If you are among the 400 million Indians who rely on UPI apps like Google Pay, PhonePe, or Paytm for daily transactions, prepare for significant changes coming soon. Starting August 1, 2025, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is implementing new rules that will fundamentally change how you interact with your favorite payment apps.
These aren’t minor tweaks; they are substantial changes that will limit how often you check your balance, your linked accounts, and even affect when your payment gets processed automatically. Let’s check out what the upcoming changes are on these apps.
The Staggering Numbers Behind UPI Usage
The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has become the backbone of India’s digital payment ecosystem. Every month, approximately 16 million transactions flow through the UPI network. To put this in perspective, that’s roughly 7,000 transactions being processed every single second.
With over 40 crore people actively using UPI services, the system has grown far beyond what was initially anticipated. This massive success, however, has created its own set of challenges.
Recent System Failures That Sparked Change
The breaking point came earlier this year when UPI users experienced multiple service disruptions. The most significant outage occurred on April 12, when UPI services remained down for a whopping 5 hours, marking the longest service interruption in 3 years.
During that single incident, millions of users found themselves stranded without their primary payment method. Since many people have completely stopped carrying physical wallets, relying on UPI transactions, even brief outages cause widespread inconvenience.
The Technical Challenges: Why Is UPI The Culprit?
According to the recent investigation, the primary reason behind the UPI system failure is not the actual payment transaction; it’s the constant background requests that apps make to check various information. These application programming interface requests include:
- Balance enquiry requests
- Account verification calls
- Transaction status checks
- Linked account information requests
The problem became particularly acute in March and April 2025, when an unusually high number of check transaction API requests overwhelmed the system, leading to a widespread service disruption.
The Ripple Effect Of System Overload
When you consider that even a one-minute UPI outage affects approximately four lakh users, the scale of the problem becomes clearer. Banks and payment service providers have been making repeated API calls, often unnecessarily, creating a cascading effect that brings down the entire network.
The New Rules: What’s Changing From August 1
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Balance Check Limitations
Current situation: Unlimited balance checks
New rule: Maximum 50 checks per day per user
This means if you are someone who frequently opens your app to check your account balance, you will need to be more mindful of this activity. The 50-check limit should be sufficient for most users, but heavy users might need to adjust their habits.
-
Account Information Restrictions
Current situation: Unlimited account inquiries
New rule: Maximum 25 account-related queries per day
This affects your ability to check how many bank accounts are linked to your mobile number. Twenty-five times should cover most legitimate needs; frequent checkers will need to be more strategic about when they access this information.
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Auto Payment Timing Changes
Current situation: Auto payments are processed anytime
New rule: Auto payments restricted to non-peak hours only
Your automatic payments for services like SIP, streaming subscription services, Utility bill payments, and Insurance premiums will now be processed only during these slots.
- Before 10:00 AM
- Between 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM
- After 9:30 PM
Which Apps Are Affected?
The NPCI has mandated that all banks and payment service providers must implement these controls by July 31, 2025:
- Google Pay
- PhonePe
- Paytm
- Amazon Pay
- BHIM
- Bank-specific UPI apps
- All other UPI-enabled applications
No UPI app will be exempt from the new limitations.
Why Do These Changes Matter?
- System Stability Over Convenience
While these limitations might seem restrictive, they are designed to ensure that the UPI system remains stable and available when you need to make payments. The NPCI is prioritizing system reliability over unlimited convenience features.
- Preparing for Future Growth
With UPI transaction volume continuing to grow exponentially, these measures are also about preparing the infrastructure for future expansion. By reducing unnecessary API calls now, the system can handle the increasing load of actual payment transactions.
How To Adapt To These New UPI Rules?
Smart Balance Checking
Instead of checking your balance multiple times throughout the day, consider:
- Checking once in the morning and once in the evening
- Using SMS banking for a quick balance update
- Enabling account notifications for transaction alerts
Planning Auto Payments
For your auto payments:
- Review your current auto payment schedule
- Ensure critical payments are set up correctly
- Consider manual payments for time-sensitive actions
While these new UPI rules might require some adjustments in daily digital payment habits, they represent a necessary step towards ensuring the long-term stability and reliability of India’s digital payment infrastructure.
The change is coming on August 1, 2025, and is designed to prevent the kind of widespread outages that left millions of users stranded earlier this year. By accepting these reasonable limitations on background activities, we can ensure that UPI remains available when we need to make a payment.
As India continues its journey of becoming completely digital, these restrictive measures will help maintain the robust digital payment system that has become essential to our lives. The key is to adapt your usage pattern while appreciating that these changes are ultimately designed to serve us better.
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