Apple Pay is set to launch in India in October, with Axis Bank credit cards first, according to a Reuters report from September 18 that cites three people with knowledge of the matter. Reuters put the launch “next month”, and Apple hasn’t confirmed it.
If the report holds, it ends a long wait. Reuters calls India one of the few major economies where Apple Pay still isn’t available, and Apple’s own feature availability page, which we checked on September 19, still leaves India off its Apple Pay list.
What Reuters reported
The story, from Reuters reporters Ashwin Manikandan and Gopika Gopakumar in Mumbai, makes three specific claims.
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- Axis Bank goes first. Apple Pay would launch with Axis Bank’s credit cards. Axis is India’s fourth-largest credit card issuer, with 16.26 million active credit cards as of July according to Reserve Bank of India data, behind HDFC Bank, SBI Card and ICICI Bank.
- The bigger banks aren’t signed. Apple has also talked to HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank, but two of the sources said those talks haven’t yet produced agreed commercial arrangements.
- More banks later, one at a time. Apple plans to add other lenders over time through direct, bank-by-bank deals.
None of the four companies commented on the report. For now, the October timing and the Axis deal rest on unnamed sources.
How it would work on an Indian iPhone
According to Reuters, the service would work as Apple Pay does elsewhere: iPhone users make contactless purchases with tokenized card details stored on the device, with no separate payments app needed.
A rule change opened the door. Reuters notes that the Reserve Bank of India allowed biometric authentication for card payments last year, which lets Apple’s service work with Indian bank cards using Face ID and Touch ID.
There’s a limit to the first phase if the report is right. It names Axis credit cards only. Debit cards aren’t mentioned, and neither is support for cards from any other bank at launch. If you don’t hold an Axis credit card, the report suggests you’d be waiting for your own bank to sign its own deal with Apple.
The UPI problem
Apple Pay would walk into a crowded market. India’s Unified Payments Interface, the domestic system behind QR code and phone number payments, accounts for 84% of the country’s digital payment volume, according to Reuters. That gives Apple a harder pitch than in markets where cards dominate: paying by phone is already routine in India, just not through a card.
Apple’s position in India has grown quickly enough to make the effort worthwhile. Reuters cites Counterpoint Research data showing Apple’s smartphone share in India has doubled to 8% since 2022. That is still a small slice, but it is a growing base of iPhone owners who currently can’t pay with Wallet at all.
What to watch for
The clearest sign of a launch will come from Apple itself: India appearing on the feature availability page, which lists every country where Apple Pay works. Until that happens, treat the October date as reported, not scheduled.
Apple Pay’s reach elsewhere is already wide. We covered Apple’s own count of Apple Pay markets and bank partners earlier this month, and the difference between Apple Pay and Tap to Pay on iPhone, which are separate services with separate country lists. Indian readers may also want our report on Apple One closing to new subscribers in India, another Apple services change in the country this month.
