UPI outage across India for over an hour, third major disruption in 20 days

The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) service faced a nationwide outage on Friday, disrupting transactions for over an hour and a half. This marks the third time in just 20 days that users across India have reported major issues while making digital payments using UPI platforms.

The disruption began around 11:30 AM and continued until approximately 1:00 PM. During this window, users reported failed payments, transaction delays, and errors on major UPI-based apps such as Google Pay, PhonePe, Paytm, and BHIM. The failure rate was especially high during peak transaction times, creating chaos for individuals and small businesses alike.

According to Downdetector, 72% of the reported problems were related to direct payments not going through. About 27% of users said they had trouble transferring funds, while 1% experienced issues while trying to make purchases through UPI-integrated e-commerce platforms.

This repeated disruption in UPI services is raising concerns about the system’s stability and growing dependency on digital infrastructure for everyday transactions. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has not yet released an official statement on the technical snag or its cause.

Digital vendors, street sellers, and small business owners bore the brunt of the outage, especially during lunchtime sales. Social media platforms saw a flood of user complaints, screenshots of failed transactions, and memes poking fun at UPI reliability.

Experts suggest that the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), which manages the UPI platform, needs to increase the resilience of its backend systems, especially as India continues to push for a cashless economy. As of now, services have been restored and transactions are gradually normalizing.