India's UPI reaches 200 bn transactions as growth eases, PhonePe dominates market

The Reserve Bank of India’s 2025‑26 Annual Report shows the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) processed over 200 billion transactions in the fiscal year, though its year‑on‑year growth slowed to 30% from 42% the previous year. UPI continues to handle about 86% of all retail digital payments, with the Digital Payments Index rising 11% YoY.

In April 2026, PhonePe recorded 10.33 billion UPI transactions, accounting for 47.07% of transaction volume and 49.3% of value, reinforcing its position as the leading fintech in the ecosystem. Google Pay followed with a 33.5% share, together covering more than 80% of all UPI activity. Overall UPI volume dipped 1.3% month‑on‑month to 2,235 crore transactions but remained up 25% year‑on‑year.

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is reviewing competition measures, including a proposed 30% market‑share cap for third‑party apps, now delayed to December 2026, and plans for interoperable sound‑box hardware to simplify merchant acceptance.