MUMBAI — India's Unified Payments Interface processed more than one billion transactions in a single day for the first time on Friday, according to data from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). The volume came on Dhanteras, the busiest shopping day before Diwali. NPCI, which runs the network, published the figures on Sunday.

The government has set one billion daily transactions as a target for 2026. Daily volumes averaged roughly 700 million at the end of 2025, according to the corporation's monthly statistics. Since then, volumes have grown steadily as more small merchants accept QR-code payments and spread into smaller towns. Festival periods have repeatedly produced single-day records, as gold, electronics and gift purchases are paid for through phone-based apps.

NPCI data showed that the total value of transactions on the day was also among the highest ever recorded, although the average payment remained small. That pattern reflects UPI's dominance in everyday retail spending. Walmart-owned PhonePe and Google Pay together continued to handle the large majority of transactions. Paytm and bank-run apps took much smaller shares.

The milestone is likely to sharpen attention on how heavily the network is concentrated among a few apps. The Reserve Bank of India and NPCI have repeatedly delayed a proposed cap limiting any single app to 30 per cent of UPI volume. Payments companies have also pressed the government to revisit the zero merchant-fee rule, arguing that record volumes make it harder to pay for infrastructure and fraud controls.

The Reserve Bank of India has pointed to UPI's growth when promoting the system abroad, including through links with payment networks in Singapore, the United Arab Emirates and France. NPCI is expected to publish its full November figures on 1 December. Analysts at Indian brokerages expect the festival month to set a new monthly record for both volume and value.