Daijiworld Media Network - New Delhi

New Delhi, Sep 30: Apple has officially launched its Apple Pay payment service in India, beginning with Axis Bank as its first banking partner and marking the company’s entry into one of the world’s largest digital payments markets.

The initial rollout is limited to eligible Axis Bank credit cards issued on the Visa and Mastercard networks. India’s domestic RuPay cards are not supported at launch. Apple Pay will also work only at merchants and payment terminals that have enabled the service.

Eligible Axis Bank customers can add their cards to Apple Wallet and use Apple Pay for online purchases and contactless payments on supported devices. Transactions can be authenticated using Face ID, Touch ID or the device passcode.

Apple Pay's arrival comes after years of anticipation in India, where digital payments are dominated by the Unified Payments Interface (UPI). Unlike UPI, which enables direct bank-to-bank transfers, Apple Pay is a card-based service and requires individual banks, card networks and payment infrastructure providers to integrate with it.

UPI accounted for about 84 per cent of India's digital payment transaction volume, according to Reuters, handling nearly 25 billion transactions worth more than Rs 30 trillion in August 2026.

The limited initial rollout means Apple Pay may not work uniformly across all contactless payment terminals. A transaction can succeed at a terminal whose payment provider has enabled Apple Pay but fail at another terminal where the acquiring bank or payment provider has not yet integrated the service.

Apple has been in discussions with other major banks, including HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank, but agreements had not been finalised at the time of launch. SBI Card is also not supporting Apple Pay initially. Commercial terms have been reported as one of the issues in negotiations with other lenders.

The launch gives Apple access to India's growing premium card and iPhone user base, even though the service initially addresses a much smaller segment of the country's overall digital payments market.

Apple has also been expanding its broader business presence in India through increased iPhone sales, local manufacturing and retail operations. The company accounted for 28 per cent of India's smartphone market by value in 2025, up from 23 per cent a year earlier, according to Counterpoint Research.

India has also become a major manufacturing base for Apple. About one-fourth of global iPhone production is currently.