India: UPI Hits Record 25.47 Billion Payments in October, Tops ₹1 Trillion a Day
India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI), the instant bank-to-bank payment system run by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), had its busiest month ever in October 2026. It handled 25.47 billion transactions worth ₹31.53 lakh crore (₹31.53 trillion), and for the first time the average value moving through it each day passed ₹1 lakh crore (₹1 trillion).
Festive shopping did much of the work, and the record arrives just as a new fee on some larger merchant payments waits in the wings.
Key facts
- UPI processed 25.47 billion transactions worth ₹31.53 lakh crore in October, up from 24.07 billion worth ₹29.37 lakh crore in September, according to NPCI data.
- Compared with October 2025, volume rose about 23% and value about 16%.
- Daily averages hit records: 822 million transactions and about ₹1,01,707 crore (just over ₹1 trillion) a day, up from 802 million and ₹97,913 crore in September.
- In September, PhonePe handled 45.6% of UPI volume, Google Pay 32.2% and Paytm 8.1%.
- A 0.4% merchant fee on some UPI payments above ₹2,000, first due on 15 October, was pushed back to after Diwali.
What drove the record
October is peak spending season in India. Navratri and the big online sales events fell in the month, and shoppers used UPI for larger festive purchases as well as daily payments for groceries, fuel and transport. October also had one more day than September, which helps the monthly total.
The more interesting shift is in the size of each payment. Reeju Datta, co-founder of payment gateway Cashfree, said that from April to August the number of UPI payments kept rising while the daily value stayed flat, meaning the average payment was shrinking. In September and October that reversed: value grew faster than volume, so the average payment got bigger for two months in a row. Based on NPCI’s totals, the average UPI payment in October was roughly ₹1,238, compared with about ₹1,221 in September.
For readers outside India: one lakh is 100,000 and one crore is 10 million, so ₹1 lakh crore is ₹1 trillion.
Why it matters
UPI is the world’s best-known example of a government-backed, real-time payment rail that is free for most users. It lets people pay a shop by scanning a QR code or send money to a phone number straight from their bank account, without a card. Its growth is closely watched by central banks across Asia that are building or linking their own systems.
Scale brings a cost question. For years UPI has run on a “zero MDR” policy, meaning merchants pay no merchant discount rate (MDR), the fee shops usually pay banks and payment firms for accepting digital payments. Banks and apps have long argued that running a system this large needs some revenue.
The new framework, decided by NPCI’s UPI and Services Steering Committee, would charge merchants 0.4% on specified person-to-merchant payments above ₹2,000, capped at ₹300 for payments of ₹75,000 and above. Some essential sectors such as railways, utilities, fuel and education would pay a flat ₹5 instead. Payments of ₹2,000 or less, person-to-person transfers and small merchants collecting up to ₹1 lakh a month through existing QR codes stay free. India’s Finance Ministry says about 96% of merchant payments will not be affected.
The fee was due to start on 15 October but was deferred until after Diwali, with a new date still to be announced. Fintech executives, including Fibe chief executive Akshay Mehrotra, say the challenge is to keep payments affordable for consumers and merchants while making the system commercially sustainable.
Competition is also part of the story. PhonePe and Google Pay together handle more than three-quarters of UPI volume, and Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma said on the company’s latest earnings call that it wants a third of the UPI consumer payments market.
What to watch
- The MDR start date: NPCI has yet to say when the merchant fee begins, and how merchants respond to it.
- November numbers: whether daily value stays above ₹1 trillion once the festive peak passes.
- App market share: October app-level data from NPCI, and whether Paytm closes the gap on PhonePe and Google Pay.
Related on FinDeskAsia: How Malaysia’s payment system works and ASEAN’s cross-border QR record.
Sources: Entrackr (November 2026); Business Standard (November 2026); Khaleej Times / ANI (October 2026).
