UPI completes 10 years: How India's payments revolution took off
What's the story
The Unified Payments Interface (UPI), India's revolutionary digital payment system, has completed a decade of operation. Launched on August 25, 2016, by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) under the supervision of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), UPI has transformed India's financial landscape. The Ministry of Finance recently highlighted its phenomenal growth in transaction volume and value over the past 10 years.
Growth trajectory
Explosive growth in transaction volume, value
From 1.78 crore transactions in 2016-17, UPI's annual transaction volume skyrocketed to over 24,162 crore by 2025-26. This is an astronomical increase of nearly 13,000 times!
The financial ministry also noted that the total value of these transactions increased from ₹0.07 lakh crore to around ₹314 lakh crore during this period, a more than 4,000-fold jump.
Record-breaking performance
Major milestones in UPI's journey
The year 2026 was a major milestone for UPI's growth. In May, it crossed 2,300 crore transactions for the first time, hitting a record high of 2,320 crore.
This trend continued through July with an all-time high of 2,366 crore transactions.
The number of banks supporting UPI also grew from 44 in its first year to 703 by FY26.
Infrastructure impact
UPI's impact on India's financial landscape
UPI has become a key part of India's digital public infrastructure, enabling seamless peer-to-peer and peer-to-merchant payments through a single interface.
It has also improved access to digital financial services and strengthened financial inclusion by allowing individuals, businesses, and merchants across the country to participate in the formal digital economy.
The simultaneous growth in transaction volumes and values also reflects UPI's deepening role in India's high-frequency retail payments ecosystem.
International acclaim
Global recognition and cross-border expansion
The scale, reliability, and interoperability of UPI have won it global praise. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has recognized it as the world's largest real-time payment system by transaction volume.
As of 2025, UPI accounted for nearly 49% of global real-time payment transaction volumes.
Beyond domestic transactions, UPI has also expanded to support cross-border digital payments in 11 countries including UAE, France, Bhutan, and Sri Lanka, among others.