Gleeden, an extramarital dating platform, has released survey data from its Indian user base that paints an unexpectedly detailed picture of how Indians are approaching relationships, intimacy, and loneliness in 2026. The platform has 4 million users in India and its findings cover everything from which cities have the most users seeking affairs to the rapidly growing phenomenon of Indians conducting secret relationships with artificial intelligence.
The numbers are more striking than anything Gleeden’s marketing materials might suggest.
Bangalore Leads, But Small Towns Are Catching Up Fast
Bengaluru has the highest number of sign-ups of any Indian city on Gleeden, placing it at the top of a list that also includes Hyderabad and Delhi among the leading metro cities. The dominance of tech-heavy, professionally dense urban environments at the top of the list is consistent with what the platform describes as digitally active, time-pressured professional demographics.
What is more surprising is the tier-2 city data. Lucknow, Noida, Chandigarh, Surat, Coimbatore, Bhubaneswar, Patna, Guwahati, and Raipur are all showing significant user growth, demonstrating that discreet online dating is no longer primarily an urban metro phenomenon. The geographic spread of Gleeden’s Indian user base suggests that the conditions driving people to seek relationships outside their marriages, emotional loneliness, unmet needs, digital access, are distributed across Indian society more broadly than the metro-centric narrative of changing relationship norms tends to acknowledge.
Women Up 148 Percent in Two Years
The single most significant demographic shift in Gleeden’s Indian data is the 148 percent increase in women’s usage of the platform over the past two years. The growth is spread across both metropolitan areas and smaller towns, which suggests this is not simply a function of greater digital access among urban professional women but a broader shift in how Indian women across multiple demographic contexts are approaching relationship dissatisfaction and the options available to them.
Sybil Shiddell, country manager of Gleeden India, described the trend as a quiet revolution in how people approach modern relationships, noting that digital adoption is growing exponentially as the driver of these behavioural shifts.
The platform’s usage data reveals when these connections happen. Users spend an average of 1.5 hours per session in chat. Peak usage occurs between noon and 3 PM, during lunch breaks, and between 10 PM and midnight, when the spouse is distracted or asleep. The timing data provides an unusually specific window into the practical logistics of how extramarital digital relationships are conducted within the structure of Indian domestic and professional life.
The AI Relationship Data — The More Significant Finding
Gleeden conducted a separate survey of 1,500 individuals from both tier-1 and tier-2 cities specifically examining the use of artificial intelligence in personal and sexual exploration. The findings are striking in their scale and specificity.
Fifty-four percent of those surveyed have set up a virtual AI partner for sexual interactions. Fifty-eight percent report creating a virtual partner for emotional and romantic interactions including exchanging affection. And nearly half, 49 percent, admit to what they describe as cheating with AI, meaning they consider their AI relationship to constitute a form of infidelity to their human partner.
The survey analysed usage of AI-generated erotic imagery, video avatars, and deepfakes as tools for personal and sexual exploration, finding that these technologies have moved from the fringes of digital behaviour to something that a majority of respondents in a 1,500-person sample report engaging with in some form.
The survey highlights that the feeling of being alone is the primary driver pushing individuals toward AI companions. This finding connects the extramarital affair data and the AI relationship data through a single underlying cause. Whether the relationship being sought is with another human through a platform like Gleeden or with an AI construct, emotional loneliness inside an existing relationship is the common motivator.
What the Experts Say
Dr Vandana Shetty, psychiatrist, psychotherapist, and sexual health expert at Sage Health in Bengaluru, told the outlet that the phenomenon is multifactorial. Social and cultural factors, unmet biological and emotional needs, and overall dissatisfaction with existing relationships are among the causes. She specifically identified people with insecurity, low self-esteem, or a need for external validation as particularly likely to seek relationships outside their marriages.
Her most important observation addresses the AI relationship data directly. Emotional loneliness is a big factor, she noted, and people who are married or in a relationship can also feel lonely. The point is significant because it reframes the conventional understanding of infidelity as primarily about physical desire. The Gleeden data, and particularly the AI relationship data where 58 percent report seeking genuine emotional and romantic connection rather than purely sexual interaction, suggests that the primary deficit driving these behaviours is emotional rather than physical.
The paradox the survey highlights is the one that mental health researchers have consistently identified around AI companionship. While AI partners and extramarital digital connections may provide immediate comfort and relief from loneliness, they can deepen real-world loneliness by substituting for the work of building genuine emotional intimacy within existing relationships or seeking human connection through other means.
Studies on the aftermath of infidelity consistently show that extramarital affairs, whether physical or emotional, have destructive impacts not only on marriages but on the individual’s own emotional wellbeing, beyond and separate from the consequences for the relationship itself.
What the Data Reveals About Modern India
The Gleeden survey, taken in its totality, reveals something about the texture of intimate life in contemporary India that is rarely discussed openly. Four million Indians are using a platform explicitly designed for extramarital connection. The fastest growing demographic on that platform is women. The fastest growing geographic base is small towns. And a majority of the survey respondents are conducting some form of intimate relationship with artificial intelligence alongside their human relationships.
The cultural narrative around Indian marriage and relationships is changing faster than public discourse about those changes. The Gleeden data is one of the few places where the actual numbers are on the record.
This article is based on survey data and statements released by Gleeden India in 2026 and expert commentary sourced from published reports. Survey findings are based on Gleeden’s own methodology and user base and may not be representative of the broader Indian population. This article is for informational purposes only.