After nearly a decade of waiting, Apple Pay is officially coming to India. Reports suggest the service will launch in October in partnership with Axis Bank, marking Apple's entry into one of the world's largest markets where the service still isn't available. It's a massive moment for Apple's payments ambitions, though the rollout won't quite look like what happened in other countries.
Axis Bank will be Apple Pay's first Indian banking partner, starting with its credit cards. The bank commands about 16.26 million active credit cards, making it India's fourth largest issuer. Apple's also been in talks with HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank, but those negotiations haven't closed yet. The plan is to add banks gradually rather than flipping on support nationwide all at once. At launch, you'll be able to use Visa and Mastercard, and the experience works exactly like everywhere else: add your card to Apple Wallet, authenticate with Face ID or Touch ID, and tap your iPhone or Apple Watch at an NFC terminal.
Here's where it gets interesting though. Apple Pay's real competition in India isn't another phone wallet. It's UPI, the Unified Payments Interface, which already handles roughly 84% of India's digital payment transactions by volume. Apple Pay won't support UPI at launch because getting approval from India's National Payments Corporation would require regulatory sign-offs and a sponsor bank. That means at launch, Apple's offering is narrower than competitors like Google Pay or PhonePe, which already support QR codes and bank transfers.
The reason this is happening now? Two regulatory changes made it possible. India's Reserve Bank allowed biometric authentication for card payments last year, which is essential since Face ID and Touch ID power every Apple Pay transaction. Plus, Apple finally settled its fee dispute with Indian banks. Apple wanted 15 to 20 basis points of the interchange on each transaction, while some issuers pushed for around 10. Starting with just Axis suggests they've reached a compromise.
Apple's smartphone market share in India has doubled since 2022 to around 8%, giving the company a solid premium user base ready to ditch physical cards. But entering a market where QR payments are everywhere, nearly free, and baked into daily life is genuinely unusual for Apple Pay. The bigger win would be UPI support eventually, which could transform Apple Wallet from a niche premium feature into something actually competitive with India's payment ecosystem.