UPI down again: Google Pay, Paytm, PhonePe hit amid widespread disruption

India’s most widely used digital payments platform, the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), suffered yet another major outage on Saturday, second this month, disrupting transactions for thousands of users across the country.

 

Popular third-party platforms like Google Pay, Paytm and PhonePe were also impacted, triggering a wave of complaints on social media and outage monitoring platforms.

 

According to Downdetector, which tracks real-time service disruptions based on user reports, the issue began around 11:26 am and peaked at 11:41 am, with more than 222 reports flooding in. Users reported failed payments and problems with fund transfers as the most common issues.

 

"UPI is down again today, all payments are getting failed. At least there should be prior intimation sent in case of planned outage," one user wrote on social media platform X.

 

Addressing the latest disruption, NPCI wrote on X: “NPCI is currently facing intermittent technical issues, leading to partial UPI transaction declines. We are working to resolve the issue and will keep you updated. We regret the inconvenience caused.” 

  This marks the sixth major outage UPI has faced in the past year and comes just days after two back-to-back disruptions in late March and early April. 

 

On March 26, users across India struggled to make payments due to what the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) described as an "intermittent technical issue." NPCI, which operates the UPI network, later confirmed the system had been restored. But less than a week later, on April 2, Downdetector reported hundreds of complaints once again—44 per cent related to failed payments and nearly half to issues with fund transfers.