RuPay On UPI Witnesses Revolutionary Growth Within The Indian Credit Market

The integration of RuPay credit cards with the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has triggered a significant shift in the credit consumption patterns of India. This movement has shifted credit usage from high-value, discretionary spending to high-frequency, small-ticket daily transactions. As of late 2025, RuPay emerged as a formidable challenger to global networks. It captured a 38 per cent share of all credit card transactions in India by volume.

Market Share and Transaction Trends

According to the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), the market share of RuPay within the credit space was up at 18 per cent, by value, as of now. This is a significant rise considering that it was only about 3 per cent two years ago. The surge is led by the scan-and-pay convenience, with credit usage moving to over 50 million merchant QR points, outpacing the around 12 million traditional PoS terminals in the country.

The number of credit transactions on RuPay using UPI has more than doubled between April and October 2024. In this period, the number of transactions is 750 million, with a total amount of Rs 63,826 crore, according to Parliament data presented by Minister of State for Finance, Pankaj Chaudhary. Although the average value of transactions made with normal credit cards is quite large at above Rs 4,000, in RuPay-UPI, the average is around Rs 1,125. This indicates that the network is being used for routine expenses such as groceries, fuel, and utilities rather than just luxury purchases.

The Credit Evolution

Akshay Aedula, Product & Growth, CRED, points out that this technology is disrupting and changing the paradigm. "RuPay credit cards are changing the shape of credit in India, at scale. Over the last year, RuPay’s market share has moved from around 3 per cent to 18 per cent, a shift that reflects something deeper than distribution. Issuers are backing a network that combines," says Aedula.

Aedula continues, "UPI has stripped away the friction from using credit, and consumers have realised they no longer need to trade convenience for reward.” This is also helping RuPay to compete in the higher market segments. Aedula states, "When meaningful incentives are layered onto a rail they already trust, adoption compounds. That dynamic is playing out clearly on RuPay."

Infrastructure and Regulatory Support

The regulatory support has played a major role in facilitating the adoption. The fact that the Merchant Discount Rates (MDR) are not being charged for transactions below Rs 2,000 has supported small merchants in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities. Tokenisation has also added to the expansion. Aedula said, "Tokenisation completes this loop. As more merchants adopt tokenised flows, RuPay cards see smoother checkouts and more repeat use, all of which are directly pushing spends higher."

Today, the number of active credit cards in the Indian market is estimated at 11.33 crores. One-third of the number of credit cards issued recently is from RuPay. "Put together, RuPay is reshaping how credit is issued and used by fitting naturally into the way India already pays," concluded Aedula. With the developments taking place in the ecosystem, the reward programs are also being rewritten, signalling the changes taking place in how consumers are accessing credit.