UPI Completes a Decade as India’s Digital Payment System Scales to 24,162 Crore Annual Transactions

India’s Unified Payments Interface is marking ten years since its 2016 launch, completing a transformation that has turned a relatively small instant-payment network into the backbone of the country’s digital payments ecosystem. Developed by the National Payments Corporation of India under the regulatory oversight of the Reserve Bank of India, UPI has grown from 1.78 crore transactions in FY 2016-17 to more than 24,162 crore transactions in FY 2025-26.

The expansion represents an almost 13,000-fold increase in annual transaction volume over the decade. Transaction value has grown just as dramatically, rising from about ₹0.07 lakh crore in FY 2016-17 to approximately ₹314 lakh crore in FY 2025-26, an increase of more than 4,000 times. The figures show how UPI has evolved from an emerging payment option into a system used for everyday retail purchases, personal money transfers and increasingly higher-value transactions.

UPI’s scale continued to rise in 2026. Monthly transactions crossed 2,300 crore for the first time in May, when the network processed around 2,320 crore payments. July 2026 established a new monthly record with 2,366 crore transactions worth ₹29.88 lakh crore, while average daily transactions have climbed to around 66 crore.

The network has also expanded rapidly on the institutional side. UPI began with only 21 participating banks at launch in April 2016 and recorded about 90,000 transactions during its first month of operation in August that year. By FY 2016-17, 44 banks were live on the platform. That number rose to 703 banks by FY 2025-26 and 741 banks by July 2026, bringing public-sector, private, small-finance, payments and cooperative banks into the same interoperable payment ecosystem.

Merchant payments now account for the majority of UPI activity by number of transactions. Person-to-merchant payments represent about 63% of transaction volume, reflecting the widespread use of QR-based payments at shops, restaurants, transport services and small businesses. Around 86% of P2M transactions are below ₹500, showing how deeply UPI has penetrated routine low-value commerce.

Person-to-person transfers display a different pattern. Although P2P transactions account for a smaller share of overall volume, they contribute around 71% of total UPI transaction value, indicating significantly larger average transfers. About 59% of P2P transactions remain below ₹500, but the substantial share above that level demonstrates that consumers increasingly use UPI for both everyday transfers and higher-value payments.

UPI now accounts for approximately 84% of India’s digital-payment transactions in FY 2025-26, highlighting the extraordinary concentration of retail digital activity on the platform. Its interoperability allows users to transfer funds between different banks and payment applications in real time without requiring both parties to use the same provider.

India’s payment architecture has also gained substantial international recognition. According to the government, UPI represented about 49% of global real-time payment transaction volume in 2025, while the International Monetary Fund has recognised it as the world’s largest real-time payment system by transaction volume. Its scale has turned UPI into one of the most prominent examples of India’s Digital Public Infrastructure model.

The platform is increasingly extending beyond India’s domestic payment system. UPI acceptance or connectivity is now available across 11 countries — the United Arab Emirates, France, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Singapore, Mauritius, Qatar, Cambodia, Greece and the Maldives. This expansion is gradually creating an international layer around the Indian payment network, particularly for travellers, merchants and cross-border transactions.

UPI’s first decade also illustrates how digital infrastructure can reshape financial inclusion. A smartphone, bank account and UPI-enabled application can allow users to make instant transfers without conventional card infrastructure, while QR codes have lowered the cost of accepting digital payments for small merchants. This has helped take electronic payments deeper into smaller towns, neighbourhood shops and everyday informal commerce.

The next stage of UPI’s development will focus increasingly on bringing additional users and merchants into the ecosystem, expanding cross-border interoperability and introducing new payment technologies while maintaining reliability at enormous scale. With annual transaction volume already exceeding 24,000 crore payments and monthly volumes continuing to establish new records, UPI enters its second decade not simply as an Indian payment innovation but as one of the world’s largest digital financial infrastructures.

Source: PIB: https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleaseDetail.aspx?PRID=2302657&reg=48&lang=1