UPI outage: Users report failed transactions across cities

Digital payment services across India faced widespread disruption on Wednesday, leaving users unable to complete transactions on UPI platforms amid a surge in outage reports.

According to outage tracking platform Downdetector, complaints spiked sharply during the day, indicating a broad-based issue affecting multiple banks and regions.

The impact was most pronounced on State Bank of India (SBI), which recorded over 500 outage reports. UCO Bank also reported around 40 complaints, while overall UPI-related downtime reports crossed 40 and continued to rise.

Users from major cities including New Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Jaipur and Pune reported failed transactions and payment errors. SBI users also flagged issues in Kolkata, Guwahati and Chennai, while UCO Bank complaints were largely concentrated in Delhi, Jaipur and Kolkata.

Many users took to social media to share their experiences, reporting transactions getting stuck midway or UPI apps failing to load entirely, leading to confusion over whether the issue was with banks or individual devices.

Responding to the disruption, SBI said a scheduled maintenance activity had been extended until 12:30 pm on 1 April. The bank warned that services including UPI, IMPS, YONO, internet banking, NEFT and RTGS may face interruptions during this period.

SBI advised customers to use alternatives such as UPI Lite, the eRupee (CBDC) app and ATM services, while apologising for the inconvenience caused.

The outage highlights the vulnerability of digital payment systems to technical disruptions, even as UPI continues to serve as a backbone for millions of daily transactions across the country.

With IANS inputs