The Unified Payments Interface went live in April 2016 with 21 banks. In its first financial year it handled about 2 crore payments. In FY2026 it handled 24,162 crore, worth Rs 314 lakh crore.
24,162 cr
UPI transactions in FY2026
Rs 314 lakh cr
Value of those transactions
49%
UPI's share of the world's real-time payments, 2025
85%
UPI's share of India's digital payments by volume, FY2026
703
Banks live on UPI in 2026, up from 21 at launch
66 cr
Average transactions per day, 2025
The curve
UPI transactions per financial year
Crore transactions
Official year-wise figures released by PIB. FY2025 is derived from the 30% growth PIB reports for FY2026. Years without an official figure are not shown.
Source: Press Information Bureau releases from the Ministry of Finance and the Department of Financial Services
Volume grew about 12,000 times in nine years. Value grew about 4,000 times. The gap between the two says something important. The average UPI payment has become much smaller. People now use it for tea, vegetables and auto fares, not just rent and bills.
Why it grew so fast
Three things worked together.
- It was free. There is no fee for most person to merchant UPI payments. Small shops can accept them with a printed QR code.
- It worked across banks and apps. Any UPI app can pay any bank account. No single company controls the network.
- Phones and data got cheap. Mobile data fell from Rs 269 to about Rs 8 per GB in a decade. See our story on the price of mobile data.
Demonetisation in November 2016 and the pandemic in 2020 each pushed more people to try digital payments. UPI kept them.
What to watch
March 2026 set a monthly record of 2,264 crore transactions. Growth is slowing in percentage terms, from more than doubling each year to about 30% in FY2026. That is normal for a network that already reaches most smartphone users. The next gains are expected from credit on UPI and from payments abroad.