Analysis · Financial Services

PhonePe and Google Pay lose UPI share again

By Startup Enthusiast · 20 January 2026

What they do

PhonePe offers UPI payments, investments, insurance, lending, and travel booking

PhonePe's UPI market share fell to 45.3% in December 2025 from 46.15% in November

Overall UPI transactions hit an all-time high of 21.63 billion in December 2025

PhonePe and Google Pay lost UPI market share for the seventh consecutive month in December 2025.
PhonePe processed 980.1 crore transactions worth ₹13.61 lakh crore in December 2025.
PhonePe's market share by volume dropped to 45.30% from 46.15% in November 2025.
Google Pay processed 749.7 crore transactions worth ₹9.58 lakh crore in December 2025.
Google Pay's market share by volume fell to 34.6% from 34.8% in November 2025.
Paytm processed 165.4 crore transactions worth ₹1.76 lakh crore, its share falling to 7.6%.
Navi's market share rose to 3.1% from 3% in November 2025.
Overall UPI transactions hit an all-time high of 21.63 billion in December 2025.

December 2025 UPI growth was driven by year-end spending, festive demand, and increased small offline payments in tier II/III cities.
Top three UPI players retained leadership despite ecosystem expansion, showing consolidation.
UPI ecosystem experimented with global rollouts, AI-driven customer support, and pilots like UPI Reserve in 2025.
NPCI is in discussions to enable small-ticket loans up to ₹5,000 on UPI with interest-free periods.
EPFO is expected to allow PF withdrawal via UPI on the BHIM app with a per-transaction cap of ₹25,000.

PhonePe offers UPI payments, investments, insurance, lending, recharges, bill payments, and travel booking.
It provides offline merchant solutions, online payment gateway, payment aggregator, merchant lending, and PhonePe Ads.
Consumer offerings include NRI payments, co-branded credit cards (SBI Card, HDFC Bank), Wish Credit Card, mutual funds, gold, silver, insurance, and travel/commute.
Features include UPI Lite, Credit Line on UPI, RuPay CC on UPI, Split Expenses, Gift Card, UPI Circle, and PhonePe International (payments in Singapore, UAE, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Mauritius).
PhonePe allows gold purchase from ₹5, monthly gold SIP from ₹100, recurring deposits, and NPS contributions.
PhonePe claims one in three Indians uses the app.