The 18-Billion Transaction Month: UPI’s Wild Ride Through India’s Digital Economy

India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) just set a new record, processing an average of 602 million transactions every day in May 2025. The month closed with a staggering 18.68 billion transactions, up 4.4% from April and marking a 33% jump compared to last year. The total value of these payments reached ₹25.14 lakh crore, another all-time high for the platform.

 

Key Highlights:

 

UPI’s May numbers rebounded strongly after a dip in April, when technical outages briefly slowed the system. Despite some minor hiccups in May, including a short disruption at PhonePe, overall transaction flow remained robust.

 

The daily transaction value also climbed, averaging ₹81,106 crore, up from ₹79,831 crore in April.

 

PhonePe and Google Pay continue to dominate the UPI landscape, together handling over 80% of all transactions. PhonePe alone processed 8.36 billion transactions in April, with Google Pay close behind.

 

Other digital payment channels saw mixed results: IMPS volumes fell 17% year-on-year, while FASTag and Aadhaar-enabled payments grew by double digits, reflecting the broader shift toward digital payments in India.

 

UPI’s explosive growth is fueled by more people using smartphones, government support for cashless payments, and the convenience of instant transfers. With over 18 billion transactions in a single month, UPI is not just a payment system—it’s a sign of how quickly India’s economy is going digital.

 

Sources: Business Standard, Entrackr, Economic Times