Evening disruption hits major UPI platforms across India, with users reporting failed transactions, fund transfer delays, and app crashes. NPCI yet to issue a statement.
New Delhi, May 12:
India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) network suffered another major outage on Monday evening, leaving users of PhonePe, Google Pay, and other payment platforms scrambling to complete transactions. This marks the third widespread UPI disruption in under a month.
According to Downdetector, complaints began surging early in the evening, with over 500 reports logged — 80% of which related to fund transfer failures, followed by issues with app functionality and payment delays.
Users took to social media using the hashtag #UPIdown, sharing their frustration and, in some cases, humorous memes about failed payments at restaurants, fuel stations, and grocery stores. The glitch caused significant inconvenience to both consumers and merchants, particularly those who rely heavily on UPI for day-to-day transactions.
UPI services are down in many parts of the country. People can’t make payments using Paytm, GPay, and other apps. This is happening too often now.
— DealzTrendz (@dealztrendz) May 12, 2025
It’s always smart to carry some cash, UPI isn’t 100% reliable.
While PhonePe and GPay users reported issues, Paytm stated that its services were operating normally, adding a layer of inconsistency to the disruption.
UPI and SBI services are currently down. pic.twitter.com/eh4lfHI14z
— Abhishek Yadav (@yabhishekhd) May 12, 2025
The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), which manages the UPI ecosystem, has not yet issued an official statement about the nature or cause of the failure. The repeated outages are beginning to raise questions about the resilience and scalability of India’s rapidly expanding digital payment infrastructure.
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UPI server down again?
— sandeep choudhary (@BitChoudhary) May 12, 2025
Kya yeh monthly subscription hai kya? 😤📵@NPCI_NPCI please fix this — traders can’t survive on vibes alone.#UPIDown #Fintech #DigitalIndia #UPIDown
UPI Growth Amid Instability
The latest outage comes after UPI hit a record 18.3 billion transactions in March, recovering from a brief 5% dip in February. The total transaction value for March also surged to ₹24.77 lakh crore, up from ₹21.96 lakh crore in February.
Despite this exponential growth, the frequency of outages in recent weeks is beginning to alarm both users and fintech experts, especially as UPI becomes the backbone of India’s digital economy.
Tags:
UPI outage, PhonePe, Google Pay, Paytm, digital payments, Downdetector, NPCI, fund transfer issues, UPI disruption, India fintech, online payments, GPay, payment failure,