UPI Services Face Another Major Outage Across India; NPCI Confirms Technical Glitch

NEW DELHI, April 14 India’s most widely used digital payment system, Unified Payments Interface (UPI), suffered another major outage on Saturday morning, disrupting transactions nationwide across popular platforms such as PhonePe, Google Pay, Paytm, BHIM, and various banking apps. This marks the fourth such disruption within a month, raising concerns over the reliability of the country’s digital payment backbone.

Nationwide Outage Leaves Users Stranded

According to data from DownDetector, over 2,000 users began reporting UPI-related issues around 11:26 AM IST, with complaints peaking at 1:02 PM IST. Affected services spanned leading financial institutions like HDFC Bank, State Bank of India, and Kotak Mahindra Bank, impacting both consumers and businesses.

Many users took to social media, particularly X (formerly Twitter), to express frustration. One user wrote: “I am stuck in the airport with a delayed flight, a lost wallet with all my cash and cards, and then I discovered UPI was also not accepting any payments.” Another added: “UPI crashes are too often these days, leaving many people stuck. We rely on it daily, but the system keeps failing us.”

NPCI Responds to the Incident

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), which oversees UPI infrastructure, acknowledged the issue on its official X handle. Their statement read:

“NPCI is currently facing intermittent technical issues, leading to partial UPI transaction declines. We are working to resolve the issue and will keep you updated. We regret the inconvenience caused.”

This most recent disruption adds to a growing list of outages:

• March 26, 2025: Users unable to transact for over three hours

• March 31, 2025: Major year-end-related banking delays

• April 2, 2025: Latency in UPI network caused temporary failure

These recurring technical hiccups have triggered concerns regarding the resilience of India’s digital payment systems, especially as UPI becomes increasingly essential in everyday life.

What’s at Stake?

With over 10 billion monthly transactions, UPI is the cornerstone of India’s digital economy. Regular outages not only affect users and businesses but also raise questions around system stability, redundancy, and contingency planning.

While NPCI works toward resolving the ongoing issues, experts suggest the urgent need for infrastructure upgrades, load management, and communication transparency to sustain trust in digital finance.