UPI Rules Change From August 1: New Limits On Transactions, Linked Accounts, Autopay Timings & More—Check Full List

If you use UPI apps like PhonePe, Google Pay, or Paytm regularly, important changes are coming your way from August 1, 2025. The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is introducing new API usage rules for banks and payment apps to make UPI faster, safer, and more stable. These changes may seem technical, but they directly impact how you use UPI daily.

From August 1, you'll only be able to check your account balance up to 50 times per day per UPI app. This rule aims to prevent apps from making repeated, unnecessary balance requests that slow down the system. For regular users, this limit is more than sufficient, but it will improve overall performance and reduce backend pressure.

Checking which bank accounts are linked to your mobile number will now be limited to 25 times a day. This may seem like a small change, but it helps reduce excessive API calls made by some apps in the background—ultimately making UPI services faster and more reliable for everyone.

Auto-debit payments—like monthly subscriptions for OTT apps or SIPs—will now only be processed during specific time windows: Before 10 AM, Between 1 PM and 5 PM, and After 9:30 PM. This step helps avoid overloading UPI servers during peak hours and ensures smoother auto-pay experiences.

If your UPI payment gets stuck, you’ll now be allowed to check the status only three times, and each status check must be spaced out by at least 90 seconds. This change is designed to reduce stress on the servers and improve the success rate of transaction retries or reversals.

Before the August update, NPCI already rolled out key improvements. In June 2025, it reduced the time limit for API responses—15 seconds for making payments and just 10 seconds for checking failed transactions. This led to quicker payments and faster fixes when something goes wrong.

Since June 30, 2025, UPI apps now show the actual name registered with the bank before completing a transaction. This small yet crucial change helps users avoid transferring money to fraudsters or wrong accounts, reducing the risk of UPI scams significantly.

A lesser-known but important change came in December 2024, when NPCI set a cap on how often users can file chargebacks. Now, you can file a chargeback up to 10 times a month and only 5 times with the same person or company. This prevents misuse of the system and speeds up resolution for genuine cases.

(Images Credit: File Photo, Gemini AI)