UPI Turns 10, Transaction Volume Surges Nearly 13,000-Fold

New Delhi, Aug 25: The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) completed a decade of operations on Tuesday, emerging as the backbone of India’s digital payments ecosystem with its annual transaction volume surging nearly 13,000-fold since its launch in 2016.

Launched on August 25, 2016, UPI has transformed the way people make payments by providing an interoperable and real-time digital payment platform. According to the Finance Ministry, annual transaction volume increased from 1.78 crore transactions in 2016-17 to more than 24,162 crore transactions in 2025-26.

The value of transactions also witnessed a massive increase during the period, rising from around Rs 7,000 crore in 2016-17 to nearly Rs 314 lakh crore in 2025-26.

The ministry said UPI has also expanded beyond India and emerged as a platform for cross-border digital payments. It is currently operational in 11 countries — the United Arab Emirates, France, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Singapore, Mauritius, Qatar, Cambodia, Greece and the Maldives.

UPI has become one of the key pillars of India’s Digital Public Infrastructure, enabling instant and interoperable payments for millions of users. Its expansion has helped widen access to digital financial services, promote financial inclusion and support greater participation in the digital economy.

The scale and reliability of the payment system have also received international recognition. The International Monetary Fund has acknowledged UPI as the world’s largest real-time payment system.

According to the ministry, UPI accounted for nearly 49 per cent of the world’s real-time payment transaction volume in 2025, highlighting its growing significance in the global digital payments landscape.

Over the past decade, UPI has evolved from a domestic digital payment initiative into a globally recognised model of real-time, interoperable payments. (Agencies)