Which refrigerant do new air conditioners in India use in 2026?
How the nameplates changed
Walk a showroom in 2026 and the nameplate story is uniform: mainstream splits from the major brands ship on R-32; R-410A persists on some inverter and VRF-adjacent lines; a niche of window units runs R-290. The absent option is the point — the 1 January 2025 manufacturing prohibition removed R-22 from every new-equipment decision, completing a transition that market forces had mostly finished already.
Why R-32 took the market
The drivers are the ones detailed in our R-32 guide: one-third the GWP of R-410A, 20–30% smaller charges, single-component serviceability, and efficiency headroom that matters under India's tightening star-rating regime. Energy labelling quietly did as much as environmental rules — R-32's thermodynamics made higher ISEER ratings cheaper to hit, so manufacturers standardised on it for cost reasons as much as green ones. R-290's ultra-low GWP wins it the window-unit niche, but its A3 (highly flammable) class caps charge sizes and keeps it out of mainstream splits.
What each vintage in the field still needs
| Equipment vintage | Typical refrigerant | Service implication |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-~2010 installs | R-22 | Servicing-only supply, registered sellers, rising cost |
| ~2006–2024 | R-410A | Huge installed base; A1 handling; demand for years |
| ~2015–present | R-32 | A2L tooling and training required |
| Niche window units | R-290 | A3 rules; specialist handling |
Flag: no single primary source publishes India's exact R-32 vs R-410A market-share split; "predominantly R-32" reflects manufacturer line-ups and industry reporting, and we say so rather than invent a percentage.
Reading it as a buyer or servicer
For households the label question is settled at purchase — what matters is that the installer carries the right gas and the right class-competence. For the trade, stock follows the fleet: R-32 for everything new, R-410A for the vast middle vintage, R-22 for the long tail. That three-gas reality is our stocking policy in one sentence; sector context on the industries page.
Buying advice hidden in the label: what to actually check
For a buyer standing in front of two air conditioners, the refrigerant line on the energy label carries more practical information than the marketing does. Check one — the gas itself: R-32 means current-generation platform, mainstream service availability for decades, and the lower-GWP position as Kigali repricing arrives; R-410A on a new unit is not wrong, but it is the outgoing platform, and its service gas carries triple the GWP exposure (the numbers). Check two — charge quantity: printed on the nameplate in grams; smaller charges mean cheaper future top-ups and lower leak consequence, and R-32 designs typically carry 20–30% less than equivalent R-410A. Check three — the installer question: R-32 is A2L, so ask directly whether the installation team is A2L-trained with rated tools; a competent answer is a proxy for overall workmanship (what competence means: A2L guide). Check four — serviceability signals: flare-joint quality and accessible service ports predict whether the unit's lifetime gas cost stays low. None of this requires technical background — it is four lines of reading — but it converts the refrigerant from an ignored specification into what it actually is: the largest determinant of the machine's servicing economics for the next fifteen years, and the difference between a unit that ages cheaply and one that does not.
- MoEFCC / Ozone Cell — HCFC new-equipment manufacturing prohibition from 1 Jan 2025 — ozonecell.nic.in.
- Daikin — R-32 line-up and adoption publications — daikin.com.
- Indian industry reporting on residential AC refrigerant mix (no single primary market-share source — flagged).
This guide is general information compiled from the cited sources — not legal, safety or engineering advice. Read our full disclaimer.
Related: R-32 supply · R-410A supply · Why R-32 won