The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has lifted the user limit for WhatsApp Pay, effective immediately. With this change, WhatsApp Pay can now offer UPI services to its entire user base in India, according to an NPCI statement.Previously, NPCI had allowed WhatsApp Pay to expand its UPI user base in phases, with a cap of 100 million users. This restriction has now been removed, enabling WhatsApp Pay to grow its services without any limits. Currently, only 51.1 million users are operating with WhatsApp pay, which is 10% of the entire userbase.
Despite this expansion, WhatsApp Pay will continue to follow all existing UPI guidelines and regulations for Third-Party Application Providers (TPAPs), as outlined by NPCI.In 2020, NPCI imposed a user cap of one million on WhatsApp Pay, gradually increasing it to 100 million by 2022. This cap has now been fully lifted. The initial limitations were put in place to ensure a smooth rollout and prevent overloading the banking infrastructure. With the UPI ecosystem now more stable, NPCI has given WhatsApp Pay the green light to expand its user base.

How to Set-up

To set up WhatsApp UPI, you can do the following:

• Open WhatsApp and go to Settings
• Select Payments
• Select Add new payment method
• Choose your bank from the list
• Verify your phone number
• Set up your UPI PIN
• Tap Done to finish the setup process
• To send money using WhatsApp Pay, you can:
• Open a WhatsApp chat with the recipient
• Select the Rs icon in the bottom right corner
• Enter the amount
• Verify the payment by entering your UPI PIN

Other Alternatives

Currently, PhonePe and Google Pay dominate India’s UPI space. As of November 2024, PhonePe held 47.8% of the market, while Google Pay had 37%. Together, they processed 13.1 billion UPI transactions in the same month, according to regulatory data. Other competitors in the market include fintech platforms such as Paytm, Navi, Cred, and Amazon Pay.