UPI volumes remain above 20 billion in November, growth at a 3-month high

UPI transactions in November

Digital transactions kept pace in November, with Unified Payments Interface volumes staying above the 20-billion mark for a second straight month, data released by NPCI, which operates the popular instant payment system, on December 1 shows.

Even as volumes dipped slightly to 20.47 billion from 20.70 billion in October, the pace of expansion stayed strong. UPI transaction volumes rose to a three-month high of 32.2 percent year-on-year and value was up 22.1 percent in November.

In value terms, UPI transactions totalled Rs 26.3 lakh crore in November, down from Rs 27.3 lakh crore in October but well above Rs 21.55 lakh crore recorded a year ago. The month-on-month easing largely reflects a come-off from the festive peak rather than a loss of momentum in usage.

Daily usage continued to climb. Average daily transactions rose to about 682 million in November, up from 668 million in October and 516 million a year earlier, underscoring how deeply UPI has entrenched itself in everyday payments.

Average daily transaction value was around Rs 87,733 crore, only marginally lower than October’s Rs 88,000 crore despite the retreat from the festival season high.

The average ticket size fell further to roughly Rs 1,286 in November from Rs 1,318 in October and about Rs 1,549 in November 2024. This continuing downtrend in per-transaction value suggests that growth is increasingly being driven by high-frequency, low-ticket payments — such as small merchant purchases and peer-to-peer transfers — rather than a spike in large-value transactions.

An earlier analysis by Moneycontrol found that failures had also come down this festive season despite high volumes, with far fewer transaction declines due to server overloads, technical glitches, or bank downtimes, marking one of the most reliable festive cycles for UPI since 2022.