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India's Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is still the major player in the country's digital payments system, as it has been for a while now. UPI has seen a growth in daily transactions by 35 per cent as per the Worldline's India Digital Payments Report (1H 2025) and has hit the figure of 106.36 billion in the first half of 2025.

The total value of UPI transactions has increased Rs 143.34 lakh crore, which is an indication of how digital payments have become a necessity and hence, are being used for every transaction throughout the day from roadside chai stalls to big e-commerce websites, IANS reported.

The report has pointed out that the average UPI transaction size has come down from Rs 1,478 in the first half of 2024 to Rs 1,348 in the same period this year. This decrease signals the increasing adoption of digital payments for smaller, daily purchases as consumers from all income brackets move on to digital payments.

Person-to-merchant (P2M) transactions --covering the payments made to shops and service providers --which have seen a growth of 37 per cent and reached 67.01 billion. The Worldline report has suggested that the rapid approval of small and micro businesses to use digital payments is the main reason behind the huge rise in P2M transactions, and they call this phenomenon the "Kirana Effect."

Also Read: Cash no longer king? 1 in every 5 UPI transactions made on this service amid falling ATM withdrawals—Key takeaways from RBI H1 report

India’s QR-based payment network witnessed an explosive 111 per cent rise, more than doubling to 678 million by June 2025. Similarly, the number of Point-of-Sale (PoS) terminals grew 29 per cent to 11.2 million, while Bharat QR installations reached 6.72 million.

With these additions, India now boasts the world’s largest merchant acceptance network, driven by MSME participation and government-led digital inclusion initiatives.

Also Read: UPI transactions hit Rs 94,000 crore daily in October; festive spending, GST cuts drive record surge

The study declared that credit cards are being transformed into main purchasing methods which are more luxurious, with the number of active cards going up by 23 per cent between the periods of January 2024 and June 2025. The total amount spent on credit cards in a month hit Rs 2.2 trillion, though the average ticket size went down by 6 per cent, indicating that the use of credit cards has already gotten wider for daily purchases.

On the other hand, the usage of debit cards at PoS terminals decreased by almost 8 per cent as consumers preferred UPI for making smaller transactions.

Mobile payments kept on their triumphant way, achieving 30 per cent year-on-year growth and gaining 98.9 billion transactions with a total value of Rs 209.7 trillion. This point out strongly the mobile-first character of the Indian digital economy where ease, accessibility and instant settlements are the factors that are driving the next stage of fintech-led financial inclusion.