The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is preparing to make UPI AutoPay interoperable, a change that would allow users to move their existing recurring payment mandates from one UPI app to another without cancelling and setting them up again. Merchants could also shift existing mandates between payment providers when they change gateways.
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What will change for UPI AutoPay users?
At present, recurring payments can keep users tied to the UPI app where an AutoPay mandate was originally created. The proposed interoperability would allow eligible mandates to be accessed across UPI apps.
This means a consumer could move an existing AutoPay mandate to another UPI app instead of cancelling a subscription, insurance premium, systematic investment plan or loan repayment mandate and creating it again.
Users could also get a cross-app view of their mandates, making it easier to keep track of upcoming payments, account balances and subscriptions they may have forgotten about.
The features are expected to be announced at the Global Fintech Fest in Mumbai next month, according to the report.
Will changing UPI apps affect the linked bank account?
The bank account originally authorised by the customer will continue to be used for payments.
The interoperability change is intended to make eligible mandates accessible across UPI apps rather than change the bank account from which the payment is deducted.
NPCI launched UPI AutoPay in 2020 to enable businesses to automatically debit customers’ bank accounts at fixed intervals for recurring payments such as subscriptions, loan repayments, insurance premiums and mutual fund investments.
The scale of such payments has increased sharply. NPCI data showed that the top 10 banks processed nearly 1.8 billion UPI e-mandate transactions in July, more than three times the 585 million processed in July 2025.
What will the change mean for merchants and UPI apps?
The proposed system could also give merchants more flexibility when changing payment gateways.
Currently, a subscription business switching payment gateways can route new customers through the new provider, while older mandates remain with the original provider. With interoperability, existing mandates could also be moved to the new payment provider.
The change could also reduce the advantage enjoyed by larger UPI apps. Users who establish recurring payments on one platform may be less willing to move to another because of the effort involved in shifting their AutoPay arrangements.
Making mandates portable could give smaller UPI apps a better opportunity to attract users whose recurring payments are currently managed through larger platforms such as PhonePe or Google Pay.
Implementing the system, however, will require changes across consumer-facing UPI apps.
UPI processed a record 23.66 billion transactions worth ₹29.88 trillion in July, according to NPCI data cited in the report. PhonePe accounted for 45.89% of transaction volumes, followed by Google Pay at 32.33% and Paytm at 8.05%.
The proposed AutoPay interoperability is aimed at moving recurring UPI payments away from a closed system, giving consumers greater freedom to use different UPI apps while allowing merchants more flexibility in choosing payment providers.
About the author — Ayesha Aayat writes on cybercrime, digital safety, and emerging online threats. Her work focuses on public awareness, legal clarity, and technology-driven risks.
