The Unified Payments Interface (UPI), launched on 25th August 2016 by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) under the regulatory oversight of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) completes 10 years of transforming digital payments in India. UPI has emerged as the backbone of India’s digital payments ecosystem and a critical driver of financial inclusion.
Over a decade of operations, UPI has demonstrated extraordinary scale and momentum. Annual transaction volume expanded from just 1.78 crore transactions in FY 2016-17 to over 24,162 crore transactions in FY 2025-26, representing an almost 13,000‑fold surge in transaction volume. Parallelly, transaction value rose sharply from ₹0.07 lakh crore in FY 2016-17 to approximately ₹314 lakh crore in FY 2025-26, translating into a more than 4,000‑fold increase in transaction value.
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. Today, it is the preferred mode of payment for millions of users, transforming the way India transacts. By bridging the digital divide, advancing financial inclusion, and expanding access to digital financial services, UPI has empowered individuals and communities across the country while driving broad-based economic participation.
This simultaneous expansion in both volume and value highlights UPI’s deepening role in supporting high‑frequency retail payments. The unprecedented scale, reliability, and interoperability achieved by UPI have received global recognition, with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) acknowledging it as the world’s largest real‑time payment system by transaction volume, underscoring India’s leadership in building scalable, inclusive, and innovative digital public infrastructure.
