Google has announced that it introduced UPI Autopay as a payment option on Play Store to enable its India-based users to purchase subscriptions using UPI. The UPI functionality update follows the user demand for this payment option in the region, where Unified Payments Interface, known commonly as UPI, has become the most popular payment route when it comes to P2P and merchant payments in India.

As such, users in the South Asian country have now been enabled to make subscription-based purchases using UPI via Google Play. To use UPI for recurring payments, after selecting a subscription plan using Google Play Billing, users need to select the ‘Pay with UPI’ option. As per information provided by TechCrunch, no changes will be brought to its billing system once the new payment option is added, meaning that it will continue with taking commissions from subscription-based purchases through the Play Store in the country.

The UPI Autopay option is available alongside already existing payment options such as credit and debit card, net banking, direct carrier billing, as well as gift cards. Speaking on the announcement, Google Play Retail and Payments Activation representatives have stated that following the introduction of UPI Autopay on the platform, the company is looking to extend the convenience associated with UPI to subscription-based purchases and enable more people to access such services, while simultaneously aiming to help local developers grow their Google Play subscription-based businesses. The update follows Google’s launch in 2019 of UPI as a payment method for buying apps, games, and in-app content through the Play Store.

Recent UPI-related developments in the Indian payments’ scene In October 2022, The Competition Commission of India (CCI), the country’s antitrust body fined Google USD 113 million for abusing its dominant position with Play Store and requested of the company to no longer restrict app developers from using third-party payment processing services for in-app purchases and purchasing apps through the Play Store. Following this, Google announced that it had paused indefinitely its policy enforcement which requires developers to use Play Store’s billing system for user transactions carried out in the country. In July 2021, UPI was added as a payment method by Apple to the App Store in India, however, it does not offer UPI Autopay support when it comes to recurring payments, as it processes these transactions in the country only via Apple ID.

In July 2020, the governing body overseeing UPI in the country, the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) launched the UPI Autopay service looking to expand UPI to recurring transactions. However, this received minimal interest when it was announced, as companies in the country of the likes of Netflix and Disney+ enabled UPI Autopay on their apps. Following this, the Reserve Bank of India issued a payments’ rule that required banks, financial institutions, and payment gateways alike to obtain additional approval for auto-recurring transactions exceeding USD 62 (5,000 Indian rupees).

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