PhonePe, Google Pay duopoly weakens as market share slips below 80%

Fintech giants PhonePe and Google Pay’s combined UPI market share slipped to 79% in May, according to data from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), after holding over 80% in the last several years.

This comes at a time when smaller UPI third-party payment applications like Navi and Supermoney have upped their cashback offers and are spending aggresively to grab significant market share. Also, well-funded fintech startups like Scapia secured its TPAP licence recently and players like Pop Club have started playing a dual commerce cum payments play using UPI as a hook.

IPO-bound PhonePe, which recenty delayed its public markets debut, saw its market share slip marginally to 46.3% in May, from 46.5% in the same month last year, while Google Pay’s share fell to 32.7% from 36.1% in May 2025.


Both players have been enjoying an overwhelming duopoly in the UPI market for years. In May 2024, the pair controlled nearly 86% of all UPI transaction volumes, according to the data. The third-largest app, Paytm, recorded a 7.9% market share in May, up from 6.8% in the same month last year.

Together, the top three UPI apps control nearly 87% of the market. Last year in May, the share stood at 89.4%.

However, a new crop of UPI players, including Flipkart-backed Supermoney, Sachin Bansal's Navi, Fampay, and WhatsApp Pay, have been steadily expanding their presence in the market through cashback-led customer acquisition and other offerings.

Smaller UPI players increased their share in recent months, even as the market leaders continued to add users and transactions. For instance, Navi’s market share rose to 3.6% in May this year, from 2.1% in the same month last year, and 0.2% in the year before that. Super.money’s market share rose to 1.8% in May from 1.1% last year, and FamPay’s share inched up to 0.9% from 0.6%.

As overall UPI volumes rise, newer players have begun to gain meaningful share without displacing incumbents. In total, UPI transactions in May rose 24.2% year-on-year to 23.2 billion transactions and amounted to Rs 29.9 lakh crore. Many new players are targeting specific customer cohorts such as GenZ users, credit-on-UPI users, and rewards-focused consumers.

The development also comes as regulatory scrutiny around market concentration continues. In November 2020, NPCI had proposed a 30% cap on the market share of any third-party UPI app to reduce the risk of over-concentration and duopoly. However, implementation of the rule has been repeatedly deferred, with the latest deadline pushed to December 31. Despite the recent decline, PhonePe remains the clear market leader, while Google Pay continues to hold the second spot.