The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has completed a decade of operations, emerging as the world’s largest real-time payments platform and a major pillar of India’s digital economy.
Launched on April 11, 2016, by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) under RBI oversight, UPI recorded an extraordinary expansion, with annual transactions soaring nearly 12,000 times from just 2 crore in 2016-17 to 24,162 crore in 2025-26.
The value of transactions also jumped more than 4,000 times, from Rs 0.07 lakh crore to approximately Rs 314 lakh crore during the same period. UPI accounted for nearly 85% of India’s digital payments, while its share in global real-time payment volumes reached 49% in 2025.
The platform now has 703 banks onboard, compared with just 21 at its launch. It processes an average of 66 crore transactions daily, valued at around Rs 86,000 crore.
March 2026 recorded a monthly peak of 2,264 crore transactions worth Rs 29.53 lakh crore. UPI is now accepted in eight countries.
Merchant payments account for 63% of transaction volume, demonstrating its growing role in everyday retail purchases and financial inclusion. The IMF has recognised UPI as the world’s largest real-time payment system by transaction volume.
