The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has lifted the user onboarding limit for WhatsApp Pay, allowing the platform to extend UPI services to its entire user base across the country.
NPCI had previously increased the limit to 100 million users for WhatsApp Pay in November 2022. With the removal of these restrictions, WhatsApp Pay now has the green light to offer UPI services to millions of users in India, which is expected to exceed 500 million.
WhatsApp Pay will continue to operate in line with all existing UPI guidelines and regulations applicable to Third Party App Providers (TPAPs). As of November, WhatsApp ranked 11th among UPI apps in terms of the number of transactions. The Meta-owned company recorded 51.76 million transactions worth Rs 3,890.10 crore last month.
Meanwhile, NPCI has also announced an extension of the compliance timeline for TPAPs exceeding the volume cap in UPI. The deadline has been extended by two years, until December 31, 2026.
This extension considers various operational factors affecting existing TPAPs that surpass the stipulated limit. The decision provides additional time for TPAPs to align with the regulatory framework without disrupting services for users.
Currently, PhonePe is the top UPI application with nearly 48% market share by volume, followed by Google Pay and Paytm, with 37% and 7% market share, respectively.
This is the third important decision for UPI in the past week. On December 27, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) allowed holders of full-KYC Prepaid Payment Instruments (PPIs) to conduct UPI transactions via third-party applications.