Update: UPI services on the platform are now working well.

A major mess hit India’s UPI (Unified Payments Interface) system on Monday evening, causing users of popular apps such as Paytm, Google Pay and PhonePe to struggle to meet the transaction. This is a third such disruption in less than a month, which increases concerns over the reliability of digital payments.

Users across the country resorted to social media to complain about unsuccessful or delayed payments. The detector, who tracks the service outage, saw a sharp increase in complaints around the same time. Paytm showed an error message to users stating that the app was experiencing issues, while similar problems were reported on Google Pay and PhonePe. For many traders and consumers who rely on UPI for daily payments, the outage suddenly caused discomfort during peak use hours.

This disruption comes at a time when the use of UPI in India is breaking records. In March, UPI handled more than 16.11 billion to 18.3 billion transactions in February. The value of these transactions reached Rs 24.77 lakh crore, showing increasing dependence on digital payments.

Phonepe led the UPI space in March, more than 864 crore transactions – about half of all UPI traffic. Google Pay closely backwards. Paytm, although the volume is small, is widely used between shopkeepers and small businesses.

The government also comes out soon after the government announced an incentive of Rs 1,500 crore to encourage UPI to adopt UPI through the BHIM app. With more people and businesses relying on digital payments each day, there is a possibility of increasing concerns about the stability of such outage systems.