UPI has become the most used retail fast payment system in India, says the Payments Systems Report by the Reserve Bank of India. According to the report, UPI payment volumes have grown to 17,221 crore transactions in 2024, up from 1,079 crore transactions in 2019. Similarly, the total value of transactions grew to Rs 246.8 lakh crore in 2024 from Rs 18.4 lakh crore in 2019.
The UPI transaction volume in the last year has grown by 22 per cent. In the first half of calendar year 2024, the total UPI transactions were at 117 crore, which has increased to 143 crore in H1 CY25. Additionally, the UPI payment value increased by 34.7 per cent, to Rs 10,637 lakh crore in H1 CY25 from Rs 7897.1 lakh crore in H1 CY24.
Furthermore, the Reserve Bank report states that UPI payments accounted for 84.8 per cent of the total payment transactions in the first six months of 2025. The reports indicate that the primary reasons for the significant increase in UPI-led transactions are ease of use, efficiency, and round-the-clock availability.
Major payment methods
While UPI payments account for 84.8 per cent of total transactions, in terms of transaction value, RTGS transactions still have the highest value. UPI payments account for just 9.1 of the total value of transactions.
RTGS (Real-Time Gross Settlement), which has a minimum transaction amount of Rs 2 lakh, has the highest share of 68.7 per cent in terms of transaction value but accounts for just 0.1 per cent of the total number of transactions.
NEFT (National Electronic Funds Transfer) transactions, which account for 3.9 per cent of the total number of transactions, comprise 15.1 per cent of the total transaction value. Card payments account for 2.7 per cent of transactions by volume and 0.8 per cent of transactions by value. Similarly, checks account for 0.2 per cent of transactions by volume and 2.3 per cent by value.