India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) recorded a robust 13.6 percent growth in transaction volumes in March, hitting a new peak of 18.30 billion transactions, according to the latest data released by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). While the top five UPI apps – PhonePe, Google Pay, Paytm, Navi and Super.money – retained their rankings, Axis Bank moved to the sixth spot, overtaking fintech unicorn CRED, which slipped to the seventh spot.
This shift follows a similar pattern seen in February, when Super.money displaced CRED to enter the top five. In March, Axis Bank’s growth was driven by a significant increase in business-to-consumer (B2C) payments, recording 125 million such transactions – typically involving refunds, salaries and cashback disbursements from businesses to consumers.
PhonePe continued to dominate the UPI ecosystem, garnering 47.25 per cent market share by volume with 8.64 billion transactions. Google Pay stood second with 36.04 percent (6.59 billion), controlling over 83 percent of total UPI transaction volume.
Paytm remained steady at third place with 6.67 percent share (1.22 billion transactions), while new entrants such as Navi and Super.Money grabbed a modest but growing share of the digital payments market.
Despite a drop in the volume rankings, CRED maintained its place among high-value users, contributing Rs 55,091.22 crore in transaction value – 2.22 percent of the total – from just 0.79 percent of the volume, highlighting its premium customer base.
Other players such as Amazon Pay, ICICI Bank, and Axis Bank maintained smaller footprints but continued to serve targeted segments effectively.