Apple is set to introduce Apple Pay to India by late September or early October, initially supporting Visa and Mastercard credit cards only, marking a strategic move in one of the world’s fastest-growing digital markets amid ongoing negotiations over fee structures and future UPI inclusion.
Apple is preparing to bring Apple Pay to India by late September or early October, but the service is expected to arrive with an important limitation: no support for UPI at launch. Instead, the payment platform is likely to begin with Visa and Mastercard credit cards, allowing Indian users to add eligible cards to Apple Wallet and pay by tapping an iPhone, much as they already can in other markets. The move would give Apple users another way to make card payments without carrying a physical wallet, while also extending Apple’s contactless payment footprint in one of the world’s fastest-growing digital payments markets.
That would mark a notable shift from earlier reports. In February, MacRumors said Apple had been discussing an India rollout with major banks and payment networks and suggested that UPI support could be included. The latest reporting indicates that Apple is now focusing first on card-based payments, which would require approval from the National Payments Corporation of India and a sponsor bank if UPI were ever added later.
Commercial terms still appear to be under negotiation. According to the Business Today report, Apple is seeking 15 to 20 basis points per transaction from banks, while Indian lenders are pushing for a lower fee of about 10 basis points. That charge would not be passed directly to consumers or merchants, but drawn from interchange revenue earned on card transactions.
If the launch goes ahead in this form, the immediate winners would be Apple customers and merchants already equipped for contactless card payments. Apple’s own online store in India already accepts credit and debit cards, UPI and other payment methods, and the company recently restored card payments for Apple Account purchases in India after a four-year pause, according to TechCrunch. For now, though, the broader UPI ecosystem would be largely untouched, with Apple Pay confined to NFC point-of-sale terminals and card-based online checkouts.
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