India's indigenous payment network, RuPay, has reshaped the credit card landscape, capturing 38% of all credit card transactions by volume as of October 2025. This explosive growth, a massive jump from just 10% in the previous fiscal year, is being almost entirely attributed to its game-changing and exclusive integration with the Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
A recent Bernstein report estimated RuPay’s issuance share at 40%, and the network’s share of transaction volumes is now nearing 25%, as cited on Money Control reports. The RuPay card network is run by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).
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The UPI game-changer
The turning point was the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) 2022 decision to allow RuPay credit cards to be linked directly to UPI applications. This move unlocked a vast, untapped acceptance network for credit.
Previously, credit card usage was limited to merchants with Point-of-Sale (POS) terminals, which numbered around 10 million in India. In contrast, RuPay credit card users can now scan and pay at over 50 million UPI QR codes across the country, from local tea stalls to large retail chains. This five-fold increase in acceptance points has made using a credit card as seamless as a standard UPI bank transfer.
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A surge in volume and value
Transaction volume: RuPay’s share of all credit card transactions by volume (the total number of transactions) has soared to 38%.
Transaction value: The network’s share of the total value (the total amount spent) has increased fourfold, rising from approximately 2% in FY24 to 8% today.
Market share: In terms of the total number of credit cards issued, RuPay's market share stands at nearly 16% which is a significant climb from just 3% reported two years ago. This growth comes as India’s total number of active credit cards has crossed 113 million.
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Shift in market dynamics
This growth poses the first significant domestic challenge to the international giants Visa and Mastercard, which still cannot link their credit cards to UPI.
The adoption has also been motivated by a favourable Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) structure. For small merchants, UPI-based RuPay credit transactions below ₹2,000 are free, encouraging them to accept credit payments without fear of high fees.
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