UPI Down: Paytm, Google Pay, PhonePe Hit by Widespread Outage Across India

Unified Payments Interface (UPI), India’s most widely used real-time digital payment system, experienced a widespread disruption on Monday, leaving users of popular apps like PhonePe, Google Pay, and Paytm unable to complete transactions.

The outage, which started in the late afternoon, quickly gained attention online as hundreds of users reported issues on Downdetector, a platform that tracks service disruptions. According to data from the site, over 850 users flagged problems, with approximately 62% citing trouble with fund transfers, 21% experiencing app-related glitches, and 17% reporting issues specifically with payments.

This marks the first major UPI outage in May, although similar disruptions were reported multiple times last month. During those instances, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), which oversees UPI operations, attributed the failures to a surge in “transaction status checks” from one of the banks—overloading the system. As of now, NPCI has not issued a statement on today’s outage.

Adding to concerns, the outage comes amid ongoing tensions between India and Pakistan. The Ministry of Finance recently urged financial institutions, including NPCI, to bolster their cybersecurity measures in response to increased cyberattack attempts from Pakistani hacker groups. However, there is no official confirmation linking the current disruption to any security breach.

Frustrated users took to social media platform X (formerly Twitter) to voice their concerns, share experiences, and post humorous takes on the situation using the trending hashtag #UPIdown. Memes and videos poking fun at the failed transactions and glitchy apps flooded timelines, with many users calling out Paytm, PhonePe, and Google Pay in jest.

While services appear to be gradually resuming for some users, many are still facing intermittent issues. Affected users can continue reporting problems via Downdetector or through their respective apps’ support systems.

Stay tuned for updates as more information becomes available.