Overview
Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is India’s real-time person-to-person and person-to-merchant payments system operated by npci. UPI has become the global benchmark for instant digital payments, processing billions of transactions with near-zero consumer fees since 2020.
Recent Developments
- 2026-09-15: Zero-fee merchant model partially ends — 0.4% MDR on P2M transactions above ₹2,000 from October 15 (2026-09-15-india-upi-large-transaction-fees)
- P2P remains free (37% volume, 70% value); small merchants exempt under P2PM
- Essential sectors: flat ₹5/transaction above ₹2,000; capital markets: 0.02% capped at ₹300