New UPI guidelines to come in effect from August 1

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has announced that a new set of regulations on Unified Payment Interface (UPI) system will be in effect from August 1. The new API usage rules for all banks and payment apps, including changes to AutoPay, and checking account balance will begin from the next month. These new limits will be introduced to ease pressure on the system and reduce issues like payment delays and failed transactions.

NPCI also says the goal is to make UPI smoother, more reliable, and less prone to outages, especially during peak hours.

What will be the new changes?

From next month, UPI users will only be able to check their account balance 50 times per day. Similarly, the number of times a user can view the bank accounts linked to their phone number will be limited to 25 times a day. These new caps are being added to cut down on unnecessary traffic on the system, which NPCI claims contributes to slowdowns and outages during heavy usage.

NPCI is also introducing fixed time slots for UPI auto pay transactions. This means scheduled payments — such as auto payments, subscriptions, utility bills, or EMIs — will be processed during specific windows instead of randomly throughout the day. This move should help reduce congestion on the platform and improve overall speed during regular usage hours.

However, there will be no change to the current UPI payment cap itself. The transaction limits remain the same — up to Rs 1 lakh per transaction for most cases, and up to Rs 5 lakh for certain categories like healthcare or education. The August 1 update does not touch these limits.