Apple Pay coming to India in October, UPI support may be delayed: Report

Apple is reportedly set to launch its Apple Pay payment service in India in October, but the service may initially arrive without support for the country's dominant Unified Payments Interface (UPI).

According to a report by Gadgets Now by Times of India, the service is expected to initially enable contactless payments using tokenised Visa and Mastercard credit and debit cards, allowing iPhone and Apple Watch users to tap and pay at NFC-enabled point-of-sale terminals.

Also Read: Contactless card payments on the rise as Indian shoppers swipe less, tap more


Apple has held advanced discussions with HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank to provision cards for the service, according to people familiar with the rollout, cited by Gadgets Now.

UPI integration is expected to come at a later stage, with the report citing pending discussions with the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and technical issues around biometric authentication.

The reported October launch would mark Apple's long-awaited entry into India's digital payments market, more than a decade after Apple Pay was first launched globally.

Why Apple Pay may launch without UPI

The absence of UPI at launch could be significant in India, where the payment system has become the dominant digital payments rail.

Apple has been in talks with Indian banks and payment networks for several months. In February, Bloomberg reported that the company was discussing an India launch with ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank, as well as Visa and Mastercard.

At the time, Bloomberg reported that Apple Pay was expected to support both UPI and card payments, although the timeline remained fluid.

The latest report suggests Apple may instead take a phased approach, starting with card payments before adding UPI.

One issue involves authentication. Apple Pay relies on Face ID or Touch ID for authorising payments, while UPI's authentication framework has traditionally involved India's banking and identity infrastructure.

According to Gadgets Now sources, Apple wants its device-level biometric authentication system to play a central role, while NPCI's requirements involve UIDAI-backed authentication. The two sides have yet to fully resolve the technical differences.

Apple's NFC architecture is another potential issue. The iPhone's NFC functionality is closely tied to Apple Pay, while India's digital payments ecosystem is built around interoperability between different payment applications and services.

Apple Pay faces India's low-cost payments market

There is also a commercial hurdle.

Apple globally charges around 0.15-0.20%, or 15-20 basis points, of transaction value for Apple Pay, according to an earlier report by ETTech. In India, credit card transactions operate at much lower rates, while UPI transactions are processed at zero cost.

Two bankers cited by ETTech in May said pricing negotiations could be a key challenge for Apple's India launch, with the company potentially having to significantly lower its global rates to fit India's payment economics.

Also Read: Apple Pay wants a slice of India, but faces a big pricing challenge

The latest reported rollout could therefore initially focus on the segment where Apple has the strongest advantage: India's premium iPhone user base. If Apple follows its usual launch cycle and unveils the iPhone 18 series in September, an October Apple Pay rollout would fit that timeline.

Apple shipped roughly 14 million iPhones in India in 2025, capturing about 9% of the country's smartphone market by volume, according to Counterpoint Research.

While that is a relatively small share of India's smartphone market, iPhone users tend to be concentrated in the premium segment, making them a potentially attractive customer base for banks and card networks.

What Apple Pay's India launch means

Apple's entry would come at a time when India has become one of the world's most sophisticated digital payments markets.

The company's initial challenge is therefore not simply bringing Apple Pay to India. It is adapting a payment system designed for global markets to an ecosystem where UPI dominates, transaction costs are exceptionally low and interoperability is built into the infrastructure.

For now, the reported October launch appears to be the first step.

Apple Pay could initially serve India's premium iPhone users through card-based contactless payments, while the much bigger opportunity — UPI integration — remains a work in progress.

Apple has not officially announced an October launch, and ET could not independently verify the report.