India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has become a global exemplar for digital payments—transforming how individuals, merchants, and institutions transact. Launched less than a decade ago, UPI today facilitates over 20 billion transactions each month and accounts for 84% of India’s digital retail payments. This report—launched at the Global Fintech Fest 2025 by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and Boston Consulting Group (BCG)—captures the full scope of UPI’s impact, from grassroots inclusion and micro-enterprise enablement to macroeconomic transformation and global expansion.
The report traces UPI’s evolution across nine chapters and presents compelling evidence of its far-reaching influence. It documents how UPI has formalized large segments of India’s cash economy, accelerated the growth of small businesses, and increased productivity while fostering transparency and trust in digital transactions. The findings highlight UPI’s role in driving social development—empowering homemakers with financial autonomy, enabling migrant workers to send remittances instantly, and expanding access to credit for underserved communities. With over 504 million users and 65 million merchants, UPI has become foundational to India’s digital financial ecosystem.
The report also examines UPI’s resilient architecture and security-first design, which allows it to scale toward a billion transactions per day while maintaining user privacy. Looking ahead, UPI is poised to accelerate cross-border interoperability, with partnerships already live across Singapore, UAE, France, Mauritius, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Qatar, and Malaysia. With ongoing innovation, India’s payment stack continues to expand financial inclusion and set a global standard for public digital infrastructure.