Apple Pay has gone live in India, bringing the company's contactless payments service to the country's growing iPhone user base for the first time through a launch partnership with Axis Bank.

Only eligible Axis Bank credit cards on the Visa and Mastercard networks can be added to Wallet for now, allowing holders to make contactless payments at supported terminals. RuPay cards, which run on India's domestic card network, are not supported at launch.

The service has also skipped the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), which dominates India's digital payments market. The state-backed system lets users transfer money directly between bank accounts using a QR code, and it accounted for 84% of India's payment volume in 2025, according to an IMF report cited by Techeconomy.

Apple has instead chosen to enter the much smaller card-based segment. Axis Bank accounts for 16.3 million of the roughly 124 million credit cards in the country as of August, according to central bank data — a slice that, for now, leaves iPhone owners carrying cards from other banks without access.

Apple bets on its iPhone owners

The launch gives Apple another way to make money from its expanding user base in India. iPhone users in the country tend to be more affluent and more likely to use premium credit cards, making them an attractive customer base for banks despite UPI's dominance.

Apple will also earn a fee on each transaction, creating another revenue stream from the users the company has spent years accumulating. The terms Apple is seeking help explain why the launch partner list remains short. TechCrunch, citing people familiar with the matter, reported that Apple is asking for about 20 basis points, or 0.2%, on each transaction. That would represent a sizeable share of the 40 to 50 basis points that ends up as the margin on each transaction in the payments layer.

The pitch is utmost privacy

In its newsroom post, Apple said shoppers can pay in stores by double-clicking the iPhone's side button, authenticating with Face ID, Touch ID, or a passcode, and holding the device close to a contactless reader. The company said there is no need for a separate app, a PIN, or any form of OTP at checkout.

These mechanics are standard for Apple Pay: actual card numbers and details are not stored on the device or on Apple's servers, and are not shared with merchants. Instead, a unique Device Account Number is encrypted and stored in the Secure Element chip.

According to Gautam Aggarwal, Mastercard's president of India and South Asia, Mastercard's tokenization technology protects each Apple Pay transaction with a unique, cryptographically secured token, keeping card details hidden from merchants.

Axis Bank presented the launch as a way to give its customers more choice and flexibility, with Apple Pay support across both the Mastercard and Visa networks, said Amitabh Chaudhry, the bank's MD and CEO.

What works on day one, and what might not

At launch, Apple says the service will reach millions of merchants, including Blinkit, Croma, Ixigo, Reliance brands, Tata 1mg, and Zomato, alongside Apple Store locations. The company also worked with payment providers such as Cashfree, Juspay, Mswipe, Paytm, PayU, Pine Labs, and Razorpay to wire up acceptance.

Coverage could be patchy at first. One person told TechCrunch that payments could work at one enabled terminal but fail at another whose acquiring bank has yet to activate the service. Cardholders with supported cards could therefore still face issues during the initial rollout. How quickly those acquiring banks switch on support, and whether more banks join Axis as launch partners, will shape the service's early footprint in the country.

Apple Pay now operates in more than 90 countries and works with over 11,000 bank and network partners, the company stated in its newsroom release. With the India launch, the service extends that reach to the country's growing base of iPhone users.