language within a single sentence, and will add more Indian languages soon, according to the company.
The announcement was written by Teena Sidana, Amazon’s country manager for Alexa in India. She wrote that customers in India interacted with Alexa more than nine billion times in the past 12 months.
Price and access
Alexa+ is free for all customers during Early Access. Amazon says customers can check whether they are eligible at amazon.in/alexaplus, or get immediate access by buying a new eligible Echo or Fire TV device. After Early Access ends, it stays free for Prime members. Prime Lite and Prime Shopping Edition members, and customers without Prime, will need either a standalone subscription at ₹2,000 a month or a Prime plan. TechCrunch put that price at about $20.85.
Amazon says the new Echo Show 8, Echo Show 11, Echo Dot Max and Echo Studio were built for Alexa+. The assistant also runs on Fire TV and in the Alexa app, and Amazon says Indian customers will soon be able to use it in a browser at alexa.com.
What it does
Amazon pitches Alexa+ as an assistant that completes tasks rather than one that only answers questions. The company lists shopping, music, schedules, meal planning and smart home control. It says Alexa+ already works with smart home devices from brands including Atomberg, Qubo, Dreame and Wipro, with Sanjeev Kapoor Recipes for meal ideas, and with Amazon Music, Spotify, Apple Music, JioSaavn, Prime Video and Netflix.
Other services are listed by Amazon as coming soon: EazyDiner for restaurant reservations, Swiggy for food delivery and dining, District by Zomato for events and dining, MakeMyTrip and TripAdvisor for travel, and Home Triangle for home services. Voice ordering of groceries through Amazon Now, the company’s quick-commerce service, is also due soon. TechCrunch described several of these services as already integrated; Amazon’s own post marks them as upcoming.
Amazon says teams in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune and Chennai built core parts of the system, from speech recognition tuned to Indian homes to language models that handle mixed Hindi and English. “A lot of the technology powering Alexa+ was built in India, for India,” Sidana wrote. The company says the assistant understands expressions such as “dhai baje” for half past two, and family terms that have no English equivalent.
Privacy controls
Amazon says customers can review and manage their Alexa+ interactions in the Alexa Privacy dashboard, including listening to what Alexa heard and changing how long voice recordings are stored.
Background
Amazon launched Alexa in India in English in 2017 and added Hindi in 2019, TechCrunch reported. Amazon announced Alexa+ in 2025, and it has since reached all US users as well as the UK, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Italy and Germany, according to TechCrunch, which also reported that Amazon invited Indian users to test Hindi conversations in June.
What to watch
Amazon has not said when Early Access will end, which is when the ₹2,000 monthly charge would begin for customers outside Prime. The next steps it has promised are more Indian languages, the booking and delivery integrations, and access through alexa.com.
