PhonePe and Google Pay hold 77.9% of UPI volume
PhonePe crossed 11.19 billion UPI transactions in August and Google Pay reached 7.91 billion. Between them the two apps carry more than three quarters of UPI volume and more than four fifths of its value, which makes UPI success rate a two-app question for any seller.
- PhonePe and Google Pay together took 77.90 percent of UPI volume and 81.60 percent of value in August. The concentration is the operating fact, not the growth.
- PhonePe did 11.19 billion transactions worth Rs 14.26 lakh crore, up from 10.86 billion in July. Google Pay did 7.91 billion worth Rs 10.07 lakh crore, up from 7.65 billion.
- System volume rose about 3.6 percent to 24.51 billion while value slipped about 0.2 percent to Rs 29.82 lakh crore. That is a smaller average ticket, roughly Rs 1,217 against roughly Rs 1,263 in July, not a contradiction.
- Track UPI success rate split by app, not only by instrument. A break confined to one leader still sits across a third to nearly half of all UPI volume.
NPCI’s app-level numbers for August, reported by Entrackr on 16 September, put PhonePe at 11.19 billion UPI transactions worth Rs 14.26 lakh crore and Google Pay at 7.91 billion worth Rs 10.07 lakh crore. That is a 45.64 percent and 32.26 percent share of volume, and 47.82 percent and 33.78 percent of value. Together the two apps carry 77.90 percent of UPI volume and 81.60 percent of the money moving across it.
Paytm is third at 1.97 billion transactions worth Rs 2.05 lakh crore, an 8.03 percent volume share against 6.87 percent of value. Navi is fourth at 1.08 billion worth Rs 52,513 crore, 4.40 percent of volume but only 1.76 percent of value. Both leaders grew month on month, PhonePe from 10.86 billion in July and Google Pay from 7.65 billion.
The system totals move in two directions and neither move is large. UPI handled 24.51 billion transactions in August worth Rs 29.82 lakh crore, against 23.66 billion worth Rs 29.88 lakh crore in July. Volume rose about 3.6 percent. Value slipped about 0.2 percent. That is arithmetic, not conflict: the average ticket fell from roughly Rs 1,263 to roughly Rs 1,217, down about 3.6 percent. A 0.2 percent move in value is noise on its own, and the ticket size is the readable part of it.
The concentration is what changes anything for a seller. If four in five UPI payments run through two apps, UPI success rate is not one number on your checkout dashboard. It is mostly two numbers. An intent flow that starts failing on one of them after an app update is not a tail case, it covers a third to nearly half of UPI volume, and a dashboard that stops at the instrument label will show a soft week rather than a broken handoff.
Two reads worth taking. Ask your gateway for success rate split by UPI app and keep a month of history, so a drop shows against a baseline rather than a feeling. Second, the leaders both carry a heavier ticket than the system average, close to Rs 1,274 for PhonePe and Rs 1,273 for Google Pay, against roughly Rs 1,041 for Paytm and Rs 486 for Navi. Which apps your buyers use is a fact about your basket mix, not only about your checkout.
Zane’s analysis draws on original reporting by Entrackr. Read the original report.