PM Narendra Modi has marked 10 years of UPI, describing the platform as a major turning point in India's digital payments journey and highlighting its scale, reach and growing international footprint.

Key Highlights

• 10 Years of UPI maked with transactions growth of nearly 13,000-fold from 1.78 crore in FY17 to 24,162 crore in FY26.
• UPI now spans 11 countries and accounted for nearly 49% of global real-time payment volume in 2025.

In a post on X, PM Narendra Modi said that when introduced 10 years ago, UPI revolutionized how Indians make payments and called upon citizens to express how the platform has affected their daily lives.

UPI was launched by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) in April 2016 with 21 member banks and was opened to the public in August. It has since evolved into an integral component of the digital payments ecosystem in India that facilitates instant bank-to-bank and merchant payments via mobile apps.

Transaction Volumes Reflect Near 13,000-Fold Growth

Transaction volumes are a good indicator of this growth in scale. According to reports, UPI transactions increased from 1.78 crore in FY2016-17 to 24,162 crore in FY2025-26 - representing an almost 13,000-fold increase. The value of transactions increased from Rs 0.07 lakh crore to approximately Rs 314 lakh crore in this time.

In July 2026, UPI once again had another good performance, with 2,365.8 crore transactions valued at roughly Rs 29.87 lakh crore. Daily transaction volumes have averaged around 66 crore in 2026, while 741 banks were live on the network as of July, according to the report.

UPI Now Dominates India's Digital Payments Ecosystem

The platform has also become dominant within Indian digital payments ecosystem. UPI accounted for about 84% of digital payment transactions in FY2025-26. Its usage is particularly concentrated in everyday retail payments, with person-to-merchant transactions accounting for about 63% of overall transaction volume.

The low-value nature of much of this activity is also notable. In FY2025-26, about 86% of person to merchant (P2M) UPI transactions were made under the Rs 500 limit and approximately 71% of the total transaction value was made through person to person (P2P) transactions. Further, the UPI transaction value increased by over ten times to touch Rs 314.23 lakh crore in FY2025-26, from Rs 41.03 lakh crore in FY2020-21, according to India Payments Trends Report 2026 (H1) by Grant Thornton Bharat.

A Decade of Feature Expansion

In the last ten years, UPI has grown into much more than just peer-to-peer transactions. The ecosystem now has features like UPI AutoPay, UPI Lite, UPI 123PAY, credit-line integration, UPI Circle and on-device authentication. It is also increasingly being used for IPO applications, recurring payments, tax payments and a range of other financial services.

Also Read: UPI Dominates India's Digital Payments with 85.5% Share: RBI Report

International Footprint Spans 11 Countries

The platform's international expansion has become another key part of its growth story. UPI now has an international footprint spanning 11 countries, including Singapore, the UAE, France, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Qatar, Cambodia, Greece and the Maldives, alongside Bhutan and Nepal.

UPI's data showed that it represented almost 49% of the global real-time payment transaction volume in 2025, according to data quoted by DD News. It is also interoperable and scalable, drawing the attention of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for its development.

Continued Momentum in 2026

The milestone marks UPI's ongoing expansion in India's financial infrastructure. The data released by NPCI reveals that the number of transactions for the UPI has increased by 25% year-on-year to reach 22.35 billion in April 2026, while the total amount of transactions made has reached Rs 29.03 lakh crore.