Apple Pay went live in India on September 30, 2026, through a single card issuer. Apple said holders of Axis Bank-issued Visa and Mastercard credit cards can add them to Apple Wallet and pay in stores, in apps, and on the web with an iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch. Its announcement does not mention UPI, RuPay, or debit cards.
Cards on RuPay, India’s domestic card network, are not eligible, Reuters reported. Axis Bank is the country’s fourth-largest credit card issuer, with 16.3 million cards outstanding in August out of 124 million nationwide, according to central bank data cited by the agency. The three larger issuers, HDFC Bank, SBI Card, and ICICI Bank, are not part of the launch, TechCrunch and Moneycontrol reported.
Apple names eight payment providers and 11 launch merchants
Apple said the service is accepted at launch by merchants including Apple Store locations, Blinkit, Chaayos, Comet, Croma, Interflora, Ixigo, Le15 Patisserie, Reliance brands, Tata 1mg, and Zomato. It said it worked with payment service providers “like BillDesk, Cashfree, Juspay, Mswipe, Paytm, PayU, Pine Labs, Razorpay, and more” to bring Apple Pay to their merchant networks. TechCrunch’s list also includes Worldline.
The release gives two measures of reach: “thousands of in-store and online merchants across India” in one paragraph, “millions of merchants across India” in another. In practice, acceptance is limited to merchants and payment terminals that have been enabled for the service, TechCrunch reported. A payment could go through on a terminal run by a provider that has enabled Apple Pay and fail on another whose acquiring bank has not, one of its sources said.
| Scope | Included | Not included |
|---|---|---|
| Issuers | Axis Bank | HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, SBI Card |
| Card networks | Visa, Mastercard | RuPay |
| Card types | Credit cards | No other type named by Apple |
| Account-to-account rail | None | UPI |
| Devices | iPhone XR or later, iPad, Apple Watch Series 6 or later | Mac (“coming soon”) |
Apple credits a central bank rule on biometrics
Apple Pay spares cardholders a PIN or one-time password, with payments confirmed by Face ID, Touch ID, or the device passcode. “A particularly important development was the RBI’s move to support biometric authentication for card payments, which enables customers to authenticate Apple Pay transactions using Face ID or Touch ID,” Jennifer Bailey, Apple’s vice president of Apple Pay and Apple Wallet, told Hindustan Times. The Reserve Bank of India’s authentication directions were announced in September 2025 and took full effect in April 2026, the newspaper reported.
Credit cards are a small slice of India’s digital payments
In August, India recorded 632.45 million credit card transactions worth ₹2.02 trillion, against 24.509 billion UPI transactions worth ₹29.82 trillion, according to RBI data compiled by Hindustan Times. UPI handled about 39 times as many transactions and about 15 times the value. The bank-to-bank instant payment system carries 84% of India’s digital payment volume, according to a 2025 IMF report cited by Reuters, and does not work with Apple Pay, MacRumors noted.
The average credit card transaction is larger, at about ₹3,200 against ₹1,217 on UPI, Hindustan Times found. Apple held 28% of India’s smartphone market by value in 2025, according to Counterpoint Research figures cited by TechCrunch.
Apple and the largest issuers are split over the fee
Apple is seeking about 20 basis points per transaction, out of roughly 40 to 50 basis points of margin in the payments layer, according to people cited by TechCrunch. HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, and SBI Card are not supporting Apple Pay at launch as negotiations over commercial terms continue, one of them said. On October 1, Moneycontrol reported that the large issuers were offering around 15 basis points and that Apple had cited technical readiness for the delay with other banks. Issuers receive around 80% of the merchant discount rate, which is lower on Indian credit cards than elsewhere, Moneycontrol added.
Earlier in September, Reuters reported that Apple was preparing an October launch, according to TechCrunch. The service arrived on September 30 instead. HDFC Bank’s contactless payment guidelines mention Apple Pay, Hindustan Times noted, but neither Apple nor the bank has confirmed a roadmap.
