UPI Transaction Charges - Per Day Limits, Rules, Key Details, & Guidelines

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is responsible for setting UPI transaction charges and daily limits to regulate digital payments. Most personal payments made via UPI remain free; however, the UPI transaction limit is generally Rs 1 Lakh per day for both NRIs and Indian residents. Yet, some selected categories have higher per-day transaction limits. 

In this blog, we will explore the per-day UPI transaction limit in 2026, the per-week limit, UPI charges, surcharge/ interchange fees, and related aspects of this concept. 

UPI Transaction Limit Per Day In 2026

Regarding the guidelines set by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) for both NRIs and Indian residents, the general UPI transaction limit per month in 2026 is Rs 1 lakh.

Recently, the NPCI has issued a circular to increase UPI transaction limits for specific categories, effective from September 15, 2026. NPCI allows higher limits (up to ₹5 lakh or ₹10 lakh) only for specific merchant categories, not general users.

General UPI limit remains:

• ₹1 lakh per transaction (standard category)
• ₹2 lakh for IPO/Capital Markets
• ₹5 lakh for certain high-value use cases

But ₹10 lakh is NOT a universal UPI limit.

Let us take a look at a detailed overview of the UPI transaction limits per day. 

Further to this, the daily UPI transaction limit can be set individually by each bank within the UPI network, and this varies from bank to bank. 

The following are the UPI transaction limits per day for different banks for both Indian residents and NRIs.

UPI Transaction Limit Per Week

The weekly UPI transaction limit is set individually by banks within the UPI network; therefore, it varies from one bank to another. 

UPI Transaction Limit Per Month

The UPI transaction limit per month concept has been introduced by only a few public-sector or private banks and varies by bank. 

UPI Transaction Charges

For payments made via UPI, no extra UPI transaction charges are imposed. Henceforth, the UPI payments made by individuals for personal transactions are free. However, any digital wallet transaction above Rs 2,000 will incur a fee. Users are not required to pay these charges; merchants are responsible for them, with an interchange fee of 0.5%- 1.1%. 

Surcharge/Interchange Fee On UPI Payments Through PPI

When any UPI transaction is made via PPIA, such as wallets, the transaction will be subject to interchange fees. The fee is charged for card payments and covers the costs of processing, accepting, and authorising the transaction. Interchange fees are similar to the merchant discount rate applied to credit cards. 

For UPI transactions, interchange fees are the transaction fees, and the merchant must pay them when a customer processes a transaction. Therefore, whenever a customer makes a payment through UPI using a PhonePe QR code at a store, the merchant must pay the interchange fee to PhonePe, the payment service provider. 

The fee rate ranges from 0.5% to 1.1%, depending on the service. 

Who Will Pay The Interchange Fees?

The merchant's bank or wallet provider is responsible for paying the interchange fee to the payer's bank to process the payment. 

• Small shopkeepers are usually unaffected by the fees, since they apply only to larger merchants' wallets for transactions above 2,000. 
• Medium and large merchants must either absorb the cost or pass it to customers indirectly through pricing. 
• The NPCI requires wallet issuers, such as PhonePe and Paytm, to pay a 0.15% service charge to banks when the wallet is loaded with more than Rs 2,000.

Will Customers Have To Pay An Interchange Fee For UPI Payments Made Via The Wallet?

As a customer, you are not required to pay the interchange fees for the UPI payments you have made through PPIs for Peer to Peer (P2P) and Peer to Merchant (P2M) transactions 

One bank charges the applicable interchange fees to another bank for processing the transactions. In a UPI transaction, the merchant bank (the person or business receiving the payment) must pay the interchange fee to the payer bank (the person making the payment). 

P2P transactions involve transferring money between two individuals or between an individual's account and another individual's account via UPI. P2P is a payment method where users pay merchants via UPI for purchases. 

What Is A Prepaid Payment Instrument (PPI) In UPI?

A Prepaid Payment Instrument (PPI) in UPI is a digital wallet that lets a person store money and make real-time online payments. Wallets, preloaded gift cards, smart cards, vouchers, and magnetized chips also fall under the PPIs. 

Payments and PPI are made when a transaction is completed via a wallet, such as a PhonePe wallet, by scanning the UPI QR code. Some other examples of digital wallets include SODEXO vouchers, Amazon Pay, Freecharge wallet, and Paytm wallet. 

New UPI Rules From 3 November 2026

The NPCI has announced that it will separate the UPI settlement cycles for authorised and disputed transactions from November 2026. 

The UPI processes 10 settlement cycles per day via RTGS, each cycle including both authorised and disputed settlements. Under a revised settlement cycle, disputes and authorised settlements will be segregated to ensure the timely completion of the daily settlement process.

The following table shows the revised settlement cycle. 

The regulatory framework for the received settlement process is as follows. 

Settlement cycles between one and ten will be compromised only by the authorised, and no dispute or interruption will be processed in these cycles (as mentioned in the table above). 

Furthermore, there are no changes to the existing cut-over timing or RTGS posting timing. 

All disputes related to settlements will be processed twice daily in settlement cycles 11 and 12 (as mentioned in the table above). The NTSL file includes the identifiers DCI and DC2; here, DC stands for dispute cycle. 

Rest, every settlement stays unchanged, including the reconciliation reports, GST reports, and the settlement timings. 

UPI Operational Guidelines

The NPCI has rolled out the updated UPI rules effective from August 1, 2026, across all UPI-enabled apps, including PhonePe, Google Pay, and BHIM. Such updates and changes aim to improve the system's efficiency and payment security. 

The Balance Check Limit: You are permitted to check your balance for up to 50 times per day on your UPI App. Exceeding this limit will block your balance check for at least 24 hours on the application. 

Auto Balance Displays: Once your UPI transaction is successful, your account balance will be shown automatically. 

Auto Linking Limit: You are permitted to link up to 25 bank accounts per day per UPI app, depending on your mobile number and account fetching. 

Transaction Status Checks: Users can now check the status of pending transactions up to three times per transaction, with a mandatory 90-second gap between attempts. 

Auto Debit Processing Time: Any auto-debit mandate or transaction, e.g., for EMIs, SIPs, or subscriptions, will be processed during non-peak hours, that is, before 10:00 am and after 9:30 pm. 

Payee Name Display: Before completing a transfer, the UPI application displays the payee's registered bank name. This aims to enhance security by reducing fraud. 

The Bottom Line

For most of the banks, the UPI transaction limit remains Rs 1 Lakh per day for both NRIs and Indian residents. However, for special categories, the UPI transaction limit is increased to up to Rs 10 lakh. Some banks do not impose a daily UPI transaction limit to regulate high-value transfers. 

Personal UPI payments are generally free, whereas UPI transaction charges are applicable on wallet-based merchants' payments above Rs 2000 and are payable by the merchants, not the customers.