India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has set a new benchmark in digital transactions, crossing the 18 billion mark in a single month for the first time. According to the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), UPI recorded 18.30 billion transactions in March 2025, reflecting a 13.6 per cent month-on-month increase from 16.11 billion on February 2025 and a 36 per cent Year-on-Year (YoY) growth.
The total transaction value also witnessed a rise, reaching Rs 24.77 lakh crore, up 12.80 per cent from Rs 21.96 lakh crore in February. On a daily basis, UPI processed an average of 590 million transactions, with a daily transaction value of Rs 79,910 crore, compared to Rs 78,446 crore the previous month.
This surge is attributed to a wider merchant base, growing consumer trust in digital payments and government initiatives to promote cashless transactions. A significant push has come from the recently approved Rs 1,500 crore incentive scheme aimed at encouraging small-value BHIM-UPI transactions, which ran from 1st April 2024 to 31st March 2025.
The UPI landscape continues to be led by PhonePe, Google Pay and Paytm, while Flipkart’s Super.money has made its debut in the top five UPI apps, marking a notable shift in user preference and competition within the digital payment space.
