How to make UPI Transactions without Internet: Offline UPI

Indians living in India do not require any introduction to Unified Payment Interface (UPI). Yes, you heard it right. UPI is that common in India. But most of the UPI payment that people do is through some apps such as PhonePe, Google Pay or Paytm. And as we know apps work on the Internet. So what if you are in such an area where Internet connectivity isn’t that great? How would you make payments? Don’t worry there is a way, to use UPI offline. In this article, we will be covering How to make Offline UPI transactions without the Internet.

What is UPI?

Unified Payment Interface was launched in 2016 in India as a new Payment System. But the real adoption of UPI was observed only in 2020 during the COVID. And if I just fast forward to today in 2023, forget about the shops, hotels and malls, there would hardly be any roadside vendor who is not having a UPI QR code.

UPI is experiencing around 26 crores (260 million) of transactions every single day. Thanks to its simplicity. In fact, now it is also in the race for International adaptation.

How to make UPI Transactions Offline?

The offline mode of UPI works with the USSD code. Currently, in the Internet era, the usage of USSD code has drastically declined. But there was a time when everyone was using USSD codes to check mobile balance, recharge and much more.

Coming back to the point.

You can only do Offline UPI transactions through the bank-registered UPI mobile number else it won’t work.

Steps 1 : Dial *99# in the number pad

When you dial *99# in the number pad, It will launch the service and a menu dialog will be shown

Something like this

Since you made the request from your registered mobile number, your bank name is shown at the top. Along with options

1. Send Money
2. Request Money
3. Check Balance
4. My Profile
5. Pending Requests
6. Transactions
7. UPI Pin

Step 2: If you are looking to send money you can simply revert by entering 1 from the number pad and tapping send button. Similarly, choose respective numbers in case of Request Money, Check Balance etc.

Step 3: Select the option of your choice. In the case of Send Money, you will get the option to whom you have to send the money.

1. Mobile Number – The Receivers mobile number linked with their UPI account
2. UPI ID – The UPI Id of the receiver which ends with @ybl, @ibl, @axl etc.
3. Saved Beneficiary – Send the money to the beneficiaries in your UPI account.
4. IFSC, A/c No – Means bank account Number

Thus you can opt for the options as per your choice and move forward.

Step 4: At the end of all the options you will be asked to enter your UPI Pin.

Step 5: After the correct UPI Pin is entered, your transaction will get complete.

Limitation of Offline UPI Transaction

As of now the upper limit in Offline UPI Transactions without any app is Rs 5,000 per transaction. Users can send at most 1 lakh rupees (1221 USD approx) per day.

Governing body has only capped the number of transactions each day. A maximum of 5 transactions can be done in an hour and a total of 20 transactions in a day.

Hope you like this informative article on UPI. To know about such a topic checkout Tech Space @ConceptDive

For more information on UPI, refer to the NPCI website.