UPI completes 10 years, clocks nearly 13,000-fold rise in transaction volume
India's Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has celebrated its 10th anniversary, recording a 13,000-fold increase in transaction volume since its 2016 launch. The platform has become a global benchmark for real-time digital payments and a central pillar of India's digital infrastructure.
Why it matters
The success of UPI demonstrates the potential for government-backed digital public infrastructure to drive financial inclusion and economic modernization.
The Unified Payments Interface (UPI), which was launched on August 25, 2016, has completed a decade of transforming India's digital payments landscape, emerging as the backbone of the country's digital payments ecosystem and a global benchmark for real-time payments.
Annual UPI transaction volume rose from 1.78 crore in 2016-17 to more than 24,162 crore in 2025-26, an almost 13,000-fold increase, the Finance Ministry said in a statement.
During the same period, transaction value jumped from ₹0.07 lakh crore to around ₹314 lakh crore, representing a more than 4,000-fold rise, it said.
Developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) under the regulatory oversight of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), UPI has recorded an unprecedented expansion in both transaction volume and value over the past 10 years, it said.
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