UPI volumes dip in February; average daily count rises to 728 Mn

Digital payments network UPI recorded 20.39 billion transactions in February 2026, down from 21.70 billion transactions in January, according to data released by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).

Despite the month-on-month decline, transaction volumes increased 27% year-on-year.

The sequential decline was mainly due to February having fewer days than January, while average daily transaction activity remained steady.

In value terms, UPI transactions stood at Rs 26.84 lakh crore in February, compared with Rs 28.33 lakh crore in January. This represents a 5.3% sequential decline. On an annual basis, transaction value rose 22% YoY.

The average daily transaction count in February stood at 728 million, higher than 700 million in January. The average daily transaction value increased to Rs 95,865 crore, from Rs 91,403 crore in the previous month.

For comparison, UPI processed 21.63 billion transactions worth Rs 27.97 lakh crore in December 2025, making February weaker on both volume and value than the preceding two months.

In January, PhonePe remained the leader in the UPI ecosystem with a 45.7% share of total volume and a 48.6% share by value among UPI apps. Google Pay held the second position, accounting for 33.3% of overall transaction volume and 33.8% of total value. Paytm ranked third with 1.66 billion transactions, translating into a 7.7% share by volume and a 6.4% share by value. The breakup data for February has yet to be released.