Apple Pay may launch in India by mid-2026; ICICI, HDFC, Axis Bank in talks

Apple is in active discussions with three of India's biggest private banks — ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, and Axis Bank—to bring Apple Pay to the country around mid-2026, Bloomberg reports, citing people familiar with the matter.

The iPhone maker is also talking to Mastercard and Visa as part of the rollout plan.

If things go as expected, this would mark Apple Pay's entry into India more than 11 years after it first launched in the US back in September 2014.The service is currently live in 89 markets worldwide, but India—one of the world's fastest-growing digital payments economies—has remained a notable gap in that list. That's largely because of India's complex regulatory landscape and the dominance of UPI, the state-backed payments interface that processes billions of transactions every month.

India's new biometric rules open the door for Apple

A key hurdle has recently been cleared. Late last year, India's central bank approved new rules allowing biometric authentication methods like Face ID and Touch ID for digital payments. Earlier, the country's framework leaned heavily on Aadhaar-based verification, which made it tricky for Apple's on-device authentication to fit in—even though Google Pay and Samsung Wallet had already found workarounds.According to earlier reports, Apple Pay's India debut will likely be phased.

The first stage is expected to focus on card-based contactless payments through NFC-enabled terminals. UPI integration, which would be the real game-changer given how Indians actually pay for things, could follow later but will need separate regulatory approvals.

Apple's growing India footprint adds urgency

The timing isn't random. Apple shipped a record 5 million iPhones in India during Q3 2025, grabbing fourth place in the market for the first time, per IDC. The company also opened its sixth Indian retail store—its second in Mumbai—on Thursday. With the hardware base growing fast, a payments layer makes strategic sense.