NPCI set to make UPI AutoPay mandates portable across apps: Report

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The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is preparing to make UPI AutoPay mandates portable across apps, a move that could reduce user lock-in and intensify competition among UPI platforms, according to a Mint report.
Under the planned interoperability framework, users will be able to move eligible UPI AutoPay mandates from one UPI app to another without cancelling and recreating them. This could cover recurring payments such as OTT subscriptions, insurance premiums, SIPs, EMIs and utility bills.
For instance, a user with an existing AutoPay mandate on PhonePe could move it to Google Pay or another UPI app, subject to the mandate being eligible. The transfer will be initiated by the user and require authentication through the UPI PIN.
The move could remove one of the lesser-known sources of stickiness for leading UPI apps such as Paytm, PhonePe and Google Pay. Users with multiple recurring payments linked to an app may be less willing to switch if doing so means setting up every mandate again.
With portability, that friction could come down. Smaller UPI apps could potentially attract users from larger platforms without requiring them to rebuild their recurring payment setup.
The development is based on NPCI’s AutoPay enhancement framework issued in 2025, which provided for interoperability of mandates across UPI apps. The feature is now being prepared for implementation and is expected to be highlighted at the upcoming Global Fintech Fest, according to Mint.
The timing is also significant as UPI AutoPay usage has grown sharply. As per the report, the top 10 banks processed nearly 1.8 billion UPI e-mandate transactions in July 2026, more than three times the 585 million transactions recorded in July 2025.
NPCI is also extending portability to the merchant side, allowing businesses to move existing AutoPay mandates between payment service providers.
While the move is unlikely to immediately alter the market shares of leading UPI apps, it removes one layer of user lock-in. In a market dominated by a few large players such as PhonePe and Google Pay, that could give smaller apps more room to compete for users.

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