PhonePe is India's largest UPI payments platform, founded in 2015 by Sameer Nigam, Rahul Chari, and Burzin Engineer in Bengaluru. Originally incubated within Flipkart, PhonePe was spun off and completed its move to full India-domiciled status on 23 December 2022, when Walmart and the other Flipkart/PhonePe Singapore shareholders exchanged their holdings for direct shares in the India-incorporated entity. The company has since converted from a private to a public limited company ahead of its planned IPO and now operates as PhonePe Limited. With over 700 million registered users and roughly 46% of UPI transaction volume in June 2026 (NPCI), PhonePe processed a daily average of about 349 million UPI transactions that month — more than any other payment app in the country. PhonePe's core strength is its clean, fast UPI interface for peer-to-peer transfers, bill payments, mobile recharges, and merchant QR payments. Beyond payments, the platform has expanded into mutual fund investments (via PhonePe Wealth), insurance (through PhonePe Insurance Broking Services Private Limited, an IRDAI-licensed direct insurance broker), and lending products. PhonePe Pulse provides public UPI transaction data insights, making it a valuable resource for understanding India's digital payment trends. The app is free for consumers on UPI transfers; PhonePe earns from merchant payment processing fees, insurance commissions, and financial product distribution. FY24 revenue grew 74% to ₹5,064 crore, when the company posted its first profit on an ESOP-adjusted basis (₹197 crore, excluding employee stock option costs). FY25 (year to March 2025) revenue rose further to ₹7,631 crore in total income, but the statutory net loss widened to ₹1,727 crore because of a large one-off ESOP-related compensation charge taken ahead of the IPO — Walmart's own FY2026 annual report confirms a $0.7 billion charge tied to "modification of certain share-based compensation arrangements for our PhonePe subsidiary." Stripped of that charge, PhonePe's adjusted profit was ₹630 crore in FY25. SEBI cleared PhonePe's IPO paperwork in January 2026 for a pure offer-for-sale listing, but the company paused the process in March 2026, telling reporters it was "because of the current market conditions, which are unrelated to PhonePe." As of August 2026, PhonePe has not listed and has not announced a new date. PhonePe is best suited for anyone making UPI payments in India — its speed and reliability are hard to beat. The major caveat: Walmart owned approximately 73% of PhonePe as of 31 January 2026 (down from about 84% a year earlier, per Walmart's own FY2026 filing with the SEC), making India's largest UPI app majority foreign-owned even though the operating company is itself incorporated in India. Users who prioritize Indian-owned businesses may want to weigh this. Investment and insurance products are still maturing compared to dedicated platforms like Zerodha or PolicyBazaar.
PhonePe Pvt Ltd
4.4/5 on Google Play Store — 4.43★ (displays 4.4) from 14,190,883 ratings, 500M+ downloads, package com.phonepe.app, gl=IN — re-checked 29 Aug 2026. · Last verified 2026-08-08
Both things are true at once, and the nuance matters. The operating company — PhonePe Limited (CIN U67190KA2012PLC176031), formerly PhonePe Private Limited — is incorporated in India and headquartered in Bengaluru. It completed a full move of its domicile from Singapore to India on 23 December 2022, when Walmart and the other Flipkart/PhonePe Singapore shareholders swapped their holdings for direct shares in the India-incorporated entity, as PhonePe's own press release put it: "This completes the move to make PhonePe a fully India domiciled company." But "Indian company" and "Indian-owned" are different claims. Walmart Inc. (US) is the largest shareholder, owning approximately 73% of PhonePe as of 31 January 2026 — down from about 84% a year earlier as employee stock options vested ahead of a planned IPO — according to Walmart's own FY2026 annual report (Form 10-K) filed with the SEC. Founders Sameer Nigam and Rahul Chari remain active in the company (Nigam is CEO) but hold a single-digit combined stake. So: Indian-incorporated, Indian-run day to day, majority foreign-owned. PhonePe filed for an IPO on Indian exchanges in early 2026, which would let public Indian investors buy in, but the listing was paused in March 2026 and has not happened as of August 2026 — see the next question.
Not yet, as of August 2026. PhonePe filed its updated Draft Red Herring Prospectus with SEBI in January 2026 for a pure offer-for-sale IPO — meaning existing shareholders (led by Walmart) would sell shares, and PhonePe itself would raise no fresh capital. On 16 March 2026, PhonePe paused the process; a company spokesperson told reporters at the time, "We paused the process only because of the current market conditions, which are unrelated to PhonePe," pointing to the market volatility that followed the outbreak of conflict in the Middle East. The company has said it remains committed to an India listing once markets stabilise, but no new IPO date has been announced and PhonePe shares are not trading on the NSE or BSE as of this page's last check.
Yes on both counts, though "regulated by RBI" covers several separate licences rather than one blanket approval. PhonePe operates UPI payments as a Third Party App Provider under the NPCI/RBI framework, and issues its own PhonePe Wallet as a semi-closed Prepaid Payment Instrument (PPI) under RBI's Master Directions on PPIs, per PhonePe's own PPI terms page. Separately, PhonePe Limited received final RBI authorisation to operate as an online payment aggregator on 19 September 2025, more than two years after its in-principle approval — payment aggregator status is what lets it onboard and settle payments for online merchants. PhonePe Account Aggregator Pvt Ltd, a subsidiary, holds an in-principle RBI Account Aggregator licence for consent-based financial data sharing. On the insurance side, PhonePe Insurance Broking Services Private Limited holds an IRDAI Direct Broker (Life & General) licence, registration number 766, valid to August 2027. None of this makes PhonePe risk-free — failed transactions and slow customer support are the most common complaints — but the core money-movement rails run through RBI- and NPCI-regulated infrastructure, not an unregulated wallet.
About 46% of transaction volume and 49% of transaction value, as of June 2026 — the most recent month NPCI has published a full app-wise breakdown for as of this page's last check. NPCI's own Ecosystem Statistics show PhonePe processed 10,483.73 million UPI transactions worth ₹14,19,193.39 crore in June 2026, against an industry-wide total of 22,716.07 million transactions worth ₹28,92,138.67 crore that month — a 46.15% volume share and 49.07% value share. Google Pay was second. These numbers move month to month and NPCI typically publishes the per-app split about five to six weeks after the month closes, so treat any "current" market-share figure you see elsewhere as at least a month old.
PhonePe crossed 700 million registered users on 29 April 2026 and 50 million registered merchants on 28 April 2026, according to its own press releases — both are cumulative registration counts, not monthly active users, so they include dormant accounts. On the transaction side, NPCI's June 2026 data puts PhonePe's UPI volume at a daily average of roughly 349 million transactions that month (10,483.73 million transactions divided by 30 days). The Play Store listing for the app (package com.phonepe.app) shows over 500 million downloads and an aggregate rating of 4.4 out of 5 from more than 14.1 million ratings, checked 8 August 2026.
For ordinary UPI transfers and merchant QR payments, yes — free for the person paying or receiving, by PhonePe's own terms. Where PhonePe's terms do reserve the right to charge is card-based payments: its Credit/Debit Card Payment Services terms state PhonePe "may charge You fees for the Card Payment Services which will be displayed to You during the course of the relevant Card Payment Transaction," and separately, your card issuer may charge its own fee that PhonePe has no control over. There's a bigger change worth watching: on 6 August 2026, the Lok Sabha passed the Taxation and Other Laws (Amendment) Bill 2026, amending Section 10A of the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007 to remove the blanket ban on merchant discount rate (MDR) charges for UPI. This gives the central government legal power to notify a fee on UPI merchant transactions — reported estimates point to a 0.25-0.4% MDR on transactions above ₹2,000 paid to merchants, with peer-to-peer transfers expected to stay exempt — but as of this page's last check the government had not yet issued that notification, so no MDR is actually being charged on PhonePe UPI transactions yet.
Not since 2022 — they're sister companies under the same parent, not one owned by the other. PhonePe was incubated inside Flipkart from 2015 and carried that association for years, but Walmart began structurally separating the two from December 2020, and PhonePe's own press release confirms the two became fully independent, separately domiciled companies once PhonePe's move to India completed on 23 December 2022. Today both PhonePe Limited and Flipkart are separate operating companies that happen to share Walmart as their common majority shareholder — Flipkart has since pursued its own Singapore-to-India redomiciliation ahead of a planned IPO of its own. If you see PhonePe described as "a Flipkart company" in older coverage, that's outdated; the two have run independently for close to four years.
Hand-picked videos to help you get started — tutorials, demos, and reviews.
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PhonePe is a powerful Indian alternative to these international apps:
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One97 Communications Ltd
Paytm is India's pioneering digital payments app for UPI transfers, mobile recharges, bill payments, online shopping and merchant QR scans. Trusted by 333M+ registered users and 100M+ monthly actives, Paytm bundles a wallet, Paytm Soundbox for shopkeepers, lending, insurance and investments. Now 100% Indian-owned after Ant Financial's exit in August 2025 and an RBI-approved payment aggregator since November 2025.
Cashfree Payments India Private Limited
Cashfree Payments is a Bengaluru-based full-stack payments platform for Indian businesses, processing ~$80B a year for 1M+ merchants. RBI-licensed payment aggregator offering a payment gateway, instant payouts and bulk transfers, UPI AutoPay recurring payments, cross-border collections, and KYC verification. 0% fee on UPI and RuPay, ~1.9% on cards, no setup fee, with optional instant settlements. A made-in-India Stripe and PayPal alternative.
Instamojo Technologies
Instamojo is a Bengaluru-based payment and e-commerce platform powering 20 lakh+ Indian businesses since 2012 — payment links, embedded checkout, no-code online store builder, inventory, and integrated shipping. Supports UPI, cards, net banking, wallets, and EMI. mojoXpress for shipping and mojoCapital for business loans. No setup or monthly fees; 2% + Rs 3 per transaction. Stripe and PayPal alternative for Indian SMEs.
IppoPay Technologies Private Limited
IppoPay is a Chennai fintech built for small merchants, freelancers and Tier-2/3 shopkeepers — UPI QR, sound-box payment alerts, POS, payment links/pages and merchant lending in one app. Domestic cards, net banking and UPI cost 1.9%, international cards 3.5%, no setup or monthly fee. Its own terms admit it does not itself hold RBI Payment Aggregator authorisation — settlement runs through partnered, RBI-regulated banks. Play Store rating: 4.0 from 1,691 reviews.
Razorpay Software Limited
Razorpay is India's largest online payment gateway from Bengaluru with 8M+ merchants, 55% market share, and 35M daily UPI transactions. Developer-friendly APIs supporting 100+ payment methods (UPI, cards, net banking, wallets, EMI, international), Payment Links and Pages for non-technical merchants, and integrations with Shopify and WooCommerce. RazorpayX for business banking, payroll, and Capital lending. 2% per transaction, no setup fee. Stripe alternative.
National Payments Corporation of India
BHIM (Bharat Interface for Money) is India's official UPI payment app by NPCI with 100M+ downloads and 128M active users. Instant peer-to-peer transfers, bill payments, merchant QR scanning, and balance checks linked directly to bank accounts. UPI Lite+ enables PIN-free payments up to Rs 1,000 per transaction. Supports 12+ Indian languages. Completely free with zero transaction fees, no ads. Government-backed PhonePe and Google Pay alternative.
