UPI transactions to get faster from June 16 as NPCI cuts response time for banks and apps

Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions are set to become faster and more efficient starting June 16, 2025, as the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has mandated a significant reduction in the response time for key UPI-related APIs.
This move is aimed at enhancing user experience and ensuring quicker transaction processing across all banks and payment apps in the UPI ecosystem.
According to a circular issued by NPCI, the response time for the most commonly used UPI APIs, such as Request Pay, Response Pay (covering debit and credit), and Check Transaction Status, has been reduced from the existing 30 seconds to 15 seconds and 10 seconds, respectively.
These changes will be applicable to remitter banks, beneficiary banks, and Payment Service Providers (PSPs) like PhonePe and Paytm.
NPCI said, “The revisions are intended to improve the customer experience,” and directed all member banks to ensure their systems are updated accordingly. It also emphasised that technical changes must not increase the technical decline (TD) rate beyond acceptable thresholds.
These faster turnaround times are expected to benefit users, especially when they face delays or errors while making payments. For example, the time taken to reverse failed transactions or check payment status will now drop from 30 seconds to just 10 seconds. This means users can get quicker clarity on whether their transaction has succeeded or failed.
“From a customer’s standpoint, these changing rules around API rules and timing requirements will mean an incredibly easier and more reliable transaction experience,” Rohit Mahajan, Founder of Plutos ONE, was quoted saying by ET. He added that network or handshake failures, which account for 3–5% of peak-hour UPI transaction issues, would also be resolved faster under the new guidelines.
Another key change is the reduced wait time for banks to trigger the first transaction status check. As per NPCI’s revised communication, PSPs and acquiring banks can now initiate this check between 45 to 60 seconds after a transaction is initiated, instead of the earlier 90-second window.
A maximum of three such checks can be made within two hours of the original transaction.
While the new guidelines aim to reduce customer wait times, experts say that backend systems will need to ramp up their readiness. Rahul Jain, CFO of NTT DATA Payment Services India, was quoted by ET saying that India’s UPI infrastructure is strong enough to support the reduced response times. However, failure to comply may attract financial penalties from NPCI depending on the severity and recurrence of the delays.
The response time reduction will apply across debit and credit transactions, including for address validation (for both pay and collect requests), which will now have a maximum response time of 10 seconds.