UPI's Average Day Passed Rs 1 Lakh Crore in Payments for the First Time in October 2026, as the Month Reached 25.47 Billion Transactions

UPI carried an average of Rs 1,01,707 crore a day in October 2026, the first month in which the daily average passed Rs 1 lakh crore (Rs 1 trillion). The figures come from National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) data released on 1 November 2026, as reported by Outlook Money, Elets BFSI and the news agency IANS. The month closed at 25.47 billion payments worth Rs 31.53 lakh crore.

September’s daily average was Rs 97,913 crore, so the day-to-day value rose by about 3.9 per cent in a month (our division of the two figures).

The October figures

Set against the previous month and the same month a year earlier, as the reports give them:

• Volume: 25.47 billion payments, up 23 per cent on about 20.70 billion in October 2025.
• Value: Rs 31.53 lakh crore, up 16 per cent on Rs 27.28 lakh crore.
• Average day, volume: 822 million payments, against 802 million in September and 668 million in October 2025.
• Average day, value: Rs 1,01,707 crore, against Rs 97,913 crore in September and Rs 87,993 crore in October 2025.

The October 2025 comparisons come from NPCI data carried by Business Standard and Business Today at the time. Swarajya gives the daily volume as nearly 821 million, the other outlets as 822 million; 25.47 billion over 31 days is 821.6 million, so the two are the same figure rounded differently.

NPCI’s own statistics page would not open for this article. The numbers rest on those agreeing press reports of the NPCI release, which match each other on every figure above.

The first month above Rs 30 lakh crore

October was the first month in which UPI’s total value passed Rs 30 lakh crore, according to Outlook Money, Elets and Trak. The monthly count of 25.47 billion also cleared the earlier record of 24.51 billion, set in August 2026, by about 0.96 billion.

The reports differ slightly on the old value record. PTI wrote in August that UPI touched a record high of Rs 29.9 lakh crore in May and in July 2026. Outlook Money names May, and the finance ministry’s 24 August release gives Rs 29.88 lakh crore for July. Whichever is used, October’s Rs 31.53 lakh crore is above it by about Rs 1.6 lakh crore.

Month on month, Elets puts the rise at 5.8 per cent in volume and 7.4 per cent in value, against September.

What lifted October

Swarajya reports that Navratri and the big online sales fell in October, and that industry executives said people used UPI for larger festive purchases along with everyday payments. Oneindia names Amazon’s Great Indian Festival and Flipkart’s Big Billion Days. Diwali itself falls in November, Outlook Money notes.

Oneindia and Lapaas Voice also report a peak day of 873 million payments on 9 October. Lapaas Voice credits the Economic Times, citing NPCI data, for the figure and says activity stayed high through 19 October, the day before Dussehra. This single-day number did not appear in the NPCI release as reported by the other outlets, so treat it as reported rather than confirmed. For comparison, Business Today recorded 754.37 million payments on 18 October 2025, which it called the highest single day to that point.

Value grew in step with volume. Daily volume was up 23 per cent on October 2025 and daily value up about 16 per cent (our division of Rs 1,01,707 crore by Rs 87,993 crore).

What an average day looks like

Some arithmetic on the daily averages, ours and not NPCI’s:

• 822 million payments a day is about 9,500 a second, around the clock.
• Rs 1,01,707 crore a day is about Rs 1.18 crore every second.
• The finance ministry’s 24 August release puts the whole of 2016-17, UPI’s first full year, at 1.78 crore transactions. One October 2026 day carried about 46 times that.
• The same release gives Rs 0.07 lakh crore for 2016-17. October 2026’s value was about 450 times that.

IANS adds a neighbouring rail for scale. IMPS, NPCI’s older instant transfer service, handled Rs 7.63 lakh crore in October, up 19 per cent, with an average of Rs 24,601 crore a day. UPI’s average day moved about four times that value.

The finance ministry’s September release says person-to-person transfers make up about 70 per cent of UPI’s value. How UPI got here, and where it stands among payment systems, is covered in India’s payment rail and in how UPI compares with the world’s payment systems.

The merchant fee on hold

NPCI said on 13 October 2026 that its UPI and Services Steering Committee had decided, with the festive season in mind, to bring in the merchant discount rate (MDR, the fee a shop pays its bank for accepting a payment) on select person-to-merchant payments immediately after Diwali, on a date to be notified separately. It had been due from 15 October. PTI reported that the Confederation of All India Traders welcomed the deferral.

The framework itself is as the finance ministry set it out on 15 September: person-to-person transfers stay free at any amount, merchant payments up to Rs 2,000 and payments to small merchants receiving up to Rs 1 lakh a month through UPI QR codes carry no MDR, and the ministry estimates that about 96 per cent of merchant transactions are unaffected. Above Rs 2,000, the rate is 0.4 per cent, capped at Rs 300 for payments of Rs 75,000 and above, with a flat Rs 5 for sectors such as railways, telecom, insurance and fuel. Banks have been told to ensure merchants do not pass it on to customers.

As of 5 November 2026, none of the reports opened gives a start date.

Where the series stands

The daily average has risen in each of the last two months: 791 million payments in August, 802 million in September and 822 million in October, the first two per PTI and tuput’s earlier look at September’s 800-million milestone. October’s 822 million is 154 million above the 668 million of October 2025 (our subtraction).