- By Alex David
- Wed, 16 Apr 2025 12:25 AM (IST)
- Source:JND
PhonePe, one of India’s leading digital payment platforms, has officially launched its new UPI Circle feature, aiming to make money transfers more secure, organised, and user-friendly. The UPI Circle allows users to create personalised groups for specific contacts—like family, friends, or colleagues, making it easier to track transactions and manage payments within each circle. This feature is handy for group expenses, shared bills, or recurring payments, offering better transparency and control. With UPI being the backbone of digital payments in India, PhonePe’s latest addition is expected to enhance user experience and simplify daily money transfers. The rollout has begun across India, and users can start exploring the feature through the latest version of the PhonePe app.
UPI Circle by PhonePe was introduced in India on Tuesday as a functionality that enables a master user to empower subordinate users to make payments without needing a bank account of their own. NPCI developed the UPI Circle with the intention of marketing UPI’s acceptance and utilisation along with controlled spending. Rivalling PhonePe, Google Pay publicly supported UPI Circle back in August 2024 but has still not made the feature available to users nationwide.
PhonePe UPI Circle Features, Benefits
As stated by the payment platform under Walmart’s ownership, the UPI Circle feature is being made accessible to PhonePe users within the country. PhonePe clients will be able to devise a circle and create UPI IDs for family and friends who are willing to be bank account holders, even if they do not possess a bank account.
After creating a UPI Circle, a primary PhonePe user can add secondary users who need to be added to their circle. These users can hold their own UPI IDs through which they can transact online or settle bills postpaid, with all the transactions happening through the primary user's bank account.
The primary user has two options to manage the UPI Circle feature on PhonePe. In Partial Delegation mode, the primary user needs to approve every single transaction that a secondary user initiates.
In contrast, Full Delegation allows primary users to automate the approval process by setting a cap on the monthly spending limit assigned to secondary users. The set limit can range up to Rs. 15,000, with Rs. 5,000 set as the maximum per transaction limit during Full Delegation.
Access can be revoked at any time, but primary users are able to surveil all the transactions conducted by secondary users. Alongside this, every secondary user can individually have different monthly spending limits.
A secondary user can only link with one primary user at a time, but a primary user can assign up to five secondary users, which UPI Circle will allow them to link. Notification of each transaction will be sent to the primary user upon completion, regardless of whether Full Delegation is enabled for secondary users.
In late August of 2024, Google Pay reported adding support for UPI Circle, although the feature is still not available to all users across the nation. The UPI Circle feature can also be accessed through the Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM) app, which offers users the same capabilities.
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