UPI Touches All-Time High In January With 16.99 Bn Transactions

Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions jumped 1.5% in January to 16.99 Bn from 16.73 Bn in the preceding month. On a year-on-year (YoY) basis, the transaction count surged 39% in January. 

According to National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) data, this transaction count of 16.99 Bn accounted for a total amount of INR 23.48 Lakh Cr in January as against INR 23.25 Lakh Cr in the previous month (December 2024).

On a YoY basis, there was a 28% surge in the volume of UPI transactions in January.

The average daily transaction count rose to 548 Mn in the month under consideration, up from 540 Mn in December.

The growth in the number of daily transactions is in line with RBI governor Shaktikanta Das’ projection that UPI transactions will soon hit the 1 Bn mark per day. 

In the year 2024, total UPI transactions surged almost 46% to a record 17,220 Cr in from 11,768 Cr in the previous year. Last year, total value of UPI transactions zoomed over 35% to INR 246.82 Lakh Cr from INR 182.84 Lakh Cr in 2023.

According to the Payments System Report 2024 by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), out of 20,787 Cr digital payments recorded during the year, 17,221 Cr transactions were routed through UPI.

Highlighting India’s growing prominence in fintech and digital technology, President Droupadi Murmu said yesterday that the country’s UPI system is gaining global recognition. 

Notably, the NPCI recently said that users can’t use special characters in UPI identity, starting from today (February 1). 

This direction has been given to the UPI apps to ensure compliance. It is pertinent to note that NPCI issued a notice in March 2024, advising the UPI ecosystem players to use only alphanumeric characters for generating UPI transaction IDs.