New Delhi, September 1, 2025 — India’s digital payments ecosystem continues its meteoric rise as the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) recorded an unprecedented 20.01 billion transactions in August 2025, according to data released by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). The total transaction value stood at ₹24.85 lakh crore, marking a significant leap in volume and reflecting the platform’s growing dominance in retail payments.
This milestone represents a 2.8% increase over July’s 19.47 billion transactions and a 33% year-on-year growth from nearly 15 billion transactions in August 2024. Although the transaction value dipped slightly from ₹25.08 lakh crore in July, the surge in volume underscores UPI’s expanding reach and adoption across consumer and merchant segments.
The platform also achieved a new daily record earlier in the month, processing 721 million transactions on August 2. On average, UPI handled 645 million transactions per day in August, amounting to approximately ₹80,000 crore in daily value.
Industry experts attribute the growth to increased consumption during the onset of the festive season, deeper merchant integration, and rising internet penetration. Ramakrishnan Ramamurthy, Chief Delivery and Operations Officer at Worldline India, noted that UPI’s penetration as the primary digital payment option continues to drive sustained growth.
Merchant transactions now account for 62% of UPI’s volume, up from 40% in January 2022, indicating a shift from peer-to-peer usage to commercial adoption. Maharashtra led the country in digital payments with a 9.8% share, followed by Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh.
Despite the platform’s success, the debate around introducing a merchant discount rate (MDR) has resurfaced. Fintech firms and banks are advocating for a nominal MDR on high-value transactions to ensure sustainability, especially as the government reduced its UPI subsidy from ₹4,500 crore in FY24 to ₹1,500 crore in FY25. The Reserve Bank of India has recently expressed support for this proposal.
With UPI now accounting for 85% of all retail digital transactions in India and growing at 5–7% month-on-month, the government’s ambitious target of one billion daily transactions appears increasingly attainable by next year.
The August figures reaffirm UPI’s position as a global leader in real-time interbank payments, setting the stage for further innovation and expansion in India’s digital finance landscape.
