Mumbai: India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) recorded 20.39 billion transactions in February 2026, amounting to ₹26.84 lakh crore, reinforcing its status as the backbone of the country’s digital payments ecosystem.
Despite a marginal month-on-month moderation, industry leaders say the sustained scale highlights UPI’s structural permanence in India’s financial architecture.
UPI Now Core Infrastructure, Says Cashfree Payments CEO
Commenting on the February numbers, Akash Sinha, Co-founder & CEO of Cashfree Payments, said the figures reaffirm UPI’s foundational role in the economy.
“The February UPI figures with 20.39 billion transactions and ₹26.84 lakh crore in value reaffirm UPI’s position as the backbone of India’s digital economy. While there is a marginal moderation month-on-month, the consistency at this scale signals structural permanence. UPI is no longer a growth story; it is now core infrastructure.”
Sinha further noted that with UPI accounting for nearly half of global real-time transactions, the focus is shifting from expanding access to optimizing performance and innovation.
“The next phase of evolution will be defined by reliability at scale, seamless merchant adoption of new capabilities, and innovation-led use cases.”
He emphasized the growing role of payment aggregators in enabling this transition.
“Our focus is to ensure that merchants and consumers can fully leverage innovations such as UPI AutoPay, UPI Reserve Pay, and high-volume enterprise use cases, while maintaining high success rates and resilience through investments like in-house UPI switching infrastructure.”
Deeper Trust and Wider Adoption Across Bharat: PayNearby
Echoing similar sentiments, Anand Kumar Bajaj, Founder, MD & CEO of PayNearby, said UPI continues to strengthen trust and scale across urban and rural India.
“India’s digital payments ecosystem continues to demonstrate steady scale and adoption, with deeper trust being built on UPI playing a central role. In February 2026, UPI recorded 20.39 billion transactions amounting to ₹26.84 lakh crore, reaffirming its role as the backbone of everyday commerce across urban and rural Bharat.”
Bajaj highlighted that digital payments have now become a deeply embedded habit among consumers and merchants alike, with growth expanding beyond metro cities.
“Adoption continues to expand beyond metros, with smaller cities and neighborhood retailers driving the next phase of growth.”
He added that PayNearby is witnessing this transformation firsthand through its retailer network.
“Through PayNearby Saathi, we are helping onboard the next wave of users by enabling assisted-to-self-service digital adoption across communities. UPI today powers the majority of retail digital transactions in the country, strengthening financial access at scale.”
Strengthening the Digital Payments Ecosystem
Industry stakeholders believe continued developments in security, recurring payments, and credit integration are enhancing system reliability and user confidence.
As India advances toward its Viksit Bharat vision, leaders stress that expanding secure and accessible digital infrastructure—especially for micro-entrepreneurs and last-mile retailers—will remain critical to deepening financial inclusion and sustaining the momentum of digital payments growth.
