UPI cross-border transaction volumes reached 1,486,537 in the first nine months of FY26, through December 2025. This nearly doubled the 755,445 transactions recorded across the full FY25 period. Transaction value reached ₹330.43 crore, up from ₹258.53 crore in FY25. In FY24, just 37,060 international UPI transactions worth ₹19.7 crore were processed.
The live network spans eight countries: Bhutan, Nepal, Mauritius, Sri Lanka, Singapore, UAE, Qatar, and France. Japan joined as the ninth market through a one-year trial beginning April 1, 2026, enabled by NTT Data's merchant acquiring infrastructure. NPCI International has onboarded more than two million international merchants across these markets. Agreements with Malaysia (PayNet), Israel (MASAV), Cambodia (ACLEDA Bank), and Cyprus (Eurobank) are at various stages of implementation, with Malaysia's PayNet deal signed in February 2026 enabling Indian travelers to pay at 29 lakh DuitNow QR touchpoints.
International volumes remain a fraction of UPI's domestic processing, where March 2026 alone produced 22.64 billion transactions worth ₹29.53 lakh crore. Average cross-border transaction size runs significantly higher than the domestic average of ₹1,314 recorded by Worldline for CY2025, indicating that international use cases center on tourist spending rather than everyday micropayments. The Singapore corridor, which supports full P2P transfers through the UPI-PayNow bilateral linkage launched in February 2023, likely generates the largest share of cross-border volume compared to the merchant-only QR acceptance available in other markets.
RBI's Utkarsh 2029 framework, released on April 11, 2026, identifies UPI global expansion and cross-border CBDC arrangements as strategic priorities for 2026-2029. Japan welcomed 315,100 Indian visitors in 2025, a 35 percent increase over 2024. Growing outbound tourism to East Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East continues to expand the addressable market for UPI international merchant acceptance.