In a move aimed at improving the efficiency of digital payments, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has mandated a significant reduction in response times for Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions. As per a circular issued on April 26, these changes will take effect from June 16, targeting faster processing and better reliability across all UPI operations.
According to the circular, the response window for key transaction types—such as Request Pay and Response Pay—will be reduced from 30 seconds to just 15 seconds. Similarly, if a user needs to verify the status of a transaction or trigger a reversal, the maximum allowable response time has been cut down to 10 seconds from the previous 30. Address validation responses must now be delivered within 10 seconds instead of the earlier 15.
Here’s a snapshot of the updated response limits:
- Request/Response Pay (debit/credit): 30 sec → 15 sec
- Check Transaction Status: 30 sec → 10 sec
- Transaction Reversal (debit/credit): 30 sec → 10 sec
- Validate Address: 15 sec → 10 sec
NPCI has instructed banks and payment service providers (PSPs) to upgrade their systems accordingly, ensuring timely responses that comply with the new timeline. The agency also emphasized that these performance enhancements must not negatively impact the acceptable technical decline rates already in place.
The new guidelines come just weeks after UPI faced a widespread outage in early April. On April 12, NPCI acknowledged intermittent technical failures leading to partial transaction declines across the UPI ecosystem. During that period, nearly 76% of users reported issues with completing digital payments, and 23% experienced failed fund transfers.
This was the second disruption in less than 10 days, sparking concerns about the reliability of India’s most widely used real-time payments system. The April incidents highlighted the urgent need for infrastructure upgrades, which the new response time policy is partly addressing.
Overall, the revised timeline aims to deliver faster, more dependable payment experiences for millions of users and reduce the frequency of failed or delayed transactions—ensuring that digital transactions remain seamless in India’s fast-growing fintech landscape.
