UPI Meets ChatGPT: India Tests AI-Powered E-Commerce Payments Via OpenAI Partnership

India has just kicked off a new chapter in its fintech journey – by bringing UPI payments straight into OpenAI’s ChatGPT. The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has teamed up with Razorpay and OpenAI, with Microsoft’s backing, to test an AI-driven payment system that lets users shop and pay right inside ChatGPT through simple conversations. Also Read: OpenAI Bans Multiple ChatGPT Accounts: Know The Whole Reason

The pilot, which was announced on Thursday, aims to explore how conversational AI can be paired with UPI’s real-time payment infrastructure to enable secure, user-controlled transactions within ChatGPT. According to the companies, the initiative will help evaluate how AI agents can “autonomously complete transactions on behalf of users” while maintaining high standards of safety and transparency. Also Read: OpenAI Brings Spotify, Canva, Coursera and More Inside ChatGPT: Here’s What You Can Do

Axis Bank and Airtel Payments Bank are onboard as banking partners, while Bigbasket, Tata Group’s e-commerce platform, is among the first to support purchases via ChatGPT. This means users could soon browse and complete grocery orders without ever leaving the chat interface. Also Read: No PIN Needed: Google Pay, Paytm, And PhonePe Users Can Pay Using Fingerprint Or Face Scan

Oliver Jay, Managing Director of International Strategy at OpenAI, said the collaboration brings together “advanced AI and one of the world’s most trusted real-time payment networks” to unlock new possibilities for digital commerce in India.

The timing of this pilot coincides with India’s Global Fintech Fest 2025, where NPCI also announced several UPI-related innovations. As part of the pilot, NPCI is also introducing new AI and automation features built around UPI. One of them is UPI Help, powered by a Small Language Model (SLM) developed in-house, which can guide users through payments or even help resolve disputes without needing customer support.

That’s not all – the regulator has also announced IoT Payments via UPI, enabling connected devices such as smart TVs, wearables, and even cars to make payments on their own. Another feature, called UPI Reserve Pay, gives users the ability to block and manage credit limits safely across multiple merchant and UPI apps.

With UPI already handling more than 20 billion transactions every month, this new experiment could signal the start of a fresh wave of innovation – one where AI doesn’t just assist, but actively handles the financial side of everyday life.