Buy bitcoin with UPI

What is UPI?

UPI, the Unified Payments Interface, is India's instant retail payment system, launched in 2016 and operated by the National Payments Corporation of India under Reserve Bank of India regulation. It moves rupees between any two Indian bank accounts from a phone, addressed by a UPI ID or a QR code rather than by account number and IFSC code. Indian exchanges treat it as the default deposit rail for rupees.

Speed

Transfers are real time and the service is available 24 hours a day, every day of the year, including bank holidays.

Cost

UPI carries zero transaction fees for end users, on both person to person and merchant payments.

Limits

The ordinary UPI cap is 100,000 rupees per transaction, raised to 500,000 rupees for a few specified categories such as payments to hospitals and educational institutions, and individual banks commonly set lower daily caps.

Speed and cost describe the rail itself. What an exchange adds on top varies by platform and is shown per exchange below.

Using UPI in India

UPI appears in one country guide on this site, India, where deposits settle in Indian rupee (INR). Buyers there fund exchange accounts with IMPS, NEFT, Credit or debit card, P2P marketplaces with escrow as well, and the country guide ranks the exchanges that take each one.

Buy bitcoin with UPI in India

Caveats by country

Where UPI exists but comes with strings attached, straight from the country research.

India

usually via P2P; many banks restrict crypto-linked payments