UPI hits record with ₹16.73 billion in transactions worth ₹23.25 lakh crore in December 2024

Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions hit a record 16.73 billion in December 2024, shows data released by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). This figure marks an eight percent increase as compared to November's data, which recorded 15.48 billion transactions.

NPCI also reported that the total value of transactions in December amounted to ₹23.25 lakh crore, which is significantly up from ₹21.55 lakh crore in November.

The average daily transaction count in December was 539.68 million, a rise from 516.07 million in November. A similar surge was seen in May 2024, when 14.03 billion transactions were recorded as against April's figure of 13.3 billion transactions.

NPCI extends deadline for compliance with UPI volume cap

On January 1, 2025, NPCI extended the implementation of UPI volume cap guidelines by two years to December 2026.

Although the retail payments regulating agency had originally planned to implement volume cap guidelines in 2021, it was delayed to 2024 after pushback from service providers. The NPCI also eased restrictions on WhatsApp Pay and allowed it to extend its services to all its users.

"Considering various factors, the timeline for compliance of existing Third Party Application Provider (TPAPs), who are exceeding the volume cap, is extended by two years, i.e., till December 31, 2026," the NPCI said in a statement.

The cap applies only to third-party app providers. The UPI apps offered by banks are exempt from such a ceiling.

The extension move is seen as positive for PhonePe and Google Pay, which dominate the UPI payments market. The limit on UPI transactions largely impacted the two largest TPAPs. Currently, only two apps out of over 75 UPI apps - PhonePe, and Google Pay —account for over 85% of all UPI transactions in India, by volume and value, as per data by the National Payments Corporation of India.