India’s digital payments infrastructure continued its steady expansion in January 2026, with Unified Payments Interface (UPI) processing a record 21.7 billion transactions during the month, marginally higher than 21.63 billion transactions recorded in December 2025, according to data released by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).
On a year-on-year basis, UPI transaction volumes rose 28% in January, while transaction value increased 21% YoY. In value terms, UPI transactions stood at ₹28.33 lakh crore, up from ₹27.97 lakh crore in December. The platform handled an average of nearly 700 million transactions per day, compared with 698 million daily transactions in the previous month.
Daily volumes and value continue to inch up
The average daily transaction value reached ₹91,403 crore in January, higher than ₹90,217 crore in December, highlighting continued adoption of UPI for both low-ticket and higher value payments. For context, UPI had processed 20.47 billion transactions worth ₹26.32 lakh crore in November 2025, underlining the platform’s consistent month-on-month scale-up.
The growth has been driven by deeper penetration of UPI across everyday use cases such as groceries, food services, fuel, telecom payments and small offline merchant transactions, particularly in tier II and tier III cities.
App-wise data awaited; PhonePe remains market leader
NPCI is yet to release app-wise transaction data for January 2026. However, December 2025 figures showed PhonePe leading the ecosystem with 9.81 billion transactions, accounting for around 45% of total UPI volumes and nearly 49% of transaction value.
Google Pay followed with 7.5 billion transactions, while Paytm ranked third with 1.65 billion transactions. Smaller players such as Navi, super.money and the government-backed BHIM app also contributed meaningfully, with BHIM overtaking CRED in transaction volumes during December.
UPI’s international footprint expands
Beyond domestic growth, UPI continues to gain traction internationally. The real-time payments system is already live in markets such as Singapore, the UAE, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Mauritius and France. NPCI is also working on expanding UPI acceptance to additional geographies, including the UK, Australia and select regions across Southeast Asia and the Middle East.
As UPI crosses yet another monthly milestone, the platform remains central to India’s digital payments story, with scale, reliability and international adoption reinforcing its position as one of the world’s largest real-time payment systems.
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