Twelve years after it first launched, Apple Pay is finally headed to India — and if the latest reports are right, it could arrive as soon as October.
Here’s the rundown so far.
Axis Bank looks like the launch partner. Word is Apple’s cut a deal with Axis Bank first, so early on, it’ll be Axis credit cards that work with the service. HDFC and ICICI are reportedly in talks too, but nothing’s been signed on that front yet.
Don’t expect UPI support right away, though. This is the part that’s tripping a lot of people up — Apple Pay is coming in as a card-based system first. UPI, which is basically how most of India pays for everything these days, isn’t part of the initial rollout. It might get added down the line, but that would mean a whole separate round of regulatory approval, so nobody’s promising a date.
At launch, it sounds like only Visa and Mastercard credit cards will work. Add one to Apple Wallet, and you’re set — tap your phone at a payment terminal and you’re done, no need to fumble around opening a banking app first.
There’s a security angle worth mentioning too. Cards aren’t stored as your actual card number; Apple uses a tokenised version instead, so even if something goes wrong on the merchant side, your real card details aren’t sitting there exposed.
The timing isn’t random either. The RBI recently opened the door to biometric authentication for digital payments — fingerprint and face scans instead of the usual OTP-over-SMS. That lines up almost perfectly with how Apple Pay already works everywhere else, using Face ID or Touch ID to approve a transaction.
Still, it’s worth remembering what Apple Pay is walking into. UPI isn’t just popular in India, it’s the default — the vast majority of digital payments already run through it. So even with tap-to-pay convenience on its side, Apple Pay has a genuinely tough market to crack.
For now, iPhone users just have to wait and see how much of this actually holds up once Apple makes it official.