Apple Pay India Launch: Apple Said to Be in Talks With Major Banks Could Launch By Mid-2026

As of September 2014, the Cupertino-based tech giant launched Apple Pay as its proprietary digital payment service – which is currently in use with technology companies. Service Initially served in the United States only; it was later extended to other global markets. However, over 11 years after its initial launch, the digital payments service has not been launched in India and is said to be ‘changing’. A report recently cited that Apple is in talks with several card networks to bring Apple Pay to the country. But the iPhone-maker is said to be chatting with three large Indian financial institutions at this point. The country has been reportedly advanced in its launch of earlier expected to be released by the end of this year.

Apple Pay India Launch Timeline (Expected)

The Cupertino company is in talks with major Indian banks, including ICICI Bank, HDFCBank and Axis Bank to launch the Apple Pay service — its proprietary contactless payments solution — in India, Bloomberg reports.

Furthermore industry sources told the magazine that Apple Pay plans to launch its product in the middle of 2026, as part of its efforts to capitalize on the country’s large demographic dividend.

The tech giant, which is headquartered in the US, has been discussing talks with several payment networks (including Mastercard and Visa) to bring the service to India last month, according to a report. The company was expected to launch Apple Pay in the country earlier this year, but it had been slated to introduce ApplePay at the end of this season. But according to the new report, Apple has fast-tracked the launch — a few months ahead of it.

Also, the report stated that Apple would “first support card-based contactless payments in India” and later incorporated the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) of the NPCI. It also noted that pending regulatory approval for the delayed integration was underpinned by the report’s report, which said it had been “a long-term solution to ” and added ‘The key is not yet fully integrated.

The claims are confirmed by Bloomberg’s sources, which says Apple will support UPI from Reserve Bank of India and credit card and debit card payments.

Also the tech giant is reportedly in talks with card companies about fees structures that it says are under negotiation. However, Apple will reportedly not choose the third-party application provider approval for UPI integration at first to opt for it. If it comes, Apple Pay will compete with India’s homegrown digital payments platforms such as PhonePe and BHIM UPI (and other international players in the market including GooglePay and Amazon Pay). But the company has yet to confirm these details, however, that they are still a .