• Source:JND
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The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has made an announcement regarding the new changes in the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) effective from the 1st of August, 2025. These changes aim to enhance the efficiency of API calls made by banks and payment applications during peak traffic orchestration to streamline payment processes and minimise UPI service interruptions.

Most of the routine UPI transactions, such as payments to merchants, will continue to function as before. However, new policies will be instituted regarding balance checks, transaction status inquiries, and recurring autopay transactions.

Key Changes in UPI Guidelines from August 1

1. Daily Cap on Balance Inquiries

  • UPI users will now be able to check their balance up to 50 times per day on each UPI app.
  • This should reduce the number of unnecessary API calls that slow down UPI servers.

2. Limit on Linked Bank Account Information

  • You will be able to access information about the linked bank accounts only 25 times per day.
  • This serves to maintain quality server response during busy times.

3. Fixed Time Windows for Auto-Debits

  • Auto-Debits for OTT subscriptions and mutual fund SIPs will now only be processed during low-traffic periods.
    • Before 10 AM
    • Between 1 PM and 5 PM
    • After 9:30 PM

4. Payment Status Refresh Restrictions

  • For pending transactions, you may check the status only three times with a mandatory 90-second wait between each check.
  • This is to prevent UPI servers from being overloaded with status refresh requests.

Why NPCI Introduced These UPI Reforms

Currently, more than 16 billion UPI transactions are processed every month, and the system has recently been under a lot of stress due to heavy traffic and slow services.

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Excessive balance checking and status refresh requests were identified as the foremost culprits for server strain. In April and May 2025, several outages disrupted users nationwide.

These changes are introduced to balance server strain, increase system uptime, and improve the overall user experience.

Final Thoughts

With the Bhim UPI and NPCI UPI August 2025 updates, we foresee a strong attempt to improve the reliability of India's most adopted digital payment system. While most transactions and interactions will not change, users will be required to observe the new restrictions on balance inquiries and AutoPay schedules.

NPCI’s efforts enhance UPI’s performance, stabilising the system while anticipating future technological advancements, as digital payments evolve at unprecedented rates.