Apple Pay Debuts in India with Axis Bank as Sole Launch Partner
Apple Pay has launched in India, with Axis Bank as the sole banking partner at the outset, according to information obtained by TechCrunch. The move brings Apple's payment service to the world's most populous nation after years of staying out of a market where UPI dominates.
The first phase of the rollout is narrow. Apple Pay will work only with eligible Axis Bank cards on the Visa and Mastercard networks, leaving out India's domestic RuPay system. Merchants and payment terminals must also have been set up to accept the service.
Apple Pay operates on cards, unlike India's widely used Unified Payments Interface (UPI), which enables instant bank-to-bank transfers without cards. Because of this card-based model, each card issuer and payment infrastructure provider must integrate separately, making a full-scale launch more complicated. Sources said Apple's commercial terms have also become a sticking point with several of India's biggest banks.
Apple is asking for a fee of roughly 20 basis points per transaction, the people said, which would take a sizable portion of the 40 to 50 basis points of margin available in the payments layer. The fee arrangement is largely in line with how Apple Pay works in other countries, according to the people. HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, and SBI Card are not expected to back Apple Pay at launch, as talks over commercial terms are still ongoing, one person told TechCrunch.
Apple, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, and SBI Card did not reply to requests for comment. Earlier this month, Reuters reported that Apple was getting ready to introduce Apple Pay in India in October, beginning with Axis Bank credit cards.
Apple Pay is stepping into a payments landscape that is very different from the U.S. and other economies where cards are widely used. India's digital payments growth has been powered mainly by UPI, a state-backed system that allows consumers to send money directly between bank accounts.
UPI processes the vast majority of digital payments in India, where scanning a QR code to pay straight from a bank account is now routine. Apple Pay, in contrast, will initially target a much smaller card payments segment.
Still, Apple Pay could attract India's expanding base of iPhone users, who are generally wealthier and more inclined to hold premium credit cards. These customers could make the service difficult for banks to disregard, even with UPI's dominance.
Even if Apple Pay stays a niche offering, the financials could make India significant for Apple. The transaction fee the iPhone maker would collect would provide another avenue to earn revenue from its growing iPhone user base in the country, the people said.
When the service goes live, eligible Axis Bank customers will be able to add their credit cards to Apple's Wallet app and use Apple Pay for online purchases and contactless payments at supported terminals, the people said.
An Apple Pay transaction might succeed at a terminal run by an independent payments provider that has enabled the service, but fail at another terminal whose acquiring bank has not, one of the people said. This could lead to inconsistent acceptance during the early rollout, even for customers with supported cards.
The launch adds another component to Apple's expanding business in India, where it has been growing iPhone sales, local manufacturing, and retail presence. Apple held 28% of India's smartphone market by value in 2025, up from 23% a year earlier, according to an earlier report by Counterpoint Research.
India already accounts for about a quarter of global iPhone production, and that share could climb to 30% to 35% over the next five years, Indian English daily Business Standard reported last month, citing an Indian government official.
to like, bookmark, and comment.
Comments
Join the conversation:
No comments yet. Be the first to share your thoughts.