UPI reaches 741 banks, cementing its role in India’s retail payments infrastructure
UPI’s participating-bank network grew to 741 by July 2026. The platform processed 24,162 crore transactions worth ₹314 lakh crore in FY2025-26, with merchant payments accounting for 63% of transaction volume and most P2M payments under ₹500.
What happened
UPI’s bank network reached 741 participants by July 2026, underpinning India’s merchant-payment infrastructure. The platform processed 24,162 crore transactions
Key facts
- 741 participating banks as of July 2026
- 703 banks in FY2025-26
- 21 banks at launch in August 2016
- 24,162 crore annual transactions in FY2025-26
- ₹314 lakh crore annual transaction value in FY2025-26
- 66 crore average daily transactions in 2026
- 2,366 crore transactions worth ₹29.88 lakh crore in July 2026
- 84% of India’s digital payments in FY2025-26
- 63% of volume was peer-to-merchant payments
- 86% of P2M transactions were below ₹500
- Operational in 11 countries
Why this matters
The broad bank network and dense merchant-use case increase the strategic value of acquiring or partnering with UPI-native checkout, reconciliation, loyalty and small-ticket commerce infrastructure providers.
What to watch
- UPI merchant-payment share and growth in P2M transactions above ₹500.
- Growth of UPI credit, RuPay credit-card-on-UPI and delegated-payment adoption.
- NPCI, RBI or government changes to MDR, interchange, incentives, transaction limits or merchant dispute rules.
- Bank/PSP outage frequency, payment-success rates and merchant settlement timelines.
- Adoption of UPI-enabled loyalty, recurring mandates, conversational commerce and cross-border UPI acceptance.
- Make UPI the default preselected payment method for sub-₹500 baskets while retaining cards and cash as visible fallback options.
- Deploy interoperable QR acceptance across stores, delivery, pop-ups and assisted-selling counters; reconcile payments to a single order and customer record.
- Test UPI-linked instant rewards, repeat-purchase coupons and prepaid/replenishment journeys rather than broad cash discounts.
- Measure checkout conversion, payment-success rate, settlement latency, refund completion and UPI-versus-cash basket economics by store and channel.
- Review PSP and acquiring-bank concentration; establish routing and outage procedures for high-volume sales periods.