UPI payments surge in Oct led by groceries, dining; financial services lead in value

Merchant payment volumes on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) surged in October, led by high-frequency retail categories such as groceries, fast food, restaurants, and telecom. Financial services had the largest share by value, according to data from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).

The festive month saw 13.03 billion merchant transactions worth Rs 8.26 lakh crore, as UPI maintained its dominance in consumer spending across both offline and online channels.

The groceries and supermarkets category was the biggest volume driver, accounting for 3.27 billion transactions worth Rs 76,073 crore. Fast food restaurants registered 1.36 billion transactions worth Rs 16,798 crore, while other restaurants and eateries logged 1.19 billion payments worth Rs 20,842 crore..


Telecom payments, typically comprising mobile recharges and bill payments, witnessed 867.86 million transactions for Rs 22,169 crore.

While retail dominated volumes, financial services drove value. Securities brokers and dealers processed Rs 66,096 crore worth of UPI payments across 70.24 million transactions, making it the highest-value merchant category for the month. Debt-collection agencies followed with Rs 50,615 crore across 142 million transactions.

The month also saw continued traction in digital gold purchases, with 115.95 million transactions valued at Rs 2,290 crore, compared to 103.1 million transactions and Rs 1,410 crore in September. This indicates the growing use of UPI for small-ticket, investment-linked purchases.

Other prominent value categories included electronics, liquor, apparel, and drugstores.

NPCI’s ‘Others’ bucket accounted for 2.52 billion transactions worth Rs 3.88 lakh crore. This includes gaming transactions, which were significantly impacted due to the ban on real money gaming in India.

Among states, Maharashtra led with 10.3% of the transactions, followed by Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka at 5.4% and 5.2%, respectively.