Apple Pay India Launch Planned by October Without UPI

Apple is a company that makes iPhones and other devices.

It also makes a digital wallet called Apple Pay that lets people pay with their phones instead of a plastic card.

Apple wants to bring Apple Pay to India, a huge country with lots of phone users.

The service may start around late September or early October 2026.

At first, it will only work with Visa and Mastercard credit cards, not with UPI, a very popular payment system in India.

To add UPI later, Apple needs permission from a group called the NPCI and help from a bank.

Apple and NPCI are also arguing about how to check that a payment is really yours — Apple wants to use Face ID or Touch ID, while NPCI wants a different system tied to India's identity database.

Apple wants banks to pay a small fee for each payment, but banks think the fee is too high.

The fee will not be paid by customers or shops.

This gives Indian iPhone users a new, secure way to pay with credit cards using just their phone.