AI sourcing and screening software for hiring in India

Indeed prices Smart Sourcing in rupees. Naukri sells Resdex packages through its branches and a call-back form. India’s data protection law is arriving in phases. It puts duties on whoever decides how candidate data is used.

By Ashish Manchanda Published 14 Oct 2026 Last updated 14 Oct 2026

Job-site databases

Naukri Resdex · Indeed Smart Sourcing

Rupee price on its website

Indeed Smart Sourcing

India region or hosting

Zoho Recruit · Findem · Phenom

India launch or rollout

Pin · Workday Recruiting

Stays the same

The questions about scoring, data access and contract terms apply in India as in any country.

Watch

India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act sets penalties up to ₹250 crore. Ask each seller how it meets the Act.

What changes when you hire in India

Naukri and Indeed both sell resume search to employers in India. Naukri hosts about 118 million resumes. Indeed has more than 19.3 million unique visitors a month. One number counts resumes and the other counts visitors, so they do not compare.

They charge in different units. Indeed sells contacts. Naukri sells CV quota, which is its allowance of profile actions. Indeed payments are non-refundable.

Some AI features depend on the country. Indeed’s AI features are not available in every market. Zoho’s AI Assist works in the United States, Europe, Australia and India. Local privacy rules can limit which Findem services run in a region. Ask each seller for a list of what is live for an Indian account.

Which products suit hiring in India?

Naukri Resdex sells search of its own resume database

Recruiters search the resumes in Resdex. Resdex Enterprise is an upgrade for large hiring teams. Its personalised search ranks the results by the recruiter’s own past actions. It is the default sort for those users. More than 146,000 corporate clients use Naukri, including recruitment agencies. Applications to a job posted on Naukri get a score out of 10 against the job. The score uses six details. They are skills, designation, experience, salary, location and education. Rejection reasons that recruiters record feed the scoring.

AI REX is Naukri’s AI assistant for sourcing. It screens each response against criteria you set. It reaches candidates on WhatsApp, email and app notifications. It arranges interviews after the shortlist. Each requirement you enter in AI REX gives access to 50 CVs. Over 4,000 enterprise customers and recruitment firms use it. More than 10% of them have moved to paid plans. Shortlisting fell from 10 to 15 days to under a day.

Indeed Smart Sourcing lets you search resumes and message people

Smart Sourcing is a resume database with AI candidate sourcing software. It gives a shortlist matched to your job criteria, with an AI summary for each candidate. It writes messages and sends reminders to people who do not reply. It texts candidates who opted in. It can also connect you to a candidate by a phone call that Indeed hosts. Each team member who contacts candidates needs a subscription of their own.

Indeed’s separate Smart Screening tool scores applications. It is in beta, which is a test version. Indeed offers it in limited quantities and locations.

Five more products with something specific to India

Zoho Recruit has AI Assist, which drafts job descriptions, candidate emails and assessments. It works in the India region.
Findem has four job regions. India is one of them. The others are the Americas, Asia-Pacific, and Europe with the Middle East and Africa. Its database holds more than 850 million profiles worldwide. It connects to an applicant tracking system, which is software that holds job applications.
Workday Recruiting comes from Workday. Workday owns HiredScore, which JLL rolled out in India in 2021. JLL used Spotlight to shortlist candidates and Fetch to look again at past candidates. The rollout began with about 20 recruiters. HiredScore data is stored in data centres in the European Economic Area and the United States.
Pin is an AI recruiting platform that finds people, screens them, sends follow-ups and books interviews. Pin launched in India in the week of 12 September 2026.
Phenom has a Sourcing Agent that finds candidates among people the company already holds on file, and beyond. It drafts messages for recruiters to send. Phenom’s hosting provider runs its services from the United States, Canada, Ireland or India.

Seven products and what each offers in India
Product	What it offers in India	Price you can see	Check before you buy
Naukri Resdex	Sold by Info Edge (India) Limited. Hosts about 118 million resumes.	Package details come from a Naukri branch or a call-back form.	Ask which details the diversity filters use.
Indeed Smart Sourcing	Prices in rupees.	₹33,000 a month or ₹3,15,000 a year.	Ask which AI features your account has, as they differ by market.
Zoho Recruit	AI Assist works in the India region.	Per-user plans.	Ask whether your plan includes the Screening Bot. It comes with Enterprise, People Plus and Zoho One.
Findem	India is one of four job regions you can pick.	Dollars. $25,000 for a 12-month licence.	Ask which services are open in India, as local privacy rules can limit them.
Workday Recruiting	JLL rolled out HiredScore, now part of Workday, in India in 2021.	Credits for each action. The subscription price follows employee numbers or users.	Contracts run for several years. Fees do not fall if employee or user numbers fall.
Pin	Pin launched in India in September 2026.	Dollars, per user per month.	Ask which India profiles and lookups are live today.
Phenom	Its hosting provider can run Phenom’s services from India.	Phenom asks you to contact its team for a price.	Ask for India hosting to be written into the order.

The other products to ask about

Ask LinkedIn Recruiter how many profiles of people in India it holds. Ask where it stores candidate data and whether it bills in rupees.

Talview may process personal information in countries including India. Ask Talview where your candidates’ data would sit.

For each of these products, ask three questions. Does it hold profiles of people in India? Where does it store candidate data? Does it bill in rupees?

What do the rupee plans and dollar plans cost?

Indeed’s Professional plan costs ₹33,000 a month or ₹3,15,000 a year. Twelve monthly payments come to ₹3,96,000, so the yearly price saves ₹81,000. Both include 100 contacts a month. Each message to a new person uses one contact. Extra contacts cost ₹330 each. One recruiter who messages 150 people in a month pays ₹16,500 for the extra 50.

Indeed contacts expire six months after purchase. They roll over only if your offer says so. Contacts on a yearly plan paid upfront can last 12 months. For India plans, unused contacts do not carry over to a new plan. Ask Indeed, in writing, when the contacts on your plan expire.

Naukri gives details of Resdex packages through its branches and a call-back form. Each profile uses CV quota once, the first time a recruiter acts on it. That quota stays valid for 90 days. Naukri approves KYC documents, which are its Know Your Customer identity checks, before it starts a new subscription. Begin that paperwork before your first search.

Pin’s Solo plan costs $99 per user a month on yearly billing. Its Professional plan costs $135 or $179 per user a month. Ask Pin which billing term each price needs. Findem has a $25,000 licence for 12 months on AWS Marketplace, which is Amazon’s online store for business software.

Workday sells its AI agents for credits, which are prepaid units of use. Credits come as a yearly bulk purchase. Grading one resume takes 6 credits. Ask Workday what one credit costs. Ask each seller with a dollar price what it charges in rupees and whether tax is added.

What can go wrong under India’s data protection law?

The law arrives in phases

India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act starts on dates the Central Government sets. Different parts can start on different dates. In November 2025 the government notified the Act’s Rules, which set an 18-month phased timeline. Ask each seller which parts it already meets.

Your team may be a Data Fiduciary

The Act calls whoever decides why and how personal data is used a Data Fiduciary. The person the data is about is the Data Principal. Section 4 allows processing with consent or for certain legitimate uses. Section 7 makes processing for employment a legitimate use. Ask your lawyer whether searching for people who have not applied counts. Naukri is run by Info Edge (India) Limited. Ask Naukri which of you is the Data Fiduciary for the resumes you download.

Public profiles are treated differently

Under Section 3(c)(ii), the Act does not apply to personal data that the person made public themselves. The Act also does not apply to data made public by someone with a legal duty to publish it. Ask your lawyer where a search of public profiles falls.

Caste details and diversity filters

Info Edge may collect caste and affirmative action eligibility if a person provides it. Resdex has diversity filters. Ask Naukri which details those filters use and whether recruiters can see caste on a profile.

Penalties and candidate requests

The Act’s Schedule sets penalties of up to ₹250 crore (₹2.5 billion) for failing to take reasonable security safeguards. A person can ask to access, correct or erase their data. The Data Fiduciary must reply within 90 days at most. Agree with each seller how a candidate’s request reaches you.

What should you ask each seller before signing?

Naukri Resdex: How many CV quota units does our package include, and when do they expire? Good answer: A written number and an end date.
Naukri Resdex: Is AI REX inside our package, or sold on top? Good answer: A written yes or no, with the price if it is extra.
Indeed Smart Sourcing: Which AI features are switched on for our India account today? Good answer: A list of live features.
Indeed Smart Sourcing: How does an India plan renew, and can we cancel before it does? Good answer: The renewal terms written into the order form.
Zoho Recruit: Which AI features does our plan include in the India region? Good answer: A list by plan name.
Findem: How many India profiles do you hold, and how do you handle a candidate’s erasure request? Good answer: A count for India and a written process.
Workday Recruiting: Which Indian employers use the Recruiting Agent today, and what does one credit cost? Good answer: A named customer who takes a reference call, and a written price per credit.
Pin: What India coverage is live today, and which plan includes it? Good answer: A written list of live coverage.
Phenom: Will you host our candidate data in India? Good answer: The named region in the order form.
LinkedIn Recruiter: How many profiles of people in India do you hold, and where do you store candidate data? Do you bill in rupees? Good answer: Written answers to all three.

Where to read next

Our guide to AI sourcing and screening covers the whole market. The comparison sets every product side by side. If you hire in large numbers, read the high-volume hiring guide.

More in this guide

The AI sourcing and screening guide
Compare the 41 with their own page what each of the 41 products with its own page here does, what it costs, what it can decide alone and which have an outside bias audit.
Mid-market companies which AI sourcing and screening tools suit a company of 200 to 2,000 people, the prices you can see, how the bill grows and what to ask before signing.
Enterprise companies which platforms replace an applicant tracking system and which add to one, what they cost, how the contracts end and the hiring rules by place.
Hiring in India what Indeed charges for search in India and how Naukri sells Resdex, which products host data or launched in India, what India’s data protection law asks of employers and ten questions to ask sellers.
High-volume hiring which AI screening products can reject applicants with no person involved, how they text and call, and what they cost at volume.