UPI Autopay Integration for Subscriptions

Description

Integration UPI Autopay integration for recurring payments

UPI Autopay lets a customer approve a mandate once in their UPI app so that later debits happen without a fresh approval. You reach it through a payment gateway such as Razorpay. The rules that shape the build are RBI's: authentication at registration, a ₹15,000 per-debit limit for most payments, and a notice to the customer at least 24 hours before each debit.

Discuss an integration Last updated 2 October 2026

What UPI Autopay is

UPI Autopay is the recurring-payment framework on UPI, run by NPCI. A customer approves a mandate once in their UPI app, stating the most that can be debited, how often, and until when. After that, debits inside those terms go through without the customer entering a UPI PIN each time.

A business does not connect to UPI Autopay directly. It goes through a payment gateway. This page uses Razorpay's documentation, because Razorpay is the gateway WavX names on its service pages; other gateways follow the same RBI rules with their own APIs.

Razorpay offers two routes, and choosing between them is the first design decision:

Route

How it works

Fits

Subscriptions

You define a plan (price and billing cycle); Razorpay schedules and runs each charge

Fixed plans: memberships, SaaS tiers, a monthly box

Recurring Payments

The mandate produces a token; your server creates each debit against it, within the mandate's maximum

Variable amounts: usage bills, EMIs, top-ups

Data that flows each way

The table follows the Subscriptions route.

Event or object

Direction

What your system does with it

Plan, then subscription

Your server to Razorpay

Stores the subscription id against the customer's account

Authorisation transaction (customer approves the mandate in their UPI app)

Customer to Razorpay

Nothing yet; waits for the event

subscription.authenticated

Razorpay to your server

Records that the mandate is registered

subscription.activated

Starts the service when the billing cycle begins

subscription.charged

Extends access for the period; issues the invoice

subscription.pending

Marks the account as in grace; tells the customer a retry is coming

subscription.halted

Suspends or downgrades; asks the customer to pay or re-authorise

subscription.paused , subscription.cancelled

Stops renewals; ends access at the paid-up date

Pre-debit notification

Issuer to customer

Not sent to you, but it is the message your customer sees first

The main flow, step by step

Create a plan with the price and billing cycle. A plan is a reusable template.

Create a subscription for the customer against that plan, with a start date and number of cycles. A future start date gives a trial period.

The customer authorises. In checkout they choose UPI and approve the mandate in their UPI app with their PIN. RBI requires this registration step to be authenticated.

Razorpay confirms. The subscription becomes authenticated , then active when the billing cycle starts.

Before each debit, the customer is notified at least 24 hours ahead, with the merchant name, amount, date, mandate reference and reason.

The debit runs. Razorpay's FAQ says UPI Autopay debits are processed and completed by 9:00 PM IST on the scheduled date. A success arrives as subscription.charged .

A failure is retried. The subscription goes to pending , the charge is retried on each of the next three days, and if all fail it becomes halted .

On the Recurring Payments route, steps 1 and 2 become "create a customer and an order carrying the mandate terms", and step 6 becomes a debit your server creates with the customer's token.

Limits and rules that are documented

Rule

Source

What it says

Authentication at registration

RBI, E-mandate Framework 2026

A mandate is registered only after additional factor authentication

Per-debit limit

RBI

Up to ₹15,000 per transaction without further authentication; up to ₹1,00,000 for insurance premiums, mutual fund subscriptions and credit card bill payments

Pre-debit notice

At least 24 hours before the debit, with an option for the customer to opt out

Mandate amount

Fixed, or variable up to a maximum the customer sets

Charges to the customer

No charge may be levied on the customer for using the e-mandate facility

UPI on Subscriptions

Razorpay

Maximum ₹15,000 per transaction; ₹1,00,000 for certain merchant category codes

UPI on Recurring Payments

A debit above ₹15,000 needs additional authorisation from the customer

Editing

A subscription authorised via UPI cannot be updated, and extra charges cannot be added to it

Mandate control

The customer can pause or cancel the mandate from their UPI app

Mandate frequency (Recurring Payments)

Monthly, weekly or as-presented

The RBI framework took effect on 21 April 2026 and replaced the earlier e-mandate circulars. It covers cards and prepaid instruments as well as UPI.

Common failure modes

Access given before money arrived. The mandate was approved, the code treated that as payment, and the first debit later failed. Access should follow subscription.charged , not subscription.authenticated .

Upgrades that silently do nothing. The product lets a customer switch plan, but the UPI subscription cannot be edited. The upgrade needs a cancel-and-reauthorise flow.

Price above the limit. For most businesses an annual plan over ₹15,000 is above the Subscriptions limit on UPI, and on the token route it needs the customer to authorise each debit, which defeats the point. Price and billing period have to be chosen with the limit in mind.

Churn nobody saw. The customer paused the mandate in their UPI app. If the paused and cancelled events are ignored, the account stays active unpaid.

Halted accounts left alone. After three failed retries nothing more happens unless your system acts.

Same-day cut-offs. Suspending at midnight on the due date penalises customers whose debit was still inside the retry window.

Every event above arrives as a webhook , so signature checks, duplicate handling and a scheduled status check apply here exactly as they do for one-off payments.

Fees

As of October 2026, Razorpay's pricing page lists Subscriptions on cards at 0.9% plus the platform fee per transaction, and shows UPI, NACH and e-mandate recurring pricing as available on request. There is no published per-debit figure for UPI Autopay to quote here; ask the gateway before modelling margins.

What WavX builds around it

For a client who needs recurring billing on UPI, WavX builds:

The subscription model in your own database: plans, periods, grace, paused, halted and cancelled, mapped to the gateway's states.

The mandate flow in your site or app, with the amount, frequency and end date shown before the customer is sent to their UPI app.

Event handling for every subscription state, verified and safe against duplicates.

Dunning: the messages and payment links a customer receives while a charge is pending or after it halts.

Plan changes built as a new mandate, so the customer is never billed twice.

A self-service page to view, pause or cancel, and an admin view of failed and halted accounts.

A daily comparison of your subscription records with the gateway's.

This is usually part of a subscription or membership platform . The longer WavX UPI Autopay developer's guide covers background; where it differs from this page on limits, this page reflects the April 2026 RBI framework.

Pricing is quoted after scoping. The software cost estimator gives a planning range for the system around it.

When you do not need a custom build

Fixed plans and a small subscriber list. Razorpay lets you create plans and subscriptions from its dashboard and send the customer a Subscription Link to authorise. No code is involved.

You sell on Shopify. A subscriptions app handles mandates inside the store; see Shopify subscriptions .

Annual billing with few renewals. A payment link and a reminder once a year may cost less than automating it.

Build when the subscription has to control something in your own product: feature access, usage limits, seats, deliveries or a ledger.

Frequently asked questions

What is the maximum amount for a UPI Autopay debit?

RBI's e-mandate framework, issued on 21 April 2026, allows recurring debits of up to ₹15,000 per transaction without additional authentication, and up to ₹1,00,000 for insurance premiums, mutual fund subscriptions and credit card bill payments. Above the limit the customer must authenticate that debit. Gateways apply these limits in their own products, so check the gateway's documentation for your business category.

Can a customer cancel a UPI mandate without telling us?

Yes. Razorpay's documentation says customers can pause or cancel a UPI mandate from their own UPI app. Your software has to treat that as normal: listen for the status change and stop or downgrade the service accordingly.

Can we change the amount of a running UPI subscription?

On Razorpay Subscriptions, not as of October 2026: its FAQ says a subscription authorised via UPI cannot be updated. A plan change means cancelling and asking the customer to approve a new mandate, so the upgrade flow needs designing around that.

What happens when a debit fails?

On Razorpay Subscriptions the subscription moves to a pending state and the charge is retried on each of the next three days. If every retry fails it moves to halted. Your system decides what the customer experiences in between: a grace period, a reminder, or a payment link.

How much does a UPI Autopay integration cost?

We quote it after scoping, because the work depends on your plans, upgrade rules and what must happen when a payment fails. For planning, our software cost estimator carries third-party integrations as a ₹60,000 feature line on top of the base build; treat that as a planning figure, not a quote.

Sources

Reserve Bank of India: Digital Payments - E-mandate Framework, 2026 (21 April 2026) · read 2 October 2026

Razorpay docs: UPI Autopay (recurring payments) · read 2 October 2026

Razorpay docs: UPI recurring payments FAQs · read 2 October 2026

Razorpay docs: Recurring Payments APIs for UPI · read 2 October 2026

Razorpay docs: Subscriptions · read 2 October 2026

Razorpay docs: Create plans and subscriptions · read 2 October 2026

Razorpay docs: Subscriptions FAQs · read 2 October 2026

Razorpay docs: Subscription states · read 2 October 2026

Razorpay docs: Subscription payment retries · read 2 October 2026

Razorpay docs: Subscription webhook events · read 2 October 2026

Razorpay pricing · read 2 October 2026

Related

Razorpay integration

Subscription and membership platforms

Shopify subscriptions

UPI AutoPay integration: developer's guide

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