The country's Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has been a decade in the making. On August 25, 2016, National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) launched this ambitious project under the supervision of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Now this system of digital payments has completed 10 years.
In a decade, UPI has become the backbone of the country's digital payment system. When UPI was launched, no one expected that people would be able to trust online transactions more than the money in their pockets. Despite fears of online robbery, cyber theft and phishing, UPI is growing at a fast pace.
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How was UPI started?
In the year 2016-17, people had transacted only 1.78 crore times on UPI. About Rs 0.07 lakh crore whose total value was only Rs 0.07 lakh crore. In the year 2025-26, this figure will increase to Rs 24,162 crore. There has been a tremendous jump of about 13,000 times in the number of digital transactions.
How did UPI gain momentum year after year?
In the year 2016-17, where only Rs 0.07 lakh crore was transacted through UPI, in the year 2025-26 this figure will reach Rs 314 lakh crore. This is an increase of approximately 4,000 times. This is an increase of approximately 4,000 times.
UPI transactions have increased by 188 percent annually in terms of numbers and 155 percent in terms of value. The year 2025-26 has seen a year-on-year increase of 30 percent in numbers and 21 percent in prices.
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How many people are using UPI every day?
In the year 2026, an average of 66 crore transactions are taking place every day through UPI. Breaking the record in July 2026, there were 2,366 crore transactions in a month, worth around Rs 29.88 lakh crore. In May 2026, monthly transactions crossed Rs 2,300 crore for the first time and reached Rs 2,320 crore.
How have the initial figures been?
There were only 90,000 transactions in August 2016, the first month of launch. Now UPI's share in India's digital payments is around 84 percent. This figure is for the financial year 2025-26. The number of banks has also increased rapidly. At the time of launch in April 2016, 21 banks were linked. There were 44 banks in 2016-17, which will increase to 703 in 2025-26 and 741 by July 2026. This includes government, private, small finance, payment and co-operative banks. The reach of UPI has spread to every corner of the country.
From customer to shopkeeper, everyone likes UPI
Payments to shopkeepers account for 63 percent of the total number of transactions, while mutual transactions account for 71 percent of the total amount transferred. By the year 2026, 86 percent of the payments to shopkeepers will be less than Rs 500. 59 percent of mutual transactions were for less than Rs 500, 41 percent were for more than Rs 500. UPI is used for both everyday small payments and large transfers.
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Why is India number 1 in the world?
UPI is also popular all over the world. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has considered it the world's largest real-time payment system. In the year 2025, its share in global real-time transaction volume will be about 49 percent. UPI is now operational in 11 countries. United Arab Emirates, France, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Singapore, Mauritius, Qatar, Cambodia, Greece and Maldives. The success of UPI has made India the leader of the revolution in digital transactions across the world.