BIG SHIFTS, SMALL BUYS DEFINE INDIA'S UPI ERA

An average Indian uses UPI to make payments worth around ₹580 per day, and this is rising rapidly. The growth is driven by the rising popularity of small-value payments for groceries and eating out, a Mint analysis reveals.

- BY RUPANJAL CHAUHAN & TANAY SUKUMAR

It's been nearly 10 years since the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) arrived in the Indian market and revolutionized how Indians make everyday payments. More than 636 million UPI payments worth nearly 82,000 crore were made on an average day in November.

The number of transactions has been rising every month.

The past five years have seen average daily transactions grow six times in value and eight times in volume.

This makes UPI the most-used payment channel, clocking 20 billion transactions in a month twice this year. No other major payment method comes even halfway.

In terms of value, it's second only to the National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT). However, while NEFT payments have doubled since the start of the pandemic, UPI has soared 12 times, marking the biggest jump among major categories, outpacing credit and debit cards as well.

This comes on the back of UPT's ever-rising popularity for small-value payments, which is why it lags NEFT on total payment value. An average UPI payment is now worth just around 1,300, down to less than half since UPI's initial years, and it is in a continuous decline.

If we look at an average Indian's monthly spends using UPI, the figure is rising: the amount comes to 17,400 (November 2025), or 1580 per day, up by 14% year-on-year.

These are findings of a Mint analysis of data from the National Payments Corp. of India. The data lists monthly UPI payments made to various kinds of businesses, and in all Indian states. Data for business categories was given based on official four-digit "merchant codes", but some codes for similar kinds of businesses have been clubbed for simplicity.