UPI Meta is being considered as a potential innovation by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to enhance the digital payment experience, especially for online shopping. As per a report by The Economic Times citing senior government officials, the idea behind UPI Meta is to allow users to securely store their preferred UPI ID—such as one from PhonePe or Google Pay—directly on e-commerce platforms. This would simplify the checkout process, eliminating the need to manually enter UPI details for every transaction.
At present, users have to select a UPI app and enter their ID during each payment. UPI Meta aims to reduce this friction by allowing users to “lock in” their UPI handle for quicker and more seamless repeat purchases, similar to how saved card details speed up checkout. Although not yet officially announced, the feature is reportedly under active evaluation by NPCI and may require RBI approval before any implementation.
The main benefit of UPI Meta lies in reducing transaction steps, making UPI payments more competitive with card-based systems in terms of speed and convenience. However, there are concerns over market concentration. Experts worry that dominant players like PhonePe and Google Pay could use their scale to gain user consent faster, securing an early advantage. To counter this, NPCI is reportedly recommending that merchants obtain explicit user consent each time a new payment gateway is added, to maintain fair competition.
