New Delhi, April 10 – India’s digital payment system, the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), is set to celebrate its 10th anniversary on April 11, after experiencing a 12,000-fold increase in volume and over 4,000-fold increase in value.
According to data from analytics firm Tracxn, the payment system has grown from 17.86 million transactions worth Rs 6,952 crore in FY17 to 218.98 billion transactions amounting to nearly Rs 285 lakh crore in FY26.
The number of transactions gradually increased over the initial years—to 915 million in FY18 and 5.39 billion in FY19—before UPI became mainstream in FY20, facilitating 12.52 billion transactions worth over Rs 21 lakh crore.
The pandemic years saw accelerated adoption, with volumes jumping to 22.33 billion in FY21 and 45.97 billion in FY22, and then doubling to 83.75 billion transactions in FY23.
The payment app recorded 130.13 billion transactions in FY24 and 185.87 billion in FY25.
In 2025, UPI processed 228.5 billion transactions, representing a 33 per cent year-on-year increase, while the total transaction value reached Rs 299.74 trillion, according to another report.
Merchant acceptance infrastructure expanded in 2025, with UPI QR codes increasing by 15 per cent YoY to 731.38 million.
Point-of-sale terminals grew by 15 per cent to 11.48 million. The report also noted that Bharat QR deployments eased slightly as the ecosystem consolidated around UPI-led acceptance models.
The total value of UPI transactions over one month stood at approximately Rs 28 lakh crore, roughly 70 per cent of the country's total currency stock, highlighting the significant volume of digital payments compared to cash.
Meanwhile, India's digital payments ecosystem saw a strong recovery in March 2026, with UPI registering its highest-ever monthly transaction volume since its launch in 2016, according to data released by the National Payments Corporation of India.
UPI processed 22.64 billion transactions in March, representing a significant increase from the 20.39 billion transactions recorded in February. The March figure also surpassed the previous high of 21.70 billion transactions seen in January. On a year-on-year basis, transaction volumes grew by 24 per cent.
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