Is Kwai Banned in India? The Complete, Fact-Checked Answer (2026)

So many people search “Is Kwai banned in India?” This is the most trending and asked question since mid-2020. The short & correct answer is yes; for the past five (5) years, both Kwai & Kuaishou have been banned.

But more important than a simple yes or no in the story. Chinese apps have quietly returned to Indian app stores in recent years, so it’s worth asking whether Kuaishou could be next. 

This article will give you a real timeline of why Kuaishou, or the Kwai company, was actually banned in India, including how our downloader can help you save Kwai/Kuaishou videos safely, without needing the banned app.

What Is Kwai, Exactly? (And Is Kuaishou Banned Too?)

Kwai is simply the international name of Kuaishou (快手, meaning “like another hand”) — they are the same app, same company, same ban. This matters for SEO and for readers because a lot of people search “is Kuaishou banned in India” and “is Kwai banned in India” separately, without realizing they’re asking the exact same question. 

So to be direct: yes, Kuaishou is banned in India too, because Kuaishou and Kwai are just two names for the same app. Think of it like a nickname — “Kwai” is simply the name Kuaishou uses outside China. So when India banned “Kwai” in 2020, it banned this exact app — it doesn’t matter which name you search for, the ban is the same.

The app is developed by Kuaishou Technology, a publicly traded, partly state-owned company headquartered in Beijing’s Haidian District. It was founded in March 2011 by Su Hua and Cheng Yixiao, originally as a GIF-sharing tool called “GIF Kuaishou,” before switching to short-form video in 2013. By 2019, Kuaishou had crossed 200 million daily active users worldwide and was topping “most downloaded” charts in several countries, including Brazil. If you want the full backstory on what are Kuaishou & Kwai exactly, including how the app works and how it’s different from Snack Video we cover that in detail separately.

In India, before the ban, Kwai built a large following in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities thanks to its regional-language content and simple interface. The company also owns Snack Video, a near-identical app that became relevant to India’s story, and more recently launched an AI video-generation tool called Kling.

Is Kwai Banned in India? Current Status

Yes — Kwai remains officially banned in India. The ban was first imposed on 29 June 2020, when the Indian government blocked Kwai along with 58 other apps under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, citing threats to sovereignty, security, and public order. As of 2026, this Kwai ban has not been officially removed by the Indian government.

• Kwai is not available on the Google Play Store or Apple App Store for Indian accounts. 
• Sideloaded copies of the app typically can’t connect to Kuaishou’s servers from an Indian IP address, so features like uploading, live streaming, or in-app browsing don’t work properly. 
• There has been no official notification reversing the ban on Kwai.

Important update: Since early 2025, India–China relations have improved somewhat, and following foreign-ministry-level talks, a handful of previously banned Chinese apps including Shein, Taobao, and Youku, have quietly reappeared on Indian app stores. This has led to speculation about whether more banned apps, including Kwai, might follow. So far, though, Kwai itself has not reappeared, and there’s no confirmed timeline for that to change.

Why Was Kwai Banned in the First Place?

Kwai wasn’t the only app banned — the Indian government banned 59 Chinese apps together, all on the same day: 29 June 2020. This happened right after a serious clash between Indian and Chinese soldiers at the border in Galwan Valley, in which 20 Indian soldiers died. Because of this clash, tensions between the two countries were very high.

India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (the government department in charge of internet rules) said these apps were a risk to India’s security and public order. In simple terms, here’s why:

Other well-known apps banned in the same wave included TikTok, ShareIt, UC Browser, Helo, Likee, Bigo Live, and CamScanner. A second wave in September 2020 added PUBG Mobile and dozens more.

59 Chinese banned apps listing

Here’s the full list of the original 59 apps, so you can check if any others you use were affected: 

Table note: A few slightly different versions of this list circulate online. The table above reflects the most commonly cited version of the original order dated 29 June 2020.

The Snack Video Angle: Why This Story Isn’t Simple

Here’s an interesting detail most articles don’t mention. After Kwai got banned, its parent company, Kuaishou Technology, quickly launched a new app in India called Snack Video. Snack Video looked and worked almost exactly like Kwai — but it didn’t use the Kuaishou name anywhere, so most people had no idea it was made by the same company.

Snack Video became very popular very fast — reportedly reaching over 50 million daily users at its peak. But once people found out it was secretly owned by Kuaishou (the same company behind the banned Kwai app), the Indian government banned Snack Video too.

Why does this matter? Because it shows a pattern: a banned company can launch a new app under a different name to get around a ban. People who study India’s tech rules have noticed this pattern before. It’s a big reason why regulators are still careful about allowing Kwai or any app connected to Kuaishou back into India. 

Kuaishou’s Global Story Since the Ban

Even though Kuaishou is banned in India, the company has kept growing in the rest of the world. In February 2021, Kuaishou became a public company by listing its shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (this is called an IPO). On its first day, the share price more than doubled — but over the next year, the price dropped a lot. In FY2024, the company earned about CN¥127 billion, which is roughly US$17.4 billion. Today, Kuaishou is still one of China’s biggest video apps, and its main rival is Douyin (which is basically the Chinese version of TikTok).

Kuaishou has also faced some problems in China. Chinese media have criticized the app for showing harmful content involving minors — this issue is known online as “Manjiao Wenhua.” And in December 2025, hackers attacked the platform, which briefly let violent and explicit videos appear on the app before the company fixed the problem.

Will Kwai’s Ban Be Lifted in India?

There’s no official confirmation either way. What we do know:

• Diplomatic contact between India and China has increased since early 2025.
• A small number of previously banned Chinese apps have returned to Indian app stores.
• Kwai and its sister app Snack Video have not been part of that return so far.
• Legal experts who track this space note that the “threat of a ban” still hangs over Chinese-linked apps in India, making large-scale re-entry unlikely in the near term.

Until there’s an official announcement, the safest assumption for Indian users is that Kwai remains banned.

What Can You Actually Do If You Want Kwai Content in India?

There are two very different situations here, and it’s worth being clear about them:

1. You just want to watch or save existing Kwai/Kuaishou videos. You don’t need the app for this. If you have a public video link, you can use our free browser-based Kwai downloader tool to save the video directly — no app installation, no workaround needed.
2. You want to create content or use the full app experience. This genuinely requires access to the banned app, which is outside what we’d recommend, since bypassing a government-mandated ban (for example, via VPN) sits in a legal grey area and can also expose your device to security and data-privacy risks — the very risks the ban was meant to address in the first place. If you want a similar content experience, Indian-made alternatives like Moj and Josh, or globally available options like Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts, are safer, fully legal choices. If you’re repurposing Kuaishou content for another platform, our guide “Kuaishou to TikTok: How to Repost Viral Videos Without Copyright Strikes (2026 Guide)“ covers how to do that the right way.

Step-by-Step: Saving a Kwai/Kuaishou Video Without the App

Get the share link of the video (from someone who sent it to you, or from a public post).

Open a trusted browser-based downloader tool (such as KuaiVideosDownloader). Paste the link into the box.

Choose MP4 (video) or MP3 (audio only) or JPG (cover image), depending on what you need. Click “Get Download link” button

Choose the quality which you want, then the file saves directly to your device—no app installation required.

If you want to watch the downloading steps in video, I make our tool video tutorials in Hindi/English.

Common Misconceptions About the Kwai Ban

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

To sum it up: Kwai is still banned in India, more than five years after the original order, and there’s no official sign that this is about to change even though a handful of other Chinese apps have quietly returned. The ban was rooted in specific data-privacy and national-security concerns raised during a tense period in India-China relations, not a random decision. If you’re after Kwai or Kuaishou content, you don’t need to risk installing a banned app — a trusted browser-based downloader lets you save the videos you need, safely and legally.

Verified Developer

✓

Noman Raza

Founder & Lead Developer • Kuaivideosdownloader.com

Noman Raza is the creator of Kuaivideosdownloader, a free online utility engineered to help users download Kuaishou (Kwai) videos in high quality without watermarks. He specializes in building fast, secure, and privacy-focused web tools that run smoothly on every device—100% free of ads, hidden costs, or user tracking.

⚡

Hands-On Tested Checked on real devices before every publish

🔄

Kept Current Reviewed regularly as Kuaishou updates its platform

💡

Beginner-Friendly Clear steps, no technical jargon required

📱

Works Everywhere iPhone, Android, PC, and Mac—all covered