UPI Turns 10: Facts you should know about India’s digital payment revolution
India's revolutionary indigenous digital payment technology completed its 10-year journey today, August 24. Over the last one decade, UPI has become the main component of India's digital payments ecosystem and a key driver of financial inclusion.
Launched on August 25 2016, the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is built and managed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).
UPI's annual transaction volume rose from just 1.78 crore transactions in FY 2016-17 to over 24,162 crore transactions in FY 2025-26 in the last decade. It surged by almost 13,000‑fold surge in transaction volume.
Meanwhile, transaction value jumped sharply from Rs 0.07 lakh crore in FY2016-17 to Rs 314 lakh crore in FY2025-26, representing a 4000-fold increase.
UPI has emerged as one of the most successful pillars of India's Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), providing an interoperable, real-time payments platform that enables seamless peer-to-peer and peer-to-merchant transactions through a single application.
UPI milestone in 2026
UPI's monthly transaction volume crossed 2,300 crore transactions for the first time in May 2026, reaching 2,320 crore transactions. This momentum continued through the year, with July 2026 recording 2,366 crore transactions, the highest monthly transaction volume in UPI's decade‑long journey.
UPI Goes Global
At the global level, UPI is also in the lead. As of 2025, UPI accounts for nearly 49 per cent of the world's real-time payment transaction volume.
UPI is currently operational in 11 countries, namely the United Arab Emirates, France, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Singapore, Mauritius, Qatar, Cambodia, Greece, and the Maldives.
UPI is live with 703 banks by FY2025-26
The number of banks live on UPI rose from 44 banks in FY2016-17, at the start of FY2016-17, to 703 banks by FY2025-26. UPI is now available in public sector banks, private banks, small finance banks, payment banks, and cooperative banks. Each bank functions as a Remitter PSP (processing outgoing transactions) and/or a Beneficiary PSP (receiving funds), with NPCI monitoring performance metrics for all participants.
86% of transactions below Rs 500
In the P2M transaction category, over 86 per cent of transactions happened in small-ticket payments, with 86 per cent below Rs 500. P2P transactions also showed widespread usage for low‑value transfers (59% below Rs 500). In comparison, a significant 41% of transactions above Rs 500 reflects UPI's growing versatility in facilitating both regular personal payments and higher‑value fund transfers.
Person‑to‑merchant (P2M) transactions account for 63% of total transaction volume. In contrast, person‑to‑person (P2P) transactions dominate transaction value, contributing 71%, indicating their use for higher‑ticket transfers between individuals.
MDR on UPI
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman earlier confirmed that the burden of the merchant discount rate (MDR) will fall solely on merchants only, not on customers. This will benefit commercial banks and fintech companies, said the Finance Minister, who tabled amendments to the Payment and Settlement Systems Act to allow an MDR fee in the tune of 0.3-0.5 per cent on UPI transactions under certain conditions.
MDR is a fee paid by merchants to commercial banks and payments service providers for processing digital transactions. Currently, card transactions in the country typically incur an MDR of 0.9-1.5 per cent, while UPI transactions are free for merchants.
The Union minister said that the move will promote investments in infrastructure, innovation, and security, with the benefits reaching UPI users. She also said that no decision has been taken on the MDR matter.
