The Growth of Unified Payments Interface (UPI)

The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has experienced an impressive increase in its performance, recording a total of 16.99 billion transactions amounting to Rs 23.48 lakh crore in January. This signifies a remarkable 39% rise in the number of transactions compared to the previous year, and a 28% boost in transaction value.

When observing the month-on-month performance, UPI demonstrated a growth of 1.55% in transaction volume and almost a 1% increase in transaction value, as compared to December’s figures of 16.73 billion transactions valued at Rs 23.25 lakh crore.

Statistics from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI)

As per the data provided by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), the average number of daily transactions reached approximately 548 million.

Market Share Overview

Currently, PhonePe dominates the UPI market with a substantial share of 47.7% in transaction volume. Google Pay follows with a 36.7% share, while Paytm holds a smaller portion at 6.87%. This distribution of market share is expected to remain stable for the foreseeable future due to NPCI’s recent extension of the compliance timeline for Third-Party App Providers (TPAPs) that exceed the UPI volume cap. The new compliance deadline has been set for December 31, 2026, extending it by two years.

WhatsApp Pay Update

In another development, NPCI has lifted the user onboarding cap for WhatsApp Pay, enabling the platform to roll out UPI services to its entire user base across India.

User Engagement Statistics

Dilip Asbe, the Chief of NPCI, recently revealed that around 450 million users are engaging with UPI, with approximately 200 million active users on a daily basis. He highlighted the importance of significant backing from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the government, and the wider financial ecosystem to devise methods to onboard an additional 200-300 million users onto the UPI platform.