Why UPI Down? Third Outage In A Month Leaves Users In A Bind

India’s widely used Unified Payments Interface (UPI) faced another crippling disruption on Saturday morning, marking the third time in just 20 days that the digital payment system has faltered.

Millions of users—from street vendors to businesses—were left stranded as transactions failed repeatedly, sparking frustration and chaos during peak weekend hours.

By afternoon, over 1,168 complaints flooded Downdetector, with Google Pay users reporting 96 issues and Paytm users logging 23 glitches. While the exact cause remains unclear, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), which oversees UPI, admitted to “intermittent technical issues” causing partial transaction declines. “We’re working to resolve this and will keep users updated,” the NPCI stated, apologizing for the inconvenience.

A Troubling Pattern of Breakdowns

This isn’t the first time UPI has stumbled recently. The system, which processes billions of transactions monthly, has become alarmingly unreliable:

• April 2nd: Over 500 complaints poured in as fund transfers stalled mid-transaction. The NPCI blamed “fluctuations” in bank success rates and network latency, scrambling with banks to stabilize services.
• March 26th: A major outage left users of Google Pay, Paytm, and others locked out for 2-3 hours. Downdetector recorded 3,000+ complaints, with many unable to pay for essentials like groceries or auto-rickshaw rides.