- Apple Pay in India is incoming after years of waiting.
- Set to arrive sometime in October, the contactless payments app will arrive in the country with debit/credit card support; UPI will follow soon.
- This comes after almost a decade of waiting and support to over 90 countries before Apple India could roll out the payments app in India.
Apple Pay India launch could happen sooner than expected in India. This comes from a reputed Apple analyst, Mark Gurman, on the Power On newsletter. According to the newsletter, Apple may finally launch the Apple Pay payment service in India, a home to more than 22 million iPhone users.
Apple Pay India launch reportedly set for October 2026
Gurman pointed out how the service could arrive as early as the end of October 2026. This also corroborates previous reports of its launch sometime in September or October this year. Once launched, the Cupertino-based giant will have to rival both Google Pay and Samsung Pay, the leading payment apps out there.
It seems Axis Bank will be the first banking partner in the country. It will be joined by ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank, as well as Mastercard and Visa, to facilitate the payments, although the discussions are ongoing. Apple will be charging 15-20 basis points on transactions (where one basis point is equal to 0.01%). These charges will be imposed on banks’ interchange earnings and not the end users.
The move comes right in the middle of the NPCI and the Government of India charging 0.04% MDR on UPI payments above INR 2,000/-. Here, payments of smaller denominations and person-to-person payments are exempted.
The catch is, Apple will not have UPI initially. That means anyone who uses a credit or debit card will be able to use contactless payments after adding their cards. This is a bold move given both Samsung Pay and Google Pay are full-blown payment apps with UPI and card payments. Apparently, Apple is waiting for approvals from NPCI to facilitate UPI payments in the country.
India is one of the leading smartphone markets, and with Apple occupying a top-ranking position in the premium segment, this could be great for Apple Pay India to bank on. There has been discussion of rolling out Apple Pay in India since 2017; however, it was denied key regulatory approvals back then. However, it seems everything is in line, and we could see Apple Pay compete against Samsung and Google in a couple of weeks.
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