An unprecedented UPI outage on 26 March 2025 has left users doubting complete reliance on digital banking methods. The downtime, which seems to have started at around 7:00 PM, was resolved after a couple of hours after users took to social media platforms to raise their concerns. Initially, the official account of Unified Payments Interface (UPI) on X asked users to check with the banks in question when they reached out to them to report the UPI outage.
“Hi, it looks like the bank servers are currently experiencing high traffic, which may be causing this issue. We request you to try again after sometime. We appreciate your patience. Thank you!,” said the official account of UPI on the outage. However, after a larger number of reports on social media and over 3000 reports on Down Detector, the National Payments Corporation of India issued a statement admitting the problem.
“NPCI had faced intermittent technical issues owing to which UPI had partial decline. The same has been addressed now and the system has stabilised. Regret the inconvenience,” said NPCI through its official account on X about the UPI outage.
UPI Outage Raises Doubts on Complete Digital Banking Reliance
UPI transactions are the preferred mode of payments for millions of consumers throughout the country. According to the Government of India, UPI processed Rs 23.49 Lakh Crores across 16.58 billion financial transactions in October 2024, marking a 45% year-on-year growth from 11.40 billion transactions in October 2023. In 2024, India’s UPI processed an average of over 500 million transactions daily, with the value of these transactions often exceeding Rs 30,000 crores daily. Furthermore, statistics also mention that UPI processes approximately 3729.1 transactions per second.
However, this UPI outage has led consumers to question how dependable the cashless mode of payments are. “UPI is down for the first time and it is already showing an impact. Most of us already stopped carrying liquid cash & this downtime has created a do or die situation. Elders were right about carrying cash,” said Yaswanth Sai Palaghat.
“Experienced UPI outage for the first time. Too dependent on it, I don’t even carry cash anymore,” added another user among similar lines. “I was at a hotel, ready to pay the bill, but I didn’t have any cash, and the UPI wasn’t working. The cashier kept staring at me, which made things even more awkward. I literally waited for more than 10 minutes trying to pay online, but none of the UPI options worked. Eventually, I had to call my friend to bring me some cash. Today, I learned an important lesson: we can’t rely solely on technology. What if we’re at an important place with no cash, and UPI doesn’t work? Always carry some cash with you!” Added a user sharing his experience on the UPI outage.
Anupam Mittal, Founder of Shaadi.com, claims that intermittent issues with UPI payments still exist. “Digital payments via UPI continue to face issues even after 24 hours, while media reports claim it was down for just an hour. Problem-solving is increasingly turning into problem-spinning . NPCI, please resolve this. It’s a matter of the nation’s GDP!” He said.
