Reserve Bank of India said the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) accounted for the largest share of digital payment transaction volume at 85.5 per cent in the second half of 2025, highlighting the platform’s growing dominance in India’s payments ecosystem.
According to the RBI’s latest half-yearly Payment Systems Report, National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) and Prepaid Payment Instruments (PPIs) each accounted for 3.6 per cent of transaction volume, while Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) contributed just 0.1 per cent due to its role as a high-value, low-volume payment system.
However, in terms of transaction value, RTGS remained the dominant platform with a 68.6 per cent share of total transaction value, followed by NEFT at 14.9 per cent and UPI at 9.5 per cent. PPIs accounted for only 0.1 per cent of the total transaction value.
The report noted that the figures reflect RTGS’ importance for large-value settlements, while UPI continues to drive mass retail digital payments across the country.
The RBI said NEFT maintained its relevance in India’s evolving digital payments ecosystem due to its ability to process both small and large transactions with settlement within an hour.
India’s digital payments ecosystem has expanded rapidly over the past decade, with transaction volumes increasing 33 times and transaction values rising nearly three times between 2016 and 2025, according to the report.
Over the last five years alone, transaction volumes have grown more than fourfold, while values nearly doubled, translating into a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 43 per cent in volume and 17 per cent in value.
The RBI attributed the growth to rising smartphone penetration, the expansion of public digital infrastructure such as Unified Payments Interface, and increasing public trust in secure and seamless cashless transactions.
The report further stated that total payment transaction volumes in India increased from 6,437 crore in 2021 to 26,819 crore in 2025. In value terms, transactions rose from Rs 1,741 lakh crore to Rs 3,215 lakh crore during the same period, recording a CAGR of 42.9 per cent in volume and 16.6 per cent in value.
