UPI System Upgraded After Repeated Outages; Changes Effective August 1st

Facing persistent outage issues, UPI has implemented significant changes, effective August 1st.

UPI Latest News: The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has become the backbone of India's digital ecosystem. However, a large number of UPI transactions failed twice in recent months, on 26 March and 12 April. These incidents affected millions of users, forcing the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to conduct a technical review of its system.

To rectify these technical shortcomings, NPCI has decided to implement some key changes in UPI, which will be implemented nationwide from 1 August 2025.

Why was this technical upgrade of UPI necessary?

The outage incidents in March and April made it clear that the existing UPI system was unable to smoothly handle high traffic, unlimited API calls, and unorganized auto-payment processing.

Therefore, technical changes are being made to make the system more scalable and load-balanced.

Which technical rules will be implemented?

Limit on balance checks to 50 times per day: UPI users will now be able to check their account balance only 50 times per day. Earlier, there was no such limit, which increased heavy API traffic on bank servers.

Benefit: This will reduce the load on the backend system and reduce the likelihood of transaction failures.

AutoPay transactions in fixed time slots: Now, auto-payment transactions such as subscriptions, EMIs, or utility bills will not be processed at any time of the day. Instead, they will be processed in fixed time slots.

Benefit: This will improve transaction processing and keep server traffic under control.

UPI towards global standards

According to a recent IMF report, UPI has now gained recognition globally. It has become the world's largest interoperable real-time payment technology. NPCI is now working to make it a more stable and technically robust platform.

Why were technological changes necessary?

• The ever-increasing number of digital transactions put immense pressure on the API servers.
• There was no defined structure for real-time traffic management in the backend.
• The timing of auto-payment triggers was erratic, causing the system to fail.

These changes, which will come into effect from 1 August, are crucial for improving UPI's technical robustness and user experience. NPCI aims to provide millions of digital users in the country with a fast, secure, and reliable payment infrastructure.