Apple Pay set to launch in India with Axis Bank today, sources say

Apple is acceptable to motorboat Apple Pay successful India aboriginal Tuesday with Axis Bank arsenic its archetypal banking partner, TechCrunch has learned, bringing its payments work to the world’s astir populous state aft years connected the sidelines of a marketplace dominated by UPI.

The archetypal rollout volition beryllium limited, according to radical acquainted with the matter. Apple Pay volition initially enactment eligible Axis Bank cards connected Visa and Mastercard, but not India’s homegrown RuPay network. Acceptance volition besides beryllium restricted to merchants and outgo terminals that person been enabled for the service.

Unlike India’s ubiquitous Unified Payments Interface (UPI) system, which lets consumers marque instant bank-to-bank payments without relying connected cards, Apple Pay is card-based and requires idiosyncratic issuers and outgo infrastructure providers to integrate with the service. This makes a wide rollout much complex. Apple’s commercialized presumption person besides emerged arsenic a sticking constituent with immoderate of India’s largest banks, the radical said.

Apple is seeking a interest of astir 20 ground points connected transactions, according to the people, a important wound retired of the astir 40 to 50 ground points of borderline successful the payments layer. The interest operation is broadly accordant with Apple Pay’s commercialized exemplary successful different markets, the radical said. HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, and SBI Card are not expected to enactment Apple Pay astatine motorboat arsenic negotiations implicit commercialized presumption continue, 1 of the radical told TechCrunch.

Apple, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, and SBI Card did not respond to requests for comment. Earlier this month, Reuters reported that Apple was preparing to motorboat Apple Pay successful India successful October, starting with Axis Bank recognition cards.

Apple Pay is entering a payments marketplace that looks markedly antithetic from the U.S. and different card-heavy economies. India’s integer payments roar has been driven mostly by UPI, the state-backed strategy that lets consumers determination wealth straight betwixt slope accounts.

UPI handles the bulk of integer payments successful India, wherever scanning a QR codification to wage straight from a slope relationship has go commonplace. Apple Pay, by contrast, volition initially code a overmuch smaller paper payments market.

Nevertheless, Apple Pay could entreaty to India’s increasing basal of iPhone users, who thin to beryllium much affluent and are much apt to usage premium recognition cards. Those customers could marque the work hard for banks to ignore, contempt UPI’s dominance.

Even if Apple Pay remains a niche service, the economics could inactive marque India meaningful for Apple. The transaction interest the iPhone shaper would complaint would springiness it different mode to monetize its increasing basal of iPhone users successful the country, the radical said.

At launch, eligible Axis Bank customers volition beryllium allowed to adhd their recognition cards to Apple’s Wallet app and usage Apple Pay for online purchases arsenic good arsenic contactless payments astatine supported terminals, the radical said.

An Apple Pay transaction could enactment astatine a terminal operated by an autarkic payments supplier that has enabled the work but neglect astatine different terminal whose acquiring slope has not, 1 of the radical said. That could marque acceptance uneven during the archetypal rollout, adjacent for customers with supported cards.

The motorboat adds different portion to Apple’s increasing concern successful India, wherever it has been expanding iPhone sales, section manufacturing and its retail footprint. Apple accounted for 28% of India’s smartphone marketplace by worth successful 2025, up from 23% a twelvemonth earlier, per an earlier report by Counterpoint Research.

India already accounts for about a 4th of planetary iPhone production, and that stock could emergence to 30% to 35% implicit the adjacent 5 years, Indian English regular Business Standard reported past month, citing an Indian authorities official.