India’s digital payments landscape saw strong growth in 2025, with UPI emerging as the dominant mode for everyday transactions, according to a report by Worldline.
The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) processed 228.5 billion transactions during the year, marking a 33% rise year-on-year. The total transaction value reached ₹299.74 trillion, reinforcing its position as the preferred payment method for daily use. The findings were shared in Worldline’s report, “India Digital Payments Report – Year 2025 in Review”.
The report highlights a clear shift towards a micro-transaction economy, where digital payments are increasingly replacing cash for small-value purchases. This trend is visible across sectors such as local retail, transport, and daily services.
The average ticket size (ATS) for UPI transactions declined, showing higher usage for smaller payments. Overall ATS dropped 9% to ₹1,314, while merchant payment ATS fell to ₹592, indicating growing digitisation of low-value transactions.
UPI continued to expand across both person-to-person (P2P) and person-to-merchant (P2M) segments. P2M transactions grew 34% to 143.82 billion, highlighting its rising role in merchant payments.
Infrastructure growth supported this expansion. UPI QR codes increased 15% to 731.38 million, while PoS terminals also rose 15% to 11.48 million, improving accessibility for users and merchants.
While UPI leads in everyday payments, card usage remains strong in high-value and online transactions. Credit card transactions grew 27% to 5.69 billion, while debit card volumes declined 23%, showing a shift of smaller payments to UPI. Online credit card payments reached ₹14.53 trillion, underlining their importance in e-commerce and premium spending.
Recurring digital payments also gained traction. Bharat BillPay transactions rose 40% to 3.05 billion, with total value increasing 93% to ₹14.84 trillion. Adoption is growing across categories such as education fees, insurance, EMI payments, and subscriptions, pointing to a “set-and-forget” payment trend.
Ramesh Narasimhan, Chief Executive Officer, Worldline India, said, “India’s digital payments ecosystem is entering a new phase of maturity, where scale is being complemented by structure. As highlighted in our latest report, we are seeing distinct roles emerge across UPI, cards, and recurring payment platforms, supported by a rapidly expanding acceptance infrastructure.”
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