UPI Continues To Dominate India's Digital Payments Landscape, Transactions Surge 35% To Reach 106.36 Billion

New Delhi: India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) continues to dominate the country’s digital payments landscape, with transactions surging 35 per cent year-on-year (YoY) to reach 106.36 billion in the first half of 2025, data showed on Wednesday. The total value of these transactions stood at a massive Rs 143.34 lakh crore -- highlighting how deeply digital payments have become a part of everyday life in India, according to Worldline’s India Digital Payments Report (1H 2025).

According to the report, the average UPI transaction size fell from Rs 1,478 in the first half of 2024 to Rs 1,348 in the same period of 2025. This decline indicates that people are using UPI more frequently for small, daily purchases -- from tea stalls and grocery stores to online shopping. Notably, person-to-merchant (P2M) transactions grew 37 per cent to 67.01 billion, driven by what Worldline calls the “Kirana Effect,” where small and micro businesses have become the backbone of India’s digital economy.

India’s QR-based payment network also saw tremendous growth, more than doubling to 678 million by June 2025 -- a 111 per cent rise from January 2024. The number of Point-of-Sale (PoS) terminals grew 29 per cent to 11.2 million, while Bharat QR touched 6.72 million. With this, India now operates the world’s largest merchant network, powered by small-business adoption and government-led inclusion programmes.

Meanwhile, the report shows that credit cards are evolving into premium spending tools. The number of active credit cards grew 23 per cent between January 2024 and June 2025, while monthly spending crossed Rs 2.2 trillion. Although the average transaction size fell by 6 per cent, it shows that credit cards are increasingly being used for everyday purchases.

In contrast, debit card usage at PoS fell nearly 8 per cent as smaller payments shifted to UPI. Mobile payments remained the most preferred mode for daily transactions, growing 30 per cent year-on-year to 98.9 billion transactions worth Rs 209.7 trillion.

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