New Delhi [India], September 15: UPI just went premium. From today, you can move up to ₹10 lakh a day for select categories, insurance, investments, travel, and more. Google Pay, PhonePe, and Paytm users, this one’s for you.
UPI gets a power upgrade
Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is already India’s digital money workhorse. It powers chai payments at the corner stall and big-ticket spends alike. Now, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has raised the ceiling for high-value transactions.
Effective 15 September 2025, you can push through ₹5 lakh per transaction and up to ₹10 lakh per day in key categories. This change is live across apps like Google Pay, PhonePe, and Paytm.
“With UPI emerging as a preferred payment method, there are requirements from the market to extend higher per-transaction limits,” NPCI said in its circular.
The new UPI transaction limits
Here’s the breakdown of what changes today:
- Capital Market Investments: ₹5 lakh per transaction, ₹10 lakh daily
- Insurance Premiums: ₹5 lakh per transaction, ₹10 lakh daily
- Travel: ₹5 lakh per transaction, ₹10 lakh daily
- Government e-Marketplace (GeM): ₹5 lakh per transaction, ₹10 lakh daily
- Credit Card Bill Payments: ₹5 lakh per transaction, ₹6 lakh daily
- Jewelry Purchases: ₹2 lakh per transaction, ₹6 lakh daily
- Digital Account Opening – Initial Funding: ₹2 lakh per transaction, ₹2 lakh daily
- FX Retail via BBPS Platform: ₹5 lakh per transaction, ₹5 lakh daily
Businesses cheer the move
Akash Sinha, CEO & Co-founder of Cashfree Payments, called it a “timely move.”
“Raising UPI limits to ₹5 lakh per transaction and ₹10 lakh per day addresses a real challenge for businesses handling high-value payments,” he said.
For industries like insurance or travel, where single-ticket costs often cross ₹1 lakh, the earlier limits felt like a joke. Today’s hike finally puts UPI in the same league as NEFT and RTGS for large-value transactions.
What doesn’t change
- P2P (Person-to-Person) transfers: Still capped at ₹1 lakh daily. No sending ₹5 lakh to your cousin in one shot.
- Bank discretion: NPCI sets the ceiling, but your bank can impose lower internal caps. Don’t blame the app if your bank plays conservative.
Verified merchants get a bigger runway
For verified merchants, person-to-merchant (P2M) transaction limits now stretch to ₹10 lakh daily. That means businesses that went through proper KYC and vetting can handle serious volume via UPI without splitting payments.
This is a big deal for travel portals, insurance brokers, and online marketplaces that previously had to split invoices.
India context: cash is losing more ground
India’s relationship with money is rewriting itself. Once upon a time, buying jewelry or paying insurance meant lugging cash or issuing cheques. Today, UPI handles 14 billion transactions a month [External Link → RBI/NCPI data]. With this rule change, high-value categories finally get the same digital ease as everyday chai payments.
For context, credit card spends in India crossed ₹2 lakh crore in July 2025. UPI is gunning for that pie. And with a ₹10 lakh daily limit, it just became an even bigger threat to card networks.
Compliance check
NPCI has directed all members, apps, and payment service providers (PSPs) to comply with these new rules starting September 15, 2025.
So if your app still shows the old cap, nudge your bank. The infrastructure is ready; compliance is the only thing standing in the way.
Why it matters for you
- Travelers: Booking international holidays or premium packages just got easier.
- Investors: Capital market entries now work smoothly without breaking transactions.
- Insurance buyers: Annual premium payments in one shot.
- Merchants: No more payment fragmentation for high-ticket invoices.
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PCI decided UPI isn’t just for chai and samosas. The ₹10 lakh limit is long overdue, because who pays for a family vacation or an annual insurance premium in ₹1 lakh chunks? This move makes UPI a serious alternative to credit cards, and frankly, the banks needed this push.
