Groceries top UPI merchant volume; NPCI leaves 44% of national transactions unclassified by state

According to MediaNama, groceries and supermarkets generated 3.94 billion Unified Payments Interface merchant transactions during September 2026. This figure represented 25.9% of the 15.23 billion merchant transactions reported by the National Payments Corporation of India. The grocery segment also led in monetary value, reaching Rs 84,238 crore, though this equated to just 9.5% of the total Rs 8,86,987 crore in merchant payments. MediaNama clarified that these metrics refer specifically to merchant payments rather than the entire UPI transaction pool.

Fast food outlets ranked second with 1.51 billion transactions, placing them ahead of eating places and restaurants, which recorded 1.28 billion. These three food-related segments combined for 44.2% of total merchant volume. Telecom services followed with 812 million transactions. Regarding monetary value, debt collection agencies held the second position with Rs 76,245 crore, while securities brokers and dealers came next at Rs 74,116 crore. MediaNama calculated that the average grocery payment was approximately Rs 214, in contrast to Rs 8,090 for securities brokers.

In a separate analysis of state-wise data, MediaNama reported that NPCI categorized 10.65 billion UPI transactions as Unclassified in September 2026. This volume constituted 44% of the 24.07 billion transactions NPCI reported nationally. The Unclassified category covers transactions that NPCI could not assign to a specific state, and these figures have not been redistributed across states. MediaNama noted this share had risen from 13% in April 2023.

Maharashtra emerged as the largest classified state with 2.36 billion transactions, followed by Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh at roughly 1.25 billion each. The Unclassified volume decreased from 10.88 billion in the prior month. In terms of value, the Unclassified row reported Rs 11.48 lakh crore, while Maharashtra recorded Rs 2,73,884 crore. MediaNama indicated that the Unclassified value had been Rs 11.62 lakh crore in August, showing a slight decline in value alongside the volume drop.