India's Unified Payments Interface processed a record 25.47 billion transactions in October, topping August's previous record of 24.51 billion, as festive-season shopping lifted the value of payments to 31.53 trillion rupees, according to National Payments Corporation of India data released Sunday.

For investors in Asia, the numbers matter beyond India. UPI is the model that regional regulators and payment firms study when they build real-time systems, and it is a core business for listed and pre-IPO Indian fintechs such as Paytm and PhonePe. The next test for those companies is whether India starts charging merchants on larger payments, a step NPCI has now delayed.

Volume rose 5.8% from 24.07 billion in September and 23% from a year earlier, according to figures reported by StartupTalky and The Free Press Journal. Value climbed 7.4% from 29.37 trillion rupees in September and 16% from October 2025.

Daily value crosses 1 trillion rupees

The daily figures showed the festive effect more clearly. Average daily value reached 1.017 trillion rupees (101,707 crore), up from 979.13 billion rupees in September, StartupTalky and Analytics Insight reported. That was the first monthly daily average above 1 trillion rupees: Angel One reported that daily value had averaged about 960 billion rupees from April to August before September's level.

Average daily volume rose 2.5% to 822 million transactions from 802 million. September had been the first month above 800 million a day, even though its monthly total slipped from August's 24.51 billion because the month had 30 days against 31, StartupTalky and Angel One reported.

StartupTalky linked the October rise to the festive season, which peaks around Diwali. The reports did not identify a single peak day.

Value grew more slowly than volume over the year, 16% against 23%, which means the average payment got smaller. September showed the same pattern, with volume up 23% and value up 18% from a year earlier.

Other NPCI channels also grew. Immediate Payment Service value rose 19% from a year earlier to 7.63 trillion rupees in October, The Free Press Journal reported, with an average daily value of 246.01 billion rupees.

Merchant fee pushed past Diwali

The record month arrived after NPCI's UPI and Services Steering Committee postponed a planned merchant discount rate on some UPI payments until after Diwali, The Free Press Journal reported. The change had been due to start on Oct. 15. NPCI has not announced a new date.

A merchant discount rate is the fee a business pays to accept a digital payment. Under the proposed framework, payments to large merchants above 2,000 rupees would carry a 0.4% fee capped at 300 rupees a transaction, according to The Free Press Journal. Railway, telecom, insurance and fuel payments above 2,000 rupees would face a flat 5-rupee charge. Transfers between individuals stay free, Analytics Insight reported.

NPCI has said only about 4% of merchant transactions would fall under the framework, the newspaper reported. Analytics Insight said some merchants worry the charges could raise their costs.

For app operators, the fee would add a new source of revenue from UPI merchant payments. Paytm estimated last month that the proposed fee would add about 2.5 basis points to its payment processing margin, as Capital Times reported when the company reported quarterly results.

PhonePe and Google Pay lose ground

App-level data for October is not yet out. In September, PhonePe processed 10.91 billion transactions, or 45.57% of volume through NPCI-listed apps, and Google Pay handled 7.71 billion, or 32.23%, MediaNama reported from NPCI's UPI Applications data. Their combined share of 77.8% was down from 78.3% in August and 81.9% a year earlier.

Google Pay lost the most ground over the year, 3.2 percentage points from 35.43%. PhonePe's share fell 0.9 point from 46.47%, according to MediaNama. Paytm stayed third with 1.94 billion transactions, or 8.1%. Navi ranked fourth with 1.14 billion, and super.money was fifth with 405.1 million.

The slide has been gradual. The two leaders' combined share first dropped below 80% in May, Outlook Business reported in June, citing NPCI data, when the top three apps including Paytm held 87%, down from 95.2% in January 2024.

Both leaders remain above the 30% ceiling NPCI has set for third-party app providers. MediaNama noted that the cap is measured against total UPI volume over a rolling three-month period, so a single month's app table does not show whether an app complies. Existing providers have until Dec. 31, 2026, to meet it.

NPCI's app-wise figures for October, usually published several weeks after the headline data, will show whether the festive surge widened or narrowed the gap between the two leaders and their smaller rivals, with the cap deadline less than two months away.