WhatsApp rolls out prepaid mobile recharges in India, testing whether UPI users will finally pay inside the chat app
WhatsApp is expanding its payments push in India by adding prepaid mobile recharges, a feature designed to keep more everyday transactions inside the messaging app.
The rollout comes as WhatsApp Pay continues to trail the country’s biggest UPI players despite WhatsApp’s massive user base.
The Meta-owned service says it is partnering with payments provider PayU to enable recharges for leading telecom operators including Reliance Jio, Airtel and Vodafone Idea. The feature is expected to reach users across India in phases over about two weeks.
The upgrade targets a common, high-frequency use case in India, where prepaid plans remain widely used and recharges are a routine purchase.
By placing top-ups alongside peer-to-peer transfers and bill payments, WhatsApp is trying to make payments feel like a natural extension of chat.
WhatsApp Pay still a small player
WhatsApp launched UPI payments in India in 2020, but its transaction volumes have remained far behind competitors. NPCI data shows WhatsApp processed more than 130 million UPI transactions in March, compared with billions handled by PhonePe and Google Pay over the same period.
Momentum has improved since late 2024, when NPCI lifted onboarding limits that had constrained WhatsApp Pay’s expansion for years. Since then, WhatsApp’s monthly UPI transactions have climbed, but the gap with market leaders remains wide.
More services, more reasons to stay
Mobile recharges add to a broader strategy to turn WhatsApp into a hub for utility services in India, where users can already access bill payments and other commerce flows. Meta has also tweaked the interface, including a prominent rupee icon, to make payments easier to find and use.
For WhatsApp, the bet is that convenience and placement inside daily conversations can shift habits in a UPI ecosystem where users already have entrenched payment apps. The next test will be whether recharges, a staple transaction, can translate into sustained payment engagement.
