NPCI issued a circular on May 21 asking all banks and payment service providers (PSPs) to take necessary steps to ensure compliance with the new guidelines. NPCI has directed that by July 31, all banks and PSPs should restrict the 10 most commonly used application programming interfaces (APIs) running on the UPI network, such as checking balance, initiating autopayments, and checking transaction status. If these rules are not followed, action will be taken against the banks and service providers concerned.
If you often use balance check or autopayment through UPI, then this news is important for you. From August 1, 2025, you will neither be able to check your balance repeatedly from UPI apps nor will you be able to use the auto payment facility during peak hours. The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has taken this step to save the network from load and provide better service to all users. There may be some difficulty in the beginning, but in the long run this change will prove to be beneficial for the users.
NPCI issued a circular on May 21 asking all banks and payment service providers (PSPs) to take necessary steps to ensure compliance with the new guidelines. NPCI has directed that by July 31, all banks and PSPs should restrict the 10 most commonly used application programming interfaces (APIs) running on the UPI network, such as checking balance, initiating autopayments, and checking transaction status. If these rules are not followed, action will be taken against the banks and service providers concerned.
After the implementation of the new rule, a customer will be able to check the balance only 50 times a day through the UPI app. To avoid repeated balance inquiries, NPCI has directed banks to send account balance information with every successful transaction. Experts say that this may cause some inconvenience to the business community, as they have to check the transaction status or balance repeatedly. But this change is a step towards making the UPI system more stable and accessible.
API transactions will be limited.
NPCI has clarified that during peak hours – 10 am to 1 pm and 5 pm to 9:30 pm – no API transactions will be allowed without the user’s permission. In addition, all PSPs will have to give a written assurance to NPCI by August 31 that they will queue API requests generated from the system and reduce their processing speed.
Autopayments will also be limited.
From now on, UPI autopayments (like for SIP, Netflix etc.) will be processed only during non-peak hours. A maximum of 1 attempt and 3 retries will be allowed for each autopayment, and that too only during non-peak hours. You can set up autopayments during peak hours, but it will be processed only during non-peak hours.
