India has once again taken a bold step in merging artificial intelligence with its digital revolution. The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), in collaboration with Razorpay and OpenAI, has launched a groundbreaking pilot that allows users to make UPI payments directly through ChatGPT. This marks the beginning of a new era where AI chatbots don’t just answer questions — they can actually complete transactions, place orders, and handle payments on your behalf. With India already leading the world in digital payments, this new “agentic AI” experiment could redefine how we shop, pay, and interact with technology.
Key Highlights
- NPCI, Razorpay, and OpenAI have launched a pilot to bring AI-driven payments to ChatGPT, powered by UPI.
- The initiative lets users make purchases directly inside ChatGPT, starting with Bigbasket.
- Axis Bank and Airtel Payments Bank are the banking partners for the pilot.
- The pilot explores how AI agents can autonomously complete transactions while keeping users in control.
- NPCI also introduced AI-based UPI HELP, IoT payments, and UPI Reserve Pay to further expand India’s digital payment ecosystem.
- India’s model could become a blueprint for AI-driven payments worldwide.
1. When Conversations Turn Into Payments
Imagine typing or saying, “ChatGPT, order groceries from Bigbasket,” and the payment happens instantly through UPI — no app-switching, no QR scanning.
That’s not science fiction anymore.
In a first-of-its-kind collaboration, India’s National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), fintech company Razorpay, and Microsoft-backed OpenAI have joined forces to bring AI-driven payments to ChatGPT.
Announced in October 2025, this pilot allows users to make real purchases within ChatGPT using India’s homegrown Unified Payments Interface (UPI) — the backbone of the country’s digital payments network.
The idea is to see how AI agents can complete payments on behalf of users — safely, securely, and under full user control. It’s a step toward what’s being called agentic payments — where AI assistants not only understand your intent but can also act on it.
2. What Exactly Are “Agentic Payments”?
The term agentic payments may sound technical, but it simply means AI performs specific payment tasks for you — like paying bills, booking tickets, or checking out from an online store — with your permission.
As Razorpay CEO Harshil Mathur put it,
“With agentic payments, we are transforming AI assistants from simple discovery tools into full-fledged shopping agents.”
Here’s how it works:
When you tell ChatGPT to make a purchase, the AI connects securely to Razorpay’s backend, triggers a UPI request, and routes it through your bank — you then approve it via your usual UPI app (like Google Pay, Paytm, or PhonePe).
This setup ensures AI never directly accesses your bank account or UPI PIN — the system simply adds a conversational layer on top of India’s already trusted payment network.
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3. The Tech Behind It: NPCI, Razorpay, and OpenAI
This pilot represents a powerful convergence of three leaders:
- NPCI, the architect of UPI, ensuring the payment rails are fast and secure.
- Razorpay, enabling the integration between ChatGPT and the UPI network.
- OpenAI, providing the AI platform that understands and executes natural-language payment requests.
According to Reuters, Axis Bank and Airtel Payments Bank have joined as banking partners, while Bigbasket (owned by the Tata Group) is one of the first e-commerce platforms to support the feature.
Users in the pilot can now chat directly with ChatGPT, browse products, and pay for them — all within the same window. As Oliver Jay, Managing Director of International Strategy at OpenAI, said:
“We’re excited to work with NPCI and explore how we can combine advanced AI with UPI, one of the world’s most trusted real-time payment networks, to unlock a new era of effortless and secure commerce.”
4. Why India Is Leading This Revolution
India’s success with UPI, which now processes over 20 billion transactions per month, makes it the perfect testbed for agentic payments.
Unlike many Western markets that rely on fragmented or proprietary systems, UPI is public infrastructure — open, interoperable, and backed by regulators like the RBI.
That’s why India is able to experiment with AI payments at scale, while countries like the U.S. or those in the EU remain cautious due to privacy and regulatory hurdles.
Moreover, NPCI isn’t stopping here. At the Global Fintech Fest 2025, it unveiled several new AI and automation initiatives:
- UPI HELP, an AI-based assistant powered by NPCI’s own Small Language Model (SLM) to help users with payments, mandates, and dispute resolution.
- IoT Payments with UPI, enabling direct payments from connected devices like cars, wearables, and smart TVs.
- UPI Reserve Pay, allowing users to block and manage credit limits for specific merchants or purposes.
- Banking Connect, an interoperable net banking solution across institutions.
Together, these innovations show how AI and payments are merging — and how India continues to set global benchmarks for digital finance.
5. Security, Privacy, and Control
Whenever AI and money meet, the big question is always — is it safe?
The companies behind this pilot have made it clear that user safety and consent remain central. The system uses:
- UPI’s existing security layers (two-factor authentication, encrypted channels).
- User-controlled approvals, meaning the AI can’t complete a transaction unless you authorize it.
- No data leakage, since AI tools don’t store your UPI credentials or banking details.
The goal is to make payments more intuitive, not riskier. NPCI and its partners plan to assess user experience, transaction reliability, and security before rolling it out more widely.
6. The Global Ripple Effect
India’s move to merge AI and payments has caught global attention.
While companies like Google and Perplexity AI have begun experimenting with AI-enabled transactions in other regions, India’s approach is regulator-backed, secure, and public-first — something few countries have managed.
If successful, it could inspire similar AI-fintech partnerships around the world and establish UPI as a model for integrating AI into mainstream finance.
7. What’s Next: Talking to Your Money
For now, the ChatGPT-UPI integration remains in its pilot phase, limited to select users and platforms like Bigbasket. But its potential is huge.
In the near future, we could see:
- Voice-based AI banking in regional languages.
- Smart assistants managing bill payments automatically.
- Seamless AI shopping experiences across major Indian platforms.
If this project scales successfully, India could become the first country to truly merge AI intelligence with financial infrastructure — making “talking payments” a part of everyday life.
8. Conclusion: India’s AI Payment Moment
India’s digital transformation continues to surprise the world. By blending OpenAI’s ChatGPT with UPI’s secure, real-time network, the country is showing what the future of payments could look like — human, conversational, and intelligent.
This isn’t just about technology — it’s about making digital finance simpler, safer, and more human-friendly.
As the rest of the world watches closely, one thing is certain:
👉 The future of payments may be conversational — and it might just begin in India.
