PhonePe strengthened its lead in India’s Unified Payments Interface market in July, processing 10.86 billion transactions as overall UPI activity reached a record 23.66 billion transactions during the month.
PhonePe’s July transaction count rose from 10.48 billion in June, giving the Walmart-backed payments platform 45.89 per cent of total UPI transaction volume. It processed transactions worth ₹14.44 lakh crore, equivalent to 48.33 per cent of the total value, according to National Payments Corporation of India data reported by Entrackr.
The broader UPI network also reached a new monthly high in July. NPCI data showed 23.66 billion transactions worth ₹29.88 lakh crore, with transaction volume rising 22 per cent year-on-year and transaction value increasing 19 per cent.
Google Pay remained the second-largest UPI platform, processing 7.65 billion transactions in July compared with 7.41 billion in June. Its share stood at 32.33 per cent of transaction volume and 33.51 per cent of transaction value, according to the NPCI figures reported by Entrackr.
PhonePe and Google Pay together accounted for 78.22 per cent of UPI transaction volume in July. Their combined share of transaction value was even higher at 81.83 per cent, showing how concentrated India's consumer digital-payments market remains.
Paytm held the third position with 1.90 billion transactions, up from 1.80 billion in June. The fintech platform accounted for 8.05 per cent of transaction volume and handled ₹2.05 lakh crore in transaction value during the month.
Navi retained fourth place after processing 947.08 million transactions, compared with 842.51 million in June. Its transaction-volume share increased to about 4 per cent, while the platform processed ₹48,318 crore in transaction value.
The rankings below the top four also showed movement. Flipkart-backed super.money processed 437.27 million transactions, while BHIM handled 242.27 million. FamApp recorded 206.19 million transactions during July.
WhatsApp moved ahead of CRED in transaction volume. WhatsApp processed 167.89 million UPI transactions in July, while CRED recorded 142.10 million, causing CRED to fall to 10th place from ninth in June.
CRED's lower transaction volume did not translate into a similarly small transaction value. The platform handled ₹59,279 crore during July, giving it 1.98 per cent of UPI's total transaction value. WhatsApp, by comparison, handled ₹12,957 crore and had a 0.43 per cent value share.
The difference illustrates why transaction counts alone do not fully describe a payments platform's activity. A platform can process fewer transactions while handling a larger average transaction value, depending on how customers use its services.
The concentration is even stronger when the three largest platforms are considered together. PhonePe, Google Pay and Paytm accounted for 86.28 per cent of UPI transaction volume and 88.68 per cent of transaction value in July.
The overall expansion of UPI also shows how deeply real-time payments have become embedded in India's financial system. In July, the network processed an average of roughly 763 million transactions a day, according to ET BFSI's analysis of NPCI data.
UPI's scale is also extending beyond India. NPCI's international arm has been working with overseas payment networks to expand UPI acceptance, with the system already available in markets including the UAE, Singapore, France, Mauritius, Nepal and Sri Lanka.
For payment companies, the next challenge is therefore not simply increasing transaction volumes. Competition is increasingly about retaining users, increasing merchant acceptance and capturing higher-value payments while operating within India's digital-payments framework.
July's numbers leave PhonePe firmly at the top, with Google Pay maintaining second place and Paytm holding third. The next monthly NPCI data release will show whether the shift between WhatsApp and CRED continues and whether the leading platforms can maintain their shares as India's UPI market expands.
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