UPI Outage: Thousands of Google Pay, PhonePe Users Affected Across India
UPI Outage: Thousands of Google Pay, PhonePe Users Affected Across India
A major technical disruption hit the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) network on Saturday morning, leaving thousands of users across India unable to complete digital transactions via popular platforms like PhonePe, Google Pay, and Paytm. The outage significantly affected individuals and businesses, underlining India’s increasing reliance on UPI for daily financial activities.
NPCI is currently facing intermittent technical issues, leading to partial UPI transaction declines. We are working to resolve the issue, and will keep you updated.
— NPCI (@NPCI_NPCI) April 12, 2025
We regret the inconvenience caused.
Reports began surfacing early in the day, with Downdetector — a platform that tracks real-time service outages — registering over 1,100 user complaints by noon. Among them, Google Pay reported 96 issues, while Paytm saw 23 complaints.
The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), which manages the UPI infrastructure, acknowledged the service disruption, attributing it to “intermittent technical issues” that were leading to partial transaction failures. NPCI assured users that engineers were working on a resolution and updates would follow shortly. “We regret the inconvenience caused,” the statement added.
The outage also impacted major financial institutions, including HDFC Bank, State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, and Kotak Mahindra Bank, leading to widespread transaction failures. While the exact cause of the disruption remains unclear, experts suggest it could be due to server overloads, scheduled maintenance, or potential cybersecurity concerns.
This is the second major UPI outage in recent weeks. On March 26, a similar disruption affected users for up to three hours, with NPCI citing system-level technical issues.
In a related development, NPCI on April 8 announced new rules for international UPI transactions. The regulatory body stated that QR-code-based payments will no longer be supported for international usage. This move aims to improve the accuracy of user identification during cross-border transactions. However, domestic QR code payments and transaction limits remain unaffected.
